Best position for Zappi charger?

[BigStu]

Ok so have ordered Tesla Model 3 and have also ordered the Zappi solar charge as i have solar panels.

I am now trying to work out where exactly is the best place to install the Zappi considering the location of the Tesla charge port on the car and preferably wanting to drive front in (although of course can reverse in if needed).

This photo shows where the Tesla will be parked:

Screen-Shot-2021-09-05-at-10-29-13-am

The three yellow dots are what i thought would be possible locations for the Zappi? The far right yellow dot is placed next to the power meter box which you can see on the side.

The middle yellow dot i guess would be an option too.

The far left option would be best (i think) when driving the car in front first and there is power directly below this yellow dot provided already to the sliding gate – power seen here:

PXL-20210905-002239472

But would that be difficult/expensive to put the Zappi here on the far left side near? However would be best position for charging when driving in front first.

What do you reckon is best position for Zappi charger based on this?

 

[meloccom]

Either the far right position or near the gate.
I would avoid the central position as the cable will run across and along a walkway and represents a trip hazard.
I personally fitted the charger on the back wall of my garage and I need to back in to park and charge, but I’m guessing you have to stop on a street and back into your driveway to do that from your pictures.
As your gate motor and possibly lights are already on the supply on the left you may not have much overhead for charging on that circuit and your electrician will tell you if it’s possible to put a continuous load on that circuit.
Another alternative would be to run a new circuit in conduit along the fence on the RHS to near the gate, then the cable can just run behind the car to plug in.

 

[paulp]

Either the far right position or near the gate.
I would avoid the central position as the cable will run across and along a walkway and represents a trip hazard.
I personally fitted the charger on the back wall of my garage and I need to back in to park and charge, but I’m guessing you have to stop on a street and back into your driveway to do that from your pictures.
As your gate motor and possibly lights are already on the supply on the left you may not have much overhead for charging on that circuit and your electrician will tell you if it’s possible to put a continuous load on that circuit.
Another alternative would be to run a new circuit in conduit along the fence on the RHS to near the gate, then the cable can just run behind the car to plug in.

Agree with all that. The gate motor is likely a 10a plug on a 16a breaker, so not even close to large enough power source to run a zappi. I think the best options are either next to the meter box and reverse in (also cheapest) or as you suggested mount it on the fence near the rear of the car and drive in. Would need to chase the path under the meter board or surface mount with a metal protective cover, although it appears to be concave for drainage, so that may be prohibitive.
You already reverse and drive equally on your driveway, it would make sense to swap the habit to reverse in when you want to charge, which is very unlikely to be every time.

 

[BigStu]

Yes all true and I think makes more sense to just reverse in and like you say - I won't be doing it every time.

Possibly the 6 metres might be enough to go front in and reach from next to the meter box too.

 

[Leeroy]

Don’t know if it helps, but I use the UMC for charging and had a similar location conundrum like you did. I put mine in the front left and it sits just above the passenger headlight. Reaches with the car driven in nose first, the cable runs along the ground meaning it isnt a tight run, but there isn’t much slack left.
According to Tesla the UMC cable is 6m long.
The wood being glued is preventing me from driving the car back in right now but I can get a pic with the car plugged in later if you need it.

 

[BigStu]

Don’t know if it helps, but I use the UMC for charging and had a similar location conundrum like you did. I put mine in the front left and it sits just above the passenger headlight. Reaches with the car driven in nose first, the cable runs along the ground meaning it isnt a tight run, but there isn’t much slack left.
According to Tesla the UMC cable is 6m long.
The wood being glued is preventing me from driving the car back in right now but I can get a pic with the car plugged in later if you need it.

View attachment 705634

Ah that's interesting - yes maybe the option is on the left side and just run it down like that. 6 metres seems like plenty of room too. Thank you!

 

[Leeroy]

Like I said, not taught but it’s ‘toight’

 

[Rolond]

Like I said, not taught but it’s ‘toight’

It must be a pain getting in and out of the drivers side

 

[Leeroy]

Standard 2 car garage, I can get in and out ok but you can’t open the door fully. I nose in if the kids are in the car to save the doors crunching into wall

 

[paulp]

Standard 2 car garage, I can get in and out ok but you can’t open the door fully. I nose in if the kids are in the car to save the doors crunching into wall

My last house I got some adhesive spunge from the plumbing store, around 10mm thick and 100mm wide used for pipe lagging, and stuck it to the wall where the doors hit. Worked really well. Bunnings probably sell it as well.

 

[Nickdp]

not related to your original post regarding positioning, but recently someone on the Tesla Slack group posted this charger also as solar aware, just mentioning as an alternative to zappy.

 

[BigStu]

Like I said, not taught but it’s ‘toight’

Like I said, not taught but it’s ‘toight’

Plenty of room!

Yeah i have ordered the Zappi but i am thinking if i even need one and just use granny charger? Am paying around $2k for zappi plus installation but just not sure it is worth it.

Can anyone advise whether my meter box can do three phase? Is that a better option?

Meter box is here:

PXL-20210903-060918656

 

[paulp]

not related to your original post regarding positioning, but recently someone on the Tesla Slack group posted this charger also as solar aware, just mentioning as an alternative to zappy.

Not sure that this wording from their website makes it solar aware like the zappi. It does however make it the same as anything else that plugs into any power point in my house;

“Charge your car directly from the sun! Hypervolt is compatible with all solar panel installations, enabling you to charge for free, forever!”

 

[cafz]

Can anyone advise whether my meter box can do three phase? Is that a better option?

No, you only have a single phase connection (one service fuse).

Whether or not you can get by on the UMC depends on how much battery you use each day. If you're trying to maximise self-consumption of solar, you'll probably want to be able to charge at near the maximum power your inverter can supply.

The UMC on an ordinary 10A outlet does 2.4kW. If you get a 15A caravan-style outlet installed, it'll do 3.6kW. If you get a 32A industrial-style socket installed and matching tail for the UMC (eg. Tesla Gen 2 UMC Adapter | 32 Amp | 7 kW | 3-Pin plug ) it'll do almost 8kW.

That's the best you can do on single-phase anyway - even with the Zappi or the Tesla HPWC it'll still max out at 32A.

If you just set the car to charge at 10am every day (and maybe manually cancel charging from the app if it's a very dull day) you'll get most of the benefit of the solar-tracking charger anyway.

 

[BigStu]

No, you only have a single phase connection (one service fuse).

Whether or not you can get by on the UMC depends on how much battery you use each day. If you're trying to maximise self-consumption of solar, you'll probably want to be able to charge at near the maximum power your inverter can supply.

The UMC on an ordinary 10A outlet does 2.4kW. If you get a 15A caravan-style outlet installed, it'll do 3.6kW. If you get a 32A industrial-style socket installed and matching tail for the UMC (eg. Tesla Gen 2 UMC Adapter | 32 Amp | 7 kW | 3-Pin plug ) it'll do almost 8kW.

That's the best you can do on single-phase anyway - even with the Zappi or the Tesla HPWC it'll still max out at 32A.

If you just set the car to charge at 10am every day (and maybe manually cancel charging from the app if it's a very dull day) you'll get most of the benefit of the solar-tracking charger anyway.

Thanks for that. What is approx install cost for the 32A option roughly?

 

[meloccom]

This is what a 3 Phase installation looks like.

As you can see it has 3 service fuses and a Meter that can measure each of the 3 phases.
The cost of an additional 32A circuit will depend on the spare capacity that you have on your connection, if any, and the length of conduit and cable needed to get to the location of your Zappi. This is something only an electrician can tell you with any degree of accuracy.

 

[Leeroy]

I got mine installed by the Tesla recommended spark on their website, It was $1100 for the run (25metres) plug and switch. I asked for 3ph cables run should I want to go down the Tesla wall charger route later. The UMC adaptor was on top of that from EVSE.
A little pricey IMO, but I’ll use 25kw on my work commute so the standard UMC rates were almost useless for me long term.

 

[Rolond]

The UMC on an ordinary 10A outlet does 2.4kW. If you get a 15A caravan-style outlet installed, it'll do 3.6kW. If you get a 32A industrial-style socket installed and matching tail for the UMC (eg. Tesla Gen 2 UMC Adapter | 32 Amp | 7 kW | 3-Pin plug ) it'll do almost 8kW.

I would go for the 5 pin 32 amp tail instead of the 3 pin tail as the cost the same and you can use it if you plan to travel to areas off the beaten track where 3 phase 32 amp outlets are fairly common, I have never seen a single phase 32 amp outlet on Plugshare

The installation cost would be much less than $1100 as it would be a much shorter run, and I would only run single phase to the outlet as the cost of ugrading to 3 phase mains plus the cost of a three phase meter would to prohibitive

 

[Leeroy]

I would go for the 5 pin 32 amp tail instead of the 3 pin tail as the cost the same and you can use it if you plan to travel to areas off the beaten track where 3 phase 32 amp outlets are fairly common, I have never seen a single phase 32 amp outlet on Plugshare

This is good advice, Spark suggested this as well.
The EVSE UMC tail was actually cheaper in the 5 pin at the time, but I think that’s finished now.

 

[cafz]

Thanks for that. What is approx install cost for the 32A option roughly?

It totally depends on how far it has to go, through what material, and whether or not your switchboard needs any upgrades.