question

ejrossouw avatar image
ejrossouw asked

Does the Victron EV charging station offer beter system integration with a Victron system than a Zappi?

@Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff)

A customer has a challenge in that his Zappi starts charging when his Quattro exports which is fine. However, when export stops, the zappi continues to charge and drains the ESS batteries.

Objective: 1. Have automated charging of the EV using ONLY excess PV during the day, but without constantly swithing on/off when excess PV is very little or fluctuating. 2. Set scheduled charging to charge from off-peak rates.

1. Will a Victron charging station overcome this Zappi problem being integrated with the rest of the Victron system?

2. Can scheduled charging be set in automatic mode?

ev charging stationess dischargingzappi
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2 Answers
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image
Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) answered ·

Hi, I don't know Zappi products but I can tell you how our product is working. If the production is higher than the minimum necessary power for charging EV (that's usually 6A) it will start charging in 30 sec. If it's lower will stop after 30 sec Do you need something else?

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ejrossouw avatar image ejrossouw commented ·
Thank you for the prompt reply. Can a charging schedule be set in automatic mode for charging e.g. in the evening at off-peak rates?
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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ ejrossouw commented ·

not yet, it is on the to do list to have scheduled charging but not for automatic mode. Automatic mode is designed to use only the excess power, so off-peak rates are not important when using only energy from PV


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ejrossouw avatar image ejrossouw Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·

Thank you Lucien. So, the customer won't be able to set a charging schedule at this time at all based on TOU regardless of mode and will have to manually turn the charger on as required? Many UK electricity suppliers now offer cheap off-peak EV rates so without a scheduler at this price point, I just cannot promote the product to my customers. Using excess solar to charge during the day is common and then having a top-up or complete full charge off-peak at night especially on poor production days should very much be a given. Appreciate the prompt replies and sadly have to say this just killed more sales :( On the upside, I do like the "system integration" aspect.

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mr-bear avatar image mr-bear ejrossouw commented ·
Yep this is exactly what I want
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bm97ppc avatar image bm97ppc ejrossouw commented ·

As a work around you could use a device to schedule the charging Via Modbus TCP (thanks for confirming @Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ). I use a Loxone Mini server for something very similar. I'm sure there is something you can do much cheaper with a Raspberry PI (or similar).

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ bm97ppc commented ·
Yes, you can control it externally and create your charging profiles, you can do that even through GX device using Node-Red if you want
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l81ker avatar image l81ker bm97ppc commented ·
At the price, it should come with that feature!
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bm97ppc avatar image bm97ppc Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ commented ·
@Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff)

Can you set the Mode: Charge Now and Automatic (Solar excess) via Modbus or MQTT?

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Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) avatar image Lucian Popescu (Victron Energy Staff) ♦♦ bm97ppc commented ·

Hi, you can do even more over modbus tcp, have a look below1657960957751.png

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1657960957751.png (57.9 KiB)
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bm97ppc answered ·

There are things you can do to fix this, I have a Zappi and have noticed this but never really looked into it. I just did a quick google and there are various fixes, e.g. set an export margin in the Zappi or add an additional CT to the Zappi for the battery. Myeneryi support is very good and they have a good community with lots of info and experts.

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