Zappi with Intelligent Octopus

My App does not look anything like yours
Any ideas what has gone wrong, I have been trying to explain the problem with Octopus but no great success

Hi Thanks for your feedback

My integration shows a date of 30/11/23

This is why they were able to fill my battery to 100% the other day

My system has A Zappi 2.1, An iboost (like an eddi but installed 5 years ago)
A Tesla powerwall, also a 5.6 KW Solar panel array linked to solar edge inverters

Something must be causing a fight somewhere?

Fokmg said:

Hi
I have recently swapped from OG to IOG
I have an early MG 5 so no app. I Use a Myenergi Zappi 2.1 charger which provides my communication.
I believe that something went pear shaped when the app was loaded, there appears to be no way of telling the system what % charge I want or when I want the car to be ready or a bump charge capability.
The system did charge but to 100% which is not ideal
My app does not appear to do anything, no devices appear to be registered and settings only appear to cover basic account details
Does anyone have a similar car/charger set up to mine but with a more complete app?
Any help appreciated

Click to expand...

Go into the Octopus App, you should have a 'devices' tab, click that and you should get:


NOTE the % is the amount of charge to ADD not the total you want in the car.

I finally sorted out my IO integration yesterday and got my first easy complete charge.

Good call with MyEnergi who told me what was happening was impossible, shouldn't happen and not seen before!

Anyway, it seems that the hierarchy had caused Eddi & Zappi to fall out with each other, with the server and with IO. This was causing unexplained conflicts!

Eddi is now the boss as vhub & master, Zappi has to do what it's told.

johnb80 said:

Go into the Octopus App, you should have a 'devices' tab, click that and you should get:
View attachment 22082

NOTE the % is the amount of charge to ADD not the total you want in the car.

Click to expand...

hi
Thanks , this is what I have been looking for but sadly does not appear, All I get is a small windmill when I press the device tab.
I will go back to octopus for some help,
I had another 100% charge last night !!
something is sort of working and at least filling up the tesla powerwall with nice cheap electric

Fokmg said:

hi
Thanks , this is what I have been looking for but sadly does not appear, All I get is a small windmill when I press the device tab.
I will go back to octopus for some help,
I had another 100% charge last night !!
something is sort of working and at least filling up the tesla powerwall with nice cheap electric

Click to expand...

How odd, does the car charge show up in Octoplus?

No info showing on octoplus other than the standard notification settings which are switched on .
I have received info about setting up standard schedules or charge but nothing else.
I think my way forward will be to contact Octopus on monday and get the whole account deleted and re set up, much appreciate your help and comments.
I don`t think my Tesla powerwall is mucking things up? I hope not as it is enjoying its diet of 7.5p electric

johnb80 said:

Oh dear, not going smoothly.

Zappi's usually manage quite well to connect to WiFi, I have on 2 occasions helped sort out connectivity by using mains networking adapters to get the Wifi signal nearer the Zappi location.

Click to expand...

My Zappi came with no WiFi Ariel wire. I’ve had to wait for them to send me one and their fitter to come and install it all sorted now.

Hi
All working perfectly now, I set up the app on the wifes phone and all works perfectly.
With regards to the Zappi 2 the latest versions now allow ethernet connections to be made, much more reliable than wifi.
It should be noted that due to repositioning of the circuit boards in the zappi2 the wifi comms between the zappi and the harvi unit breaks down in hot weather particularly if the zappi 2 is mounted on a south facing wall and has a black bezel.(gets fairly hot 50 deg C+)
The solution is eliminate the harvi and make all the connections to the C clamps as hard wire connections direct to the zappi.
Myenergi make no reference about the risk of direct sunlight on a zappi2 in their install instructions and although mine was shielded by a large hedge its gave loads of trouble this summer (they hate heat) and spent half the day not functioning !
Bit annoying as the failure always occurred when there was loads of free solar energy!

Nick Froud said:

My Zappi came with no WiFi Ariel wire. I’ve had to wait for them to send me one and their fitter to come and install it all sorted now.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the update, glad youre sorted.

J

A few days ago, my Zappi decided to have a strop and disconnect from its Master Eddi.

It happened overnight during heavy rain so I though water was the issue.

Eddi said local comms lost, Zappi just spued out random readings. I tried all sorts of checking settings, CT connections, re pairing etc. No luck.

So I could charge my car, I turned off IO control & used the timer, but it would only charge at 1.4kW even when in FAST mode.

Eddi was messing around too, randomly going into boost mode for periods up to an hour.

At this point I was getting very annoyed having lost sleep at 1am trying to get some charging action.

Solution

Turn it off, wait 10 mins, turn it on again. It works.

Doh!

If all else fails re boot !!!!
Hope you have a better nights sleep

Fortunately I only have the Zappi to contend with as the hot water is still managed by my old i boost+ and not an eddi. Due to the nature of my house I have hardwire all the CT connections to the Zappi and the Zappi uses a direct ethernet connection (joys of 2 foot thick stone walls!)
I have to say I find the Zappi and Octopus intelligent is working very well.

The additional use of a Tesla powerwall battery means I have only had to purchase 7 units of power at 30p in the last 3 months all the others have been at 7.5p or free.(when if it was sunny?!!!!)

The only thing I have to watch is that if I bump charge the car it will empty the battery. Also if I leave the car plugged in and Octopus decide to charge the car on their special cheap rate power that will also empty the battery.

EVsince2016 said:

A few days ago, my Zappi decided to have a strop and disconnect from its Master Eddi.

It happened overnight during heavy rain so I though water was the issue.

Eddi said local comms lost, Zappi just spued out random readings. I tried all sorts of checking settings, CT connections, re pairing etc. No luck.

So I could charge my car, I turned off IO control & used the timer, but it would only charge at 1.4kW even when in FAST mode.

Eddi was messing around too, randomly going into boost mode for periods up to an hour.

At this point I was getting very annoyed having lost sleep at 1am trying to get some charging action.

Solution

Turn it off, wait 10 mins, turn it on again. It works.

Doh!

Click to expand...

I use my Eddi as the Master/Hub and find I have to turn it off and back on again 1 or 2 times a month. Its also good to check for firmware updates from time to time as that can throw it all out.

Fokmg said:

If all else fails re boot !!!!
Hope you have a better nights sleep

Fortunately I only have the Zappi to contend with as the hot water is still managed by my old i boost+ and not an eddi. Due to the nature of my house I have hardwire all the CT connections to the Zappi and the Zappi uses a direct ethernet connection (joys of 2 foot thick stone walls!)
I have to say I find the Zappi and Octopus intelligent is working very well.

The additional use of a Tesla powerwall battery means I have only had to purchase 7 units of power at 30p in the last 3 months all the others have been at 7.5p or free.(when if it was sunny?!!!!)

The only thing I have to watch is that if I bump charge the car it will empty the battery. Also if I leave the car plugged in and Octopus decide to charge the car on their special cheap rate power that will also empty the battery.

Click to expand...

Sorry if you already know this...

I have Fox batteries, Intelligent Octopus and Zappi.

Set iSmart to charge car to 80%.
Set Octopus app to add 80% by 4am.
Leave the settings.

Whenever you plug in, Octopus will see that you can't possibly add 80% by 4am, so will start charging early, but still only charge you 7p/kWh. Your car will be ready by 4am or earlier, depending on how much charge is actually needed to hit the iSmart 80%. Then your solar batteries will fill at 7p/kWh without your car draining.

Today I have 43% in my car. I've plugged in at 3pm. Octopus says the car will start to charge at 3.05pm.

I know it's not in the spirit of cheap rate charging, but if I get my 10KW house batteries charged at 7p, instead of filling and draining straight out to the car, what's not to love?

There may be an easier way of setting this up, but I'm not technical and this works for me.

Freeagain21 said:

Sorry if you already know this...

I have Fox batteries, Intelligent Octopus and Zappi.

Set iSmart to charge car to 80%.
Set Octopus app to add 80% by 4am.
Leave the settings.

Whenever you plug in, Octopus will see that you can't possibly add 80% by 4am, so will start charging early, but still only charge you 7p/KW. Your car will be ready by 4am or earlier, depending on how much charge is actually needed to hit the iSmart 80%. Then your solar batteries will fill at 7p/KW without your car draining.

Today I have 43% in my car. I've plugged in at 3pm. Octopus says the car will start to charge at 3.05pm.

I know it's not in the spirit of cheap rate charging, but if I get my 10KW house batteries charged at 7p, instead of filling and draining straight out to the car, what's not to love?

There may be an easier way of setting this up, but I'm not technical and this works for me.

Click to expand...

Can you add a picture of your schedule please.

Jomarkh said:

Can you add a picture of your schedule please.

Click to expand...

This is what's left tonight. It started at 3.05pm-4pm.

Freeagain21 said:

Sorry if you already know this...

I have Fox batteries, Intelligent Octopus and Zappi.

Set iSmart to charge car to 80%.
Set Octopus app to add 80% by 4am.
Leave the settings.

Whenever you plug in, Octopus will see that you can't possibly add 80% by 4am,

Click to expand...

That doesnt ring true, 64 kWh battery, 80% = 51.2 kWh, 7kW Zappi = 7.3 hrs so if you plug in at 15:00 you could be charged by 23:00 or thereabouts.

Freeagain21 said:

so will start charging early, but still only charge you 7p/KW. Your car will be ready by 4am or earlier, depending on how much charge is actually needed to hit the iSmart 80%. Then your solar batteries will fill at 7p/KW without your car draining.

Click to expand...

Just be careful with this, when your car stops charging the next end of 30 minute slot i.e. xx:00 or xx:30 is when your 7.5p ends.

Freeagain21 said:

Today I have 43% in my car. I've plugged in at 3pm. Octopus says the car will start to charge at 3.05pm.

Click to expand...

Yep and probably stop it over 16:30 to 19:00 and then resume.

Freeagain21 said:

I know it's not in the spirit of cheap rate charging, but if I get my 10KW house batteries charged at 7p, instead of filling and draining straight out to the car, what's not to love?

Click to expand...

If you connect Zappi correctly you wont get it draining your house batteries. Octopus are aware of people gaming the system and will take action eventually either to the individuals concerned or to everyone on the tariff.

Freeagain21 said:

There may be an easier way of setting this up, but I'm not technical and this works for me.

Click to expand...

Enjoy while it lasts, caveat emptor.

johnb80 said:

That doesnt ring true, 64 kWh battery, 80% = 51.2 kWh, 7kW Zappi = 7.3 hrs so if you plug in at 15:00 you could be charged by 23:00 or thereabouts.


Just be careful with this, when your car stops charging the next end of 30 minute slot i.e. xx:00 or xx:30 is when your 7.5p ends.


Yep and probably stop it over 16:30 to 19:00 and then resume.


If you connect Zappi correctly you wont get it draining your house batteries. Octopus are aware of people gaming the system and will take action eventually either to the individuals concerned or to everyone on the tariff.


Enjoy while it lasts, caveat emptor.

Click to expand...

Just as well I only need to charge once every 4 days then.

Can you explain:
"when your car stops charging the next end of 30 minute slot i.e. xx:00 or xx:30 is when your 7.5p ends."
As I wasn't aware of this. Are you saying, if the car starts charging early, and then finishes by 4pm, I'll be paying full rate early too, from 4.30pm?

I asked Octopus some questions . . .

Q - when I charge during the day on surplus solar and plug in again at night, instead of receiving a schedule based on my normal 10% an hour added, I get a schedule based on the much slower daytime solar rate. Whilst it's brilliant that I get many hours of cheap power, doesn't that defeat to point of intelligent Octopus Go?

Answer - to offer a different tariff!

Q - why is it possible to plug in during the morning and set 11am? Surely this is cheating as it allows me to get cheap rates during the day!

Answer - refer to Ts&Cs


In all seriousness, it is possible to game the system. There is a limit of 6 hours of charging per 24 hours at off peak rates but no limit on plugging in at 7am & adding 40% by 11am which seems wrong to me.

Adding 80% risks being charged at peak tariffs for time outside the 6 hours.

When I asked for 40% to be added and it allocated me 20.30-08.30 after a day of solar charging is an odd one but what seems to happen is it changes the charging slots after I plug in to adapt. 23.30-05.30 will always be 7.5p but my added 20.30-23.30 slot changed and the 05.30-08.30 slot was removed overnight.

Clearly still in Beta mode.

Freeagain21 said:

Can you explain:
"when your car stops charging the next end of 30 minute slot i.e. xx:00 or xx:30 is when your 7.5p ends."
As I wasn't aware of this. Are you saying, if the car starts charging early, and then finishes by 4pm, I'll be paying full rate early too, from 4.30pm?

Click to expand...

If you plug in and Octopus give you 14:00 to 17:00 schedule, if your car stops charging at say 15:20 from 15:30 onwards you're back on peak rate.

EVsince2016 said:

In all seriousness, it is possible to game the system. There is a limit of 6 hours of charging per 24 hours at off peak rates but no limit on plugging in at 7am & adding 40% by 11am which seems wrong to me.

Adding 80% risks being charged at peak tariffs for time outside the 6 hours.

Click to expand...

That doesnt happen

EVsince2016 said:

When I asked for 40% to be added and it allocated me 20.30-08.30 after a day of solar charging is an odd one but what seems to happen is it changes the charging slots after I plug in to adapt. 23.30-05.30 will always be 7.5p but my added 20.30-23.30 slot changed and the 05.30-08.30 slot was removed overnight.

Click to expand...

All part of the Intelligent aspect of GO.