Givenergy chargers any good?

[Rolfe]

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of charging your car with your own solar power.

The way I've come to think about is that I've spent about £40,000 altogether on the car and the solar system. That's a lot of money, but people spend that on a car alone. I've got a great car AND loads of free fuel for the same price.

 

[gdog]

I hope I'll be advised by my installer how to handle this.

I'd suggest if you are installing more than 5 kWp panels, up the inverter to 5kW. I have a 5kW inverter and 5.5kWp panels and occasionally hit over 6kW generation. On these occasions I would be losing that with clipping when battery is full.

 

[STG]

Rolfe, also get to know the app or website to configure the system. On what I have ( Luxpower ) there is an app and a website configuration but there are differences between the two ie the website has more configuration options. So check with your installer and get them to show you in detail your configuration .

Other things to note is that if you use powerline plugs for your computer network (Ethernet over power) then the charger can interfere with these, in my case anything IT on the powerline network fails during the EV charge and then start working fine as the EV charge finishes. For me I had my garage IT network plugged in via powerline so this forced me to run a fixed Ethernet cable to my garage so my servers could still run during the charging session.

See if your inverter has a weather system built in, my luxpower did but was off as default so I asked the installer to turn this on, in this case the weather system looks up the next day's weather to then work out how much energy needs importing from the grid to charge the batteries and the time which in my case is 2-5am on Octoplus Flux. It took 2 weeks for the export to start working as the GA99 went through very quickly. Check if your smart meter is SMETS1 or SMETS2. A SMETS2 meter will work fine but only certain SMETS1 meter work with Octopus etc

 

[BrianHere6]

18 PV panels, 9.5 kwh battery, Zappi, inverter and so on. Looking forward to it.

You'll become a dedicated app watcher

 

[Rolfe]

I'd suggest if you are installing more than 5 kWp panels, up the inverter to 5kW. I have a 5kW inverter and 5.5kWp panels and occasionally hit over 6kW generation. On these occasions I would be losing that with clipping when battery is full.

The inverter has already been upped to 5 kW thanks to the advice from the good people on this forum.

Rolfe, also get to know the app or website to configure the system. On what I have ( Luxpower ) there is an app and a website configuration but there are differences between the two ie the website has more configuration options. So check with your installer and get them to show you in detail your configuration .

Other things to note is that if you use powerline plugs for your computer network (Ethernet over power) then the charger can interfere with these, in my case anything IT on the powerline network fails during the EV charge and then start working fine as the EV charge finishes. For me I had my garage IT network plugged in via powerline so this forced me to run a fixed Ethernet cable to my garage so my servers could still run during the charging session.

See if your inverter has a weather system built in, my luxpower did but was off as default so I asked the installer to turn this on, in this case the weather system looks up the next day's weather to then work out how much energy needs importing from the grid to charge the batteries and the time which in my case is 2-5am on Octoplus Flux. It took 2 weeks for the export to start working as the GA99 went through very quickly. Check if your smart meter is SMETS1 or SMETS2. A SMETS2 meter will work fine but only certain SMETS1 meter work with Octopus etc

I don't have anything more than a home wifi system so I don't think I'll run into these problems. My installer has looked at my smart meter and seems quite happy, still gushing about Octopus Flux after seeing it.

Weather system? What will they think of next?

 

[johnb80]

I hope I'll be advised by my installer how to handle this.

As long as you get an MCS certificate (Octopus now offer alternative acceptance methods but MCS is easier), you simply request another MPAN number from your DNO and then literally, within a few hours you're up and running. On your Octopus account the additional meter shows up for export, if you have an in house display for your smart meter, depending on the type you should get a graphic, mine shows a pylon with a green arrow pointing towards it when I'm feeding into the grid. Yesterday was a good day with my 6.7kW of solar panels exporting more than 30kWh, not a lot financially (£4.62) but nice and green as such.

 

[FiferMG4]

As long as you get an MCS certificate (Octopus now offer alternative acceptance methods but MCS is easier), you simply request another MPAN number from your DNO and then literally, within a few hours you're up and running. On your Octopus account the additional meter shows up for export, if you have an in house display for your smart meter, depending on the type you should get a graphic, mine shows a pylon with a green arrow pointing towards it when I'm feeding into the grid. Yesterday was a good day with my 6.7kW of solar panels exporting more than 30kWh, not a lot financially (£4.62) but nice and green as such.

Sounds easy with Octopus. If only it were that simple with British Gas. It’s been three weeks since I applied and I’m still not up and running on their SEG scheme.

 

[Smudger558]

Britishgas are the worst company I have ever dealt with

 

[Rolfe]

I'm going to switch to Octopus.

 

[Tight Git]

I'm going to switch to Octopus.

Don't forget my referral link so we each get £50

 

[FiferMG4]

Britishgas are the worst company I have ever dealt with

They must be reading this forum, because I got a message this morning saying that they’re setting up my, “export Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN).” Hopefully, not too long to wait now. Can’t wait for that big fat cheque in the post.

 

[Smudger558]

Glad I could help

Octopus are the best

 

[johnb80]

Sounds easy with Octopus. If only it were that simple with British Gas. It’s been three weeks since I applied and I’m still not up and running on their SEG scheme.

You may notice around the forum I mention BG from time to time

You will also notice there are very few (if any) positive comments.

Do yourself a huge favour, leave BG and go to Octopus, if you have exit fees, use my referral link in my signature and get £50 from Octopus to help pay for them.