MG4 scheduled charging with Easee one

[Tonski]

I finally received my MG4 this week and i've been really enjoying the car so far but i'm having a few problem with the scheduled charging from my Easee one home charger. I have set the scheduled charging in the car to between 2:30 and 5:30am which is inside the off peak tariff with my electric company (2-6am with Bulb) and the health mode is set to 80% to help maintain the battery life. I was hoping that when I plugged in the charger, it would start charging at 2:30am, charge to 80% and then cut off. But when I plug the charger in, it starts charging immediately. I've checked the settings in the car and on the MG iSmart app, and they both say scheduled charging between 2:30-5:30am is on. Has anyone else had this problem or know what I'm doing wrong? The obvious work around for the time being is to set the scheduled charging on the Easee one app to between 2:30am and however long it takes to charge to 80%, but this wouldn't be very simple and I'll probably forget and end up over charging on some days. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Out of interest, how much % does the battery charge increase by in 1 hour of charging with a 7kw charger? I have a MG4 SE long range.

 

[meicd]

Cancel it on the app and just use the car. Or vice versa, it doesn’t like both being programmed. The car programming is more reliable.

 

[VAG]

In theory, if you charge it during 1 hour at 7kW (which in principle is 7,4kW) you'll charge approximately something like 10-11% of the 64kWh battery.
This is not absolute, as the charging power varies due to several factors, battery temperature, battery SOC, ... etc.

 

[tsedge]

I finally received my MG4 this week and i've been really enjoying the car so far but i'm having a few problem with the scheduled charging from my Easee one home charger. I have set the scheduled charging in the car to between 2:30 and 5:30am which is inside the off peak tariff with my electric company (2-6am with Bulb) and the health mode is set to 80% to help maintain the battery life. I was hoping that when I plugged in the charger, it would start charging at 2:30am, charge to 80% and then cut off. But when I plug the charger in, it starts charging immediately. I've checked the settings in the car and on the MG iSmart app, and they both say scheduled charging between 2:30-5:30am is on. Has anyone else had this problem or know what I'm doing wrong? The obvious work around for the time being is to set the scheduled charging on the Easee one app to between 2:30am and however long it takes to charge to 80%, but this wouldn't be very simple and I'll probably forget and end up over charging on some days. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

Out of interest, how much % does the battery charge increase by in 1 hour of charging with a 7kw charger? I have a MG4 SE long range.

I have a LR Trophy and a Zappi and it reports 28.4kWh put into the car during my 4 hour cheap rate overnight slot. There will be some efficiency losses in the car too but this translates to about a 40-45% state of charge increase overnight.

To get my overnight charging to work reliably, I set a schedule on the Zappi not the car. It wouldn't do it with it set on the car but not the Zappi, always charged immediately. This has worked pretty reliably except on one occasion when the Zappi needed a reboot and update.

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

I use the Easee One and have the Easee app set to scheduled charge every day between 0030 and 0430. I use the iSmart app to set the charging limit (usually 80%)

On the days I need to charge I plug the car in and activate the charger using the RFID fob. The Easee app will then say “waiting for schedule”.

NB my Easee had a summer time glitch this morning - it added an hour to the charging period rather than shifting the period forward one hour (0030/0430 became 0030/0530)

 

[drivethru]

Hey all

I am getting my easee one charger installed next week.

Am I right to think that the octopus ev tariff does not support the easee one charger?

If anyone can share which off peak tarrif they are using with the easee one then that would be great.

 

[KH11]

Hey all

I am getting my easee one charger installed next week.

Am I right to think that the octopus ev tariff does not support the easee one charger?

If anyone can share which off peak tarrif they are using with the easee one then that would be great.

Unless someone knows different it will be Octopus Go that will work.

Intelligent Octopus is showing that you have to have a compatible car which the MG4 is not on the list or a Ohme charger. I keep looking and it is still saying the same.

I’m likely to be taking the plunge and getting a MG4 shortly. I have already installed a Zappi charger as I have Solar Panels. So was hoping to charge through surplus energy where possible.

They have been talking about including the Zappi Charger in the Intelligent Octopus but no news on that yet.

Once I have got the car I will have to consider if it is worth me transferring over to the other off peak rate tariff but you have to factor in that on that the peak rate goes up in comparison to the current rate.

The new ofgem price cap is due to be announced on the 25 May so it is a bit hard to do much calculation. The new rates are supposed to be from July.

Although the price cap is supposed to be going down affecting the KW rate. I wonder if the standing charge will come down too as the electric one got ramped up somewhat so that everyone got affected as some people are not on any gas supply.

I have a LR Trophy and a Zappi and it reports 28.4kWh put into the car during my 4 hour cheap rate overnight slot. There will be some efficiency losses in the car too but this translates to about a 40-45% state of charge increase overnight.

To get my overnight charging to work reliably, I set a schedule on the Zappi not the car. It wouldn't do it with it set on the car but not the Zappi, always charged immediately. This has worked pretty reliably except on one occasion when the Zappi needed a reboot and update.

I know it’s a pretty basic question but what procedure do you use? Do you set the charger first on the charger or on the app then plug your car in or is it the other way round. Do you have to have the car unlocked or locked before you start.

I have a Zappi installed but because I haven’t got the car yet I didn’t take as much notice of how the installer checked it was working so far as the sequence. I know that Zappi worked as he had been accompanied by another guy who had an octopus ev. So I got him to try it momentarily but I can’t remember now if he set the charger first before he connected.

 

[wandle MG4 trophy]

The Easee One charger certainly does work with Octopus Go

 

[tsedge]

I know it’s a pretty basic question but what procedure do you use? Do you set the charger first on the charger or on the app then plug your car in or is it the other way round. Do you have to have the car unlocked or locked before you start.

I have a Zappi installed but because I haven’t got the car yet I didn’t take as much notice of how the installer checked it was working so far as the sequence. I know that Zappi worked as he had been accompanied by another guy who had an octopus ev. So I got him to try it momentarily but I can’t remember now if he set the charger first before he connected.

I use the Zappi app to set a charging schedule: for me on Octopus Go this is 12.30am-4.30am each day, which is entered as the start time plus 4 hours. Once set up this is remembered. Then I keep the Zappi in Eco+ mode.

When I get home, I get out of the car, connect the charger, get blue lights around the charge port and after a few seconds the Zappi shows "Waiting for Surplus" which is designed for Solar systems but in my case as I don't have solar just means it is waiting until my charging schedule starts. I lock the car and walk away and it will charge overnight.

I can check both via the Zappi app whether it is/has charged through the kWh delivered and on the MG iSmart app to check the state of charge.

If I want to switch the charge limit for a range charge (LR only), I do that via the MG iSmart app and I don't have to do that before I connect the car, I can do it at any time.

If you want instant charging, set the Zappi to Fast mode, it can take a few minutes to start thanks to the government mandated random charging delay, although you can override that on the Zappi itself using the '+' key if you want to see it start.

The lights around the charge port on the car will glow green when it is charging.

For reliability, it is well worth updating your Zappi to the latest firmware. This is documented in the manual and is best done on the unit itself rather than via the app.

 

[KH11]

Thanks both it was more a case of do I set the charger first or connect the cable first then the charger. I have the Zappi app installed and I can see the different settings on there for the scheduling etc

I have not done anything yet about changing over to a cheaper off peak tariff but I will look into once I have got the car.

I have been monitoring the solar output since installation through the app and thinking most of that energy when I need to charge up could be going into the car especially when it’s sunny.

For reliability, it is well worth updating your Zappi to the latest firmware. This is documented in the manual and is best done on the unit itself rather than via the app.

I will give that a check although it’s only been installed about 4 weeks and the installer did the updates at the time but it will pay to check again as I don’t know how frequently they do them.

 

[tsedge]

Thanks both it was more a case of do I set the charger first or connect the cable first then the charger. I have the Zappi app installed and I can see the different settings on there for the scheduling etc

It shouldn't matter which way round you do it.

I have not done anything yet about changing over to a cheaper off peak tariff but I will look into once I have got the car.

I have been monitoring the solar output since installation through the app and thinking most of that energy when I need to charge up could be going into the car especially when it’s sunny.

Yes, that's really what a Zappi is designed for, you can set a percentage to dictate how much surplus is needed before it charges the car - I haven't used this but there's plenty who have.

I will give that a check although it’s only been installed about 4 weeks and the installer did the updates at the time but it will pay to check again as I don’t know how frequently they do them.

Not that often, but is needed at installation - a good installer will indeed have taken care of it. I had mine installed on the cheap by my sparky for £90 (house already had a dedicated EV circuit put in) so needed to do all the setup myself.

 

[KH11]

I am a complete novice here. Never ever driven an Automatic before or an EV and whilst I have picked up a lot of good information from here and watched a lot on YouTube. Sometimes you just need a guide on something that might appear basic to a lot but whilst I have seen a lot of videos on YouTube of people using rapid chargers out and about and there are lots on there about Zappi chargers but it’s more about the installation rather than showing how someone used them. Once I get my first charge under my belt at home I’ll soon get into the swing of things

There has been a lot of comments on here of people having problems with their car not charging when they have set a schedule and from what people have been saying then it’s a case of not trying to set the charge in too many places for example don’t set it on the app as well as setting it in the car.

I was thinking of just using the Zappi app to set particular charges as it seems to look easy enough to do.

So back to the my original question plug car in then app or app first then plug in?

I do apologise to the original poster if we have drifted off a little bit but forgive this complete novice

 

[tsedge]

So back to the my original question plug car in then app or app first then plug in?

Up to you, makes no difference.

 

[KH11]

It shouldn't matter which way round you do it.

Yes, that's really what a Zappi is designed for, you can set a percentage to dictate how much surplus is needed before it charges the car - I haven't used this but there's plenty who have.

Our messages have crossed but thank you for this. I wasn’t sure if there was a specific sequence of doing it. So hopefully I will be okay now I will probably just try a normal charge for a short while when I get it to get in a bit of practice then have a go with the eco plus setting and see how it physically works with the surplus energy.

 

[tsedge]

Some things to be aware of as a first time EVer:

• You can always stop and unlock the charge port from the car: go to the charging screen and you'll see icons for each. This is useful if you have problems with a public charger that gets stuck. Never try to force the charge plug out of the car.
• The various apps are useful for finding out if a public charger is working or not (ZapMap, Electroverse, PlugShare etc..) however they are not always correct, some public chargers will say they are working but not connect to car. If this happens, try another one and if you can report it to the owner: they are often remotely rebootable.
• For the above reason don't get down to a very low charge level before you look for a charger, you may have to travel to several to find one free and working.
• Many public chargers don't deliver the stated charge power but a lot less, some are much better than others and it all depends on the installation.

 

[KH11]

Some things to be aware of as a first time EVer:

• You can always stop and unlock the charge port from the car: go to the charging screen and you'll see icons for each. This is useful if you have problems with a public charger that gets stuck. Never try to force the charge plug out of the car.
• The various apps are useful for finding out if a public charger is working or not (ZapMap, Electroverse, PlugShare etc..) however they are not always correct, some public chargers will say they are working but not connect to car. If this happens, try another one and if you can report it to the owner: they are often remotely rebootable.
• For the above reason don't get down to a very low charge level before you look for a charger, you may have to travel to several to find one free and working.
• Many public chargers don't deliver the state charge power but a lot less, some are much better than others and it all depends on the installation.

Thanks for that yes I have seen some on YouTube roll up to a charger and it hasn’t worked so had to go to another. Generally I wasn’t thinking of going below 20% on a long journey and would probably try and plan a charge up at 30% with a look to see if there’s another one before I am likely to get to 20% in case the first one isn’t working or not free. The longest journey I tend to do is a trip up to Scotland at Christmas which is about 250 miles the route I go and I am aware that the range will be less in winter. I have done some tentative routes with charging stops both going up and back already in Zappmap. Generally speaking I should get away with one stop going up but I have highlighted probably 3 stops going up as back up. Hopefully the first stop will work and I won’t need the other two but at least I have left myself options and they all should be well before I get to 20%.

 

[tsedge]

Sounds like good planning to me. Good luck with it - I look forward to the day that advice like this isn't needed because chargers are everywhere and everything "just works" but we are not there yet!

 

[KH11]

Sounds like good planning to me. Good luck with it - I look forward to the day that advice like this isn't needed because chargers are everywhere and everything "just works" but we are not there yet!

Agreed and thanks again