EV home charger and throttling

newbuilder

Hi

I got an EV home charger fitted Nov 2020 and since having solar PV and all the other off peak white goods on it is getting throttled. 

A little but of digging has shown that the quick way the EV installer gets around submitting the paperword to the Distribution Point Network Operator os to set the site ampage on the charger at 60 AMP rather than the 100 Amp my site is. 

I have put a multimeter clamp over the live tail and with the charger I am going above the 60 Amp as the washing machine, dishwasher and dryer heats or when boil is clicke don the kettle (note the solar batteries are also charging). 

Now the EV installer wants £60 + VAT to lodge a form to my DPIO before getting EO  Charging to open up the limiter to 100Amps. 

Opinions please on if it is worth it. 

Ps will be looking for an additional charger in next 12 months as a second EV will be arriving. 

Solarchaser

I'd probably be looking to the charger and wondering how it knows the house is using 60A, and if that's with using a ct clamp, id probably move that CT clamp off your grid line.

Perhaps more details of the charger and how it limits the charge would help?

I've been informed by the company installing my zappi that the ev grant runs out at the end of this month, so it may make sense for you to just buy a simple charger and get a local spark to install it.

newbuilder

The CT clamp is installed and wrapped with security tape on the meter tails. This then feeds information to the EV charger. This is now a "must" on all new chargers as per Government stipulation to avoid us all pulling the country into darkness. 

1961Nick

I've just had a look at my peak load & it's less than 60A with everything you mentioned running.

The theoretical maximum load is 78A...

EV 7.2kWh
Batteries 3.1kWh
DW 2kWh
WM 2.6kWh
TD 2.7kWh
Background 0.4kWh

Because the DW/WM/TD heaters are intermittent loads, the maximum recorded load was 58A (13.3kWh).

I'd suggest a staggered start on the white goods as an interim measure. 

newbuilder

I was going over 60amp when I put an amp clamp over it. The charger seems to dip when getting near 60amp so around 50amp, I assumed so that it didn’t have to react too late or by termination. We all know that reaction with electric and devices is never quick enough so I think it predicts. 

Good idea re staggered start. 

1961Nick

My average load over the GO period is 47.98A with everything you mentioned running.

You could order the second EV charger now & specify an approval for 100A?

newbuilder

1961Nick said:

My average load over the GO period is 47.98A with everything you mentioned running.

You could order the second EV charger now & specify an approval for 100A?

I might be wrong but I think I’m Scotland we still have a grant so need to wait a bit

newbuilder

Where are you guys picking up your average Amps from?

1961Nick

newbuilder said:

Where are you guys picking up your average Amps from?

I got it from the battery inverter data logger. It uploads every 5 minutes so I have 48 data points during the 4 hour GO period to work with. To calculate this morning's average, I used the 23 data points where the car, the batteries & the white goods were all drawing power.

I have an LED pulse counter on the import meter that gives me a live (100% accurate) feed in kWh. 

JKenH

Although we appear to have a 100A fuse, my Zappi throttles back charging when we import just over 18kw (around 80A).

newbuilder

That would indicate the zappi software is set as  premises fuse =80 amp.