Octopus go price cut

[ACarneiro]

There are plenty of chargers with Three Phase (up to 32A per phase) support.
The Tesla Wall Connector, for instance, would work. I believe EO do a 3 Phase version of one of their chargers too.
You’ll obviously need the corresponding wiring and circuit protection.

 

[NewbieT]

Or just have 2x 7kW charge points on separate phases. Cheaper and easier. 11kW vs 7kW.

[edit: we’ll 2x that for two cars. or more depending on the cars. ]

 

[ACarneiro]

Or just have 2x 7kW charge points on separate phases. Cheaper and easier. 11kW vs 7kW.

[edit: we’ll 2x that for two cars. or more depending on the cars. ]

Personally I’d have 2 3-phase chargers with load-sharing if necessary (the Tesla ones will do that).

 

[ElectricPolice]

So I've just had 3 phase installed and a smart meter but no solar or batteries. We have 2 electric vehicles and are already with octopus.

What would be the best charger to go for which should allow me to take advantage of these tariffs.

Choose Go and any charger you fancy, makes no difference. Set car schedule for 11:30 start and you’re sorted.

If you choose IO then it only works with one car but when you get a schedule or between the 6h window the ‘2nd’ car can be charged with any charger you want in the same time window.

One of your cars has to be compatible with IO (assuming you have at least one Tesla being on this forum) or choose the compatible Ohme charger for more flexibility.

The T&C’s are fairly clear. Running IO as it’s supposed to be run is a requirement but some might switch off the smart scheduling if they want to guarantee a 6h charge without worry it’s going to throw a wobbly and stop mid charge, not ideal if depending on it.

Guess you might be thinking 2 Ohme chargers to max out system. IO specifies it only supports one car, or I guess, only 1 charger. So having 2 Ohme’s would make no difference.

This is my understanding anyway. I’m sure I’ll be put in my place if wrong

 

[Ikin]

Having been switched from Bulb to Octopus - even not by choice, must say I'm a happy customer again now. Bulb by comparison, who at the point of their collapse still hadn't been able to display accurate usage data and costs in their own app.

To get a chirpy little email saying they had dropped our pricing immediately after moving over was nice.

Looking into intelligent octopus now - still can't work out if a condition of getting onto it is that you use their charging kit though (have a Hypervolt at the home and don't want to stop using the Hypervolt app because it works flawlessly)...

Definitely works with Hypervolt if you have a compatible vehicle e.g. a Tesla ....which is my set up!

 

[PITA]

So I've just had 3 phase installed and a smart meter but no solar or batteries. We have 2 electric vehicles and are already with octopus.

What would be the best charger to go for which should allow me to take advantage of these tariffs.

Or just have 2x 7kW charge points on separate phases. Cheaper and easier. 11kW vs 7kW.

[edit: we’ll 2x that for two cars. or more depending on the cars. ]

Personally I’d have 2 3-phase chargers with load-sharing if necessary (the Tesla ones will do that).

We've got 3 Phase with three Zappi Car Chargers.

1 x 7 kW Zappi which is on L1 ... this is directly wired into the Tesla Gateway 2 on 32 Amp and has access to Solar & Powerwalls. This gives me random Solar Excess charging at full 7kW whenever I want.

1 x 22 kW Zappi which is on L2, L1, L3 Grid only ... this is wired as primary L2. This means a 7kW charge automatically stays on L2 only. Good for load balancing, but you can ramp up to 11kW or 22kW if car can take it.

1 x 22 kW Zappi which is on L3, L1, L2 Grid only ... this is wired as primary L3. This means a 7kW charge automatically stays on L3 only. Good for load balancing, but you can ramp up to 11kW or 22kW if car can take it.

It's really good because we can charge two cars at 11kW each at the same time, without load balancing, on Grid only. This doesn't interfere with Home Storage or scheduled Octopus Intelligent tariff. ...Plus we can still charge two Powerwalls at the same time.

For us, it's the perfect setup for two cars. Both being 80+ kWh battery vehicles.

All three Zappi chargers talk to each other and are limited to 80 Amps per phase. So I just plug in and forget about it.

 

[PITA]

We've got 3 Phase with three Zappi Car Chargers.

1 x 7 kW Zappi which is on L1 ... this is directly wired into the Tesla Gateway 2 on 32 Amp and has access to Solar & Powerwalls. This gives me random Solar Excess charging at full 7kW whenever I want.

1 x 22 kW Zappi which is on L2, L1, L3 Grid only ... this is wired as primary L2. This means a 7kW charge automatically stays on L2 only. Good for load balancing, but you can ramp up to 11kW or 22kW if car can take it.

1 x 22 kW Zappi which is on L3, L1, L2 Grid only ... this is wired as primary L3. This means a 7kW charge automatically stays on L3 only. Good for load balancing, but you can ramp up to 11kW or 22kW if car can take it.

It's really good because we can charge two cars at 11kW each at the same time, without load balancing, on Grid only. This doesn't interfere with Home Storage or scheduled Octopus Intelligent tariff. ...Plus we can still charge two Powerwalls at the same time.

For us, it's the perfect setup for two cars. Both being 80+ kWh battery vehicles.

All three Zappi chargers talk to each other and are limited to 80 Amps per phase. So I just plug in and forget about it.

Just to add...

Or you can charge three cars all at the same time, each on a single phase charging cable at 7kW each (32 Amps).

3 x 7kW wall charging, per car, per phase.

But three Zappi's is the maximum you can have on the Domestic MyEnergi smartphone App.

We're max'ed out now, literally.

 

[ElectricPolice]

The holy grail of set ups…

I’d never leave the house with that, I’d spend my whole time juggling usage which would be awesome for me

 

[PITA]

The holy grail of set ups…

I’d never leave the house with that, I’d spend my whole time juggling usage which would be awesome for me

Welcome to my World

 

[PITA]

The holy grail of set ups…

I’d never leave the house with that, I’d spend my whole time juggling usage which would be awesome for me

Oh, and I forgot the Apocalyptic Extra...

A Commando Socket 32 Amp wired into Tesla Gateway 2 on backup side.

So if we lost Grid Power completely, or the 7kW Zappi became unusable for long periods, we can still charge a car using a Universal Mobile Charger... using the Solar Array and battery storage in off-grid mode.

SpaceX Starlink provides failover for Internet Broadband services, so we remain operational. As it's been proven already, Mobile phone data services are not in use during major Grid outages as they prioritise backup power for voice services (in the West Midlands anyway)

 

[KennethS]

Oh, and I forgot the Apocalyptic Extra...

A Commando Socket 32 Amp wired into Tesla Gateway 2 on backup side.

So if we lost Grid Power completely, or the 7kW Zappi became unusable for long periods, we can still charge a car using a Universal Mobile Charger... using the Solar Array and battery storage in off-grid mode.

SpaceX Starlink provides failover for Internet Broadband services, so we remain operational. As it's been proven already, Mobile phone data services are not in use during major Grid outages as they prioritise backup power for voice services (in the West Midlands anyway)

Your setup is enviable -- if only we had a much larger roof! Our 3.5kW system is the largest we could fit on our south side and the east and west are too small and awkward shapes to add anything meaningful.

 

[PITA]

Your setup is enviable -- if only we had a much larger roof! Our 3.5kW system is the largest we could fit on our south side and the east and west are too small and awkward shapes to add anything meaningful.

Thanks, a lot of thought went into it (probably too much).

Weirdly, the limiting factor isn't the Solar Panel Array size (in my opinion)

The limiting factor is not having big enough home storage batteries with off-grid gateway, smart meter and 3-Phase supply.

You can be pretty creative, and low-cost energy use with decent home storage batteries, smart meter & 3-Phase supply.

The 'big' Solar Array is icing on the cake, but not essential. Any sized array is good.

Buying Grid electric for battery storage at 7.5p per kWh is still very very good. Using 3 Phase capacity to download as much as possible into storage, in a short low-cost period is outstanding.

 

[KennethS]

Thanks, a lot of thought went into it (probably too much).

Weirdly, the limiting factor isn't the Solar Panel Array size (in my opinion)

The limiting factor is not having big enough home storage batteries, smart meter and 3-Phase supply.

You can be pretty creative, and low-cost energy use with decent home storage batteries, smart meter & 3-Phase supply.

The Solar is icing on the cake, but not essential.

3-phase is likely a costly upgrade for us, but something I should probably explore. We have a second Powerwall 2 due to be connected this week (it was delivered yesterday) and we are working through numbers on adding 6 panels on a detached garage.

 

[PITA]

3-phase is likely a costly upgrade for us, but something I should probably explore. We have a second Powerwall 2 due to be connected this week (it was delivered yesterday) and we are working through numbers on adding 6 panels on a detached garage.

When I started all this 3 years ago... during the planning stages it dawned on me that Domestic Single Phase supplies would not be good enough.

In my opinion, just like Internet Dial-up started as a novelty... being able to connect to the Internet on copper landline and marvel at a Web Page scrolling down your screen as it loaded.

But that novelty soon wears off when more demanding load times become necessary. Like having multiple electric cars at home, or battery storage, or heat pumps.

3 Phase isn't just about going from a 7kW charger to a 11kW charger.

It's about going from a 7kW charger... to multiple 11kW cars charging, and battery storage, heat pumps, and all the other tech you may want to add to your home.

It opens up way more potential without severe load balancing restrictions.

 

[PITA]

What I would say if you're looking at 3 Phase cabling upgrades... is find out what your 3 Phase cabling options are, because there are more than one option.

Different cable sizes, different cutout capacity (80 Amps, 100 Amps, 200 Amps etc).

Some Domestic Smart Meters may not work, a risk being only commercial smart meters can be fitted without Domestic dual-rate tariffs...

So ask lots of questions before you dig up your street.

 

[WannabeOwner]

3-phase is likely a costly upgrade for us

They are some exceptions - I think over-60 can get a freebie upgrade, for example. Worth asking, just in case there is a special-offer that you fit