3 Phase Fast Charging on EV Tariffs

[PITA]

Octopus Energy have confirmed 3 Phase meter being installed next week...

... and 3 Phase EV Charger Installer confirmed today that we have had DNO Approval...

So far, so good... all on track for March 2022 activation

 

[PITA]

Sunny & Clear Blue Skies...

... and now 2 hours of No Power

3 phase meter installer want's it all off, as a lot of recabling needs to be done...

 

[Morhydro]

Latest software update on the Tesla seems to sorted some issues with the Zappi. Last charge before I left for Austria I forgot to switch off the Zappi timer - this time it did not interfere with the charge timer in the Tesla. Hoping this is a permanent improvement.

 

[PITA]

Just an update on this... bit of a progressing story...

I've ordered a second electric car (Skoda Enyaq VRS Coupe) for my Wife. So we're getting very close now to needing to use a second car charger.

But I've hit a limitation on amps.

At the moment our house 3 Phase supply is set up at 80 amps per phase. But most of the house demand is still on Single Phase backed up by two Powerwalls and Solar.

At peak demand during the night time cheap rate, we're finding the Zappi 3 Phase charger was load balancing unnecessarily.

Turns out there is an Advanced Setting called Grid Limit, and it was defaulted at 65 amps.

So a quick change in the advanced settings menu to 80 amps and it's all back to working great.

 

[PITA]

The next challenge brings another issue.

Our additional 7kW Zappi Charger is connected to the Tesla Gateway 2... and we use it primarily for transferring Solar Power out of the Powerwalls.

But it's rated at 32 amps on single phase. Using this in addition to all the above would blow past our 80amp limit on L1 phase... and cause both chargers to load balance at a significantly reduced rate.

So I'm going to install another Zappi 3 Phase charger, which will only increase L1 by 16 amps... keeping it under the amps threshold.

That way we'll be able to charge both cars at 11 kW, charge the Powerwalls at 7.7 kW and still have 3 kW left over for the house at night.

Seriously considering approaching the DNO about a 100amp upgrade on the 3 Phases... I bet they wonder what the heck I'm doing....

 

[Sean.]

The next challenge brings another issue.

Our additional 7kW Zappi Charger is connected to the Tesla Gateway 2... and we use it primarily for transferring Solar Power out of the Powerwalls.

But it's rated at 32 amps on single phase. Using this in addition to all the above would blow past our 80amp limit on L1 phase... and cause both chargers to load balance at a significantly reduced rate.

So I'm going to install another Zappi 3 Phase charger, which will only increase L1 by 16 amps... keeping it under the amps threshold.

That way we'll be able to charge both cars at 11 kW, charge the Powerwalls at 7.7 kW and still have 3 kW left over for the house at night.

Seriously considering approaching the DNO about a 100amp upgrade on the 3 Phases... I bet they wonder what the heck I'm doing....

Depends on your DNO.

100A three phase should be larger fuses in the cutout. You can keep the same (direct) metering arrangement

When you jump up beyond that, typically the next step is 200A per phase. That you really start having fun!

 

[ACarneiro]

A three-phase Gateway 3 would be great for your use-case (and that of a considerable number of people in continental Europe)

 

[PITA]

A three-phase Gateway 3 would be great for your use-case (and that of a considerable number of people in continental Europe)

The Gateway 2 is 3 Phase... it just has to be set up that way... to my understanding

 

[ACarneiro]

My understanding is that it’s 3 phase….. ish. It can’t, for instance, export into all phases. And that’s the reason why you need vector sum meters and only L1 is backed up during a grid outage.

 

[PITA]

My understanding is that it’s 3 phase….. ish. It can’t, for instance, export into all phases. And that’s the reason why you need vector sum meters and only L1 is backed up during a grid outage.

Oh well that's weird because I thought it was fully prepared.

You needed a 3 Phase Solar Inverter, and one Powerwall on each phase for backup.

That's my understanding

 

[PITA]

Ordered another 22 kW 3 Phase charger today for my Wife's Skoda Enyaq VRS (when it arrives).

Done the Sums for Home, and we will be able to

- Charge Powerwalls at 7.7 kW
- Charge #1 Car at 11 kW
- Charge #2 Car at 11 kW
- Run house at 3 kW

All at the same time, which is probably the worst case scenario in Winter.

It'll just be handy not to have to consider the load-balancing or Charge rates beforehand. Just plug in and get going... and be fairly confident your personal car will be charged properly by morning.

Looking forward to trying it out...