EV charging using Solar with Zappi - is it worth it?

thevilla

One thing I don't think anyone noted on this thread. The Zappi will integrate with octopus intelligent go.  This means you don't have to select a compatible EV.  I think the Ohme is the only other compatible charger but I may be out of date.

Edit: I suppose I should add that we don't charge with spare solar especially now we have a home battery.  The price difference between day and night rates means it is easy to end up paying more to top up solar  to 1.4kw than the night rate.  We're on 2016 FIT and wondering whether to ditch it and opt for export payments.

Exiled_Tyke

thevilla said:

One thing I don't think anyone noted on this thread. The Zappi will integrate with octopus intelligent go.  This means you don't have to select a compatible EV.  I think the Ohme is the only other compatible charger but I may be out of date.

Edit: I suppose I should add that we don't charge with spare solar especially now we have a home battery.  The price difference between day and night rates means it is easy to end up paying more to top up solar  to 1.4kw than the night rate.  We're on 2016 FIT and wondering whether to ditch it and opt for export payments.

Yep you are correct it's Zappi or Ohme that work with IO.  My car isn't compatible but fortunately I don't have to worry about this. I took it for granted that as the Op is already on IO that this isn't an issue. 

Personally I charge my home batter up first so that I've got enough electricity to get through the evening until the next cheap rate. After that comes the Zappi but as I said above I have the Eco+ mode set to 70% green (so allowing a maximum 30% draw from the grid), that way using day time electricity to charge the car will work out no more expensive than the night time rate.  The advantage of this is that a lot of the time I find that my spare electricity is just under the 1.4kw rate so I'm still topping up significantly more cheaply than 7.5p.   

I'm also wondering whether to ditch deemed exports and go onto SEG but fear that the transfer will get messed up. My personal use of generation is ever increasing and will do more so when I get my ASHP complete with Eddi.  

Reed_Richards

Two scenarios:

1. You get paid for what you are deemed to have exported (whether you do or not).  This is the norm if you are on the FIT and you are very likely to be on the FIT if your panels were installed before April 2019.  In this case use all the solar electricity you can; effectively it is free to you.
2. You get paid for what you actually export.  In that case a Zappi would not be worthwhile on your current EV tariff.

To confuse matters, it is possible to be on the FIT but then register to be paid for what you actually do export.  The best fixed rate I am aware of is 15p per kWh from Octopus.  

Petriix

I recently opted out of the deemed exports and now get paid 15p per kWh for what I actually put back into the grid. I now only use the Zappi for the Intelligent Octopus Go integration. 

Heedtheadvice

I have not switched out of deemed export  that is worth about £120 per annum

I do not export much having a Phev a battery so paid export would be worth about £110

....so not much in it.

FIT guaranteed for another 10 years and linked to inflation. It is rather FIT and forget! FIT  obviously not open to join anymore.

SEG by it's nature  is variable and probably linked to wholesale leccy cost so maybe a higher risk? The name is Guarantee but rates are variable between tarrifs and suppliers. I used 15p above in my calcs; a couple of suppliers offer higher and many a lot less and there are conditions to be met so not necessarily open to everyone.

Petriix

Of course you can always go back to the FIT export payments which increase at RPI. Once you've given up the deemed bit then exports will always be metered but you aren't forced to stick with an SEG provider.