Zappi, Tesla, sunshine... and a bit of Home Assistant!

When I installed my solar system, I replaced my old car charger with a Zappi. Why? Why is it different from other car chargers? What might you need to consider if using it with a car like the Tesla? And why did I want to tie it into my home automation system?

[@user-fh1bt5ez6r]

The most comprehensive Zappi guide on KZbin. Excellent.

[@nicolaarmaroli202]

You are a great teacher. With this video I understood MUCH better than reading the Zappi instruction manual. Thank you Quentin from Italy!

[@patrickgleeson3977]

We are about to install solar and buy an EV vehicle. Your video didn't just inform succinctly, it inspired! A future video on your Home Assistant integration and 'script' would be awesome.

[@jimwood9849]

As everyone before me has said, an excellent, easy to understand Zappi tutorial.

[@jai2607]

I have just had a Zappi installed but was totally baffled by it's operation. This is a brilliant instruction guide!!! Well done and thank you 😁

[@lonrorow7571]

Yes thank you so much - very helpful and clear instruction. The best I have seen (much better than Zappi manual....).

[@karenjohnson8625]

Love this you made it so easy to understand ! Thank you

[@rbettsx]

Thank you, Quentin. Getting past the sales guff from even the best -intentioned companies to the real world limitations and logic of these systems has been utterly exhausting.

[@paullister7293]

Really helpful, I have had a Zappi for over a year and hadn’t worked out how to use it properly, especially eco and boost settings. Much clearer now, thank you. 😊

[@veqlargh81]

This is a proper review of charger!

[@robortkristensen3818]

Thanks for a comprehensive video of this great charging unit

[@johnogrady2024]

Well presented and thorough lesson thank you gorgeous magnolia btw 😊

[@inferno4419]

What an excellent video, very well explained and presented. Thank you.

[@dr3wster]

Really great production value - easy to follow and packed with useful information. Thank you 👍

[@michelleflint8389]

This was super helpful. Thanks for making this 😊

[@terryrigden4860]

Very informative thanks

[@ster2600]

This is awesome!

[@user-dx4jw8pg6m]

Well done! Kind of the setup I want when I get an electric car. I was also thinking, if you have a dumb charger, you can maybe still achieve similar results by letting home assistant control the start/stop cycle of your car charging based on solar output or in a Tesla I think you can control how much power it draws.

[@quentinsf]

Hi - yes, you could do quite a lot that way, but it has some challenges too. Have a look at the comment by @UKenGB earlier and my responses. It would be interesting to try, though...

[@terrorbear7]

This was phenomenally good.

[@jeroenpruissen1245]

WHAUW, That was an interesting video. It would be great if you can help us how to setup home assistant like this. If you have some time it will be a great help for many people! But for now a big thank you!

[@vahagnmelikyan2906]

Everyone talks about zappi solar, but nobody has so far talked about how does it interact with solar panel.

[@HarveyTempAirSolutions]

Very clear information. Thanks.

[@shapourhariri4720]

Excellent video - very helpful

[@richardwalker_]

Nice HA use case. There are indeed more Home Assistant users out here!

[@XStrikeSuper]

Amazing video!

[@andytrewin]

Excellent video ~ Thank you ~ KR AndyT.

[@brookejonny]

Hi Quentin. Great video and love your setup! Please can you explain how your zappi & car know not to draw power from your batteries, as my understanding was that they can't tell the difference between the DC coupled batteries and the grid, unless you have found a solution to this? Thank you in advance and looking forward to more videos like this!

[@quentinsf]

Hi - yes, this is a challenge, and there are a couple of different ways you can deal with it. The way I did it was to have the charger (or the whole garage, in my case) split off the incoming supply BEFORE the whole world that the inverter knows about. So when the inverter thinks it is exporting to the grid, it's actually exporting to the-garage-plus-the-grid! (The CT clamp for the inverter is not on the actual incoming supply; it's on the supply after the garage has been split off.) The inverter is configured never to export battery to the grid, so it also never exports it to the garage. It will, however, export excess solar. The Zappa's CT monitors the whole house *including* the garage, so it knows when I'm *really* exporting to the grid, and can kick in to capture the excess solar. This works well, though it has two downsides you should know about: the first is that it may require some re-wiring. That was easy in my case because the garage was on a separate breaker on the main board and the installers could just shift some wires about. Also, if I want to change the way I do this in future, I can just shift the relevant CT clamps. The second downside is that if you have a restriction on the amount of solar you can export - here in the UK the default is typically 3.6kW - and that's programmed into the inverter , then that's also the max your inverter will export to the garage, so you can't charge your car *from solar* faster than that, even if you have more excess solar available. (I got my limit increased to 5kW for this reason). Hope this helps - I should write a blog post about this since you're not the first to ask! But this might also help: support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/10066139366161-Hybrid-Battery-Installation-Alternative-Connection-Arrangements Quentin

[@tomnolf3028]

This is really interesting Quentin. Thanks for showing your system. I have a similar set up with photovoltaic, batteries, Tesla and zappi and was thinking about setting up a dashboard with Home Assistant and automating charge modes and charge levels but scripting it is quite complex. Would love to see your config files. Would it be willing to share them?

[@quentinsf]

Very happy to, in theory, though it's all rather specific to my system - I have an early version on github but it's very out of date. Will try to fix that soon and post back here...

[@tomnolf3028]

That would be fantastic to have as a starting point@@quentinsf! Much appreciated!

[@mikejoseph425]

It becomes a little more complicated when used in conjunction with Octopus intelligent which is supposed to charge your ev during on peak at off peak prices if Octopus has spare capacity. I cannot get the thing to work though, so perhaps with your ability you can investigate and come up with an answer. I do have a SunSynk Hybrid Inverter and Zappi ev charge point

[@HarveyTempAirSolutions]

Hi I have the same set up and find that during Off peak at night the charger will not add charge even when it’s set to scheduled boost during Off peak. It states “charge delayed” on the zappi. This is the same even if set to fast or eco+ modes? Any ideas? Thanks.

[@shiro5392]

Hi Quentin. Great review! Probably the most detailed on KZbin of the Zappi. Do you know if you can boost override a scheduled charge while even in say, dumb mode and you have it schedule to only charge at night but want to top up? Also with a Tesla, do you have any tricks besides the app, to unlock the charge port? Or is getting into the car really the only other way besides the app? As I'm wondering if someone with only the key card would be capable of easily removing it from charge on a Tesla, without having to open up the car and get in every single time. Weird idea I had too recently. If you have a battery for your solar panels and wanted to maximize cheap energy too and the battery wasn't getting full use. Couldn't you have something in addition to your car or also when your car didn't need anymore charge that night. Draw maximum power from the grid to charge your battery during that short 1/4 reduced price time period and with a big enough battery use that throughout the day in addition to solar? Though I'm sure it wouldn't be 100% of use unless you're on 3 phase an unreasonably amount of battery storage.

[@quentinsf]

Hi there - sorry for the delay - I've been away for a bit! Lots of questions there... a few quick answers: Yes, if you have a scheduled boost at night, you can still do a manual boost during the day. I do that sometimes because the four hours of cheap power I have scheduled is only enough for about a third of a full recharge. If I need to top up more than about 100 miles in one night, I use a boost as well. You can get key fobs for the Tesla; I'm not sure if they'll unlock the charge port. If you have an actual Tesla charger, there's a button on the charging cable handle that opens the port. And it's possible to get the electronics from a third party which will do the same thing, if you want to build it into a handle of your own. Personally, I use my phone, but via a widget on the control panel that makes it very quick to do. And yes, I do have a battery in the house that I charge up each night on the cheap power, and a combination of that and solar normally gets me through the day. If you're keen you can see more about my overall system here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iprKZGh-eLGnY9U All the best, Quentin

[@alaninman3318]

Excellent video, only just come across it Oct 23. Quentin thank you so much for putting the time into producing it and for a very well explained run through of the Zappi. I am just about to order one to replace my dumb charger. Do you also have a battery as well as solar and if so does this add to the various options the Zappi has to offer? Thanks once again.

[@quentinsf]

Thanks Alan - glad you like it. Yes, I do have batteries, and my configuration doesn't directly affect how the Zappi works -- it can, if you have an AC-coupled battery, but I don't. It did, however, affect how I wired the house up. There's more info here if wanted: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6qzqoucqLNprZI and if you're really keen, a detailed description of my overall installation here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iprKZGh-eLGnY9Usi=F8rrwEIMFR9_dtWm All the best, Quentin

[@asiw]

I have tried to avoid Home Assistant in the past because I like Node-Red but seeing your power and Tesla setup has changed my mind. Can you point me to the Tesla integration? Many thanks Arthur

[@quentinsf]

Hi Arthur - I'm using this one: github.com/alandtse/tesla/ It's worth noting that lots of people do use Node-Red with Home Assistant; it's an easy-to-configure add-on, if you prefer writing automations that way, and I think it's pretty well integrated with the various entities that HA provides. Q

[@UKenGB]

All very interesting, but have to ask. Why not just continue with a 'dumb' charger and control it all through HA? I'm all for an integrated system and HA can provide that, but it gets fragmented when you have to include the Zappi app. Surely it would be simpler to create and control the entire schedule in HA?

[@quentinsf]

Hi Ken - Yes, that's quite appealing, isn't it? But I think the main limitation would be that, unlike dumb chargers, the Zappi is not just an on/off switch: it can provide variable charging rates. This is important when you want only to use your excess solar, for example, rather than the full 7kW. (I think I talk about the same issue with the Eddi immersion-heater controller in one of my other videos: it's basically a big dimmer switch!) So, for example, as the clouds pass over the sun, or as I briefly consume lots of power elsewhere to make a cup of tea, the Zappi can increase, reduce or stop the charging and then restart it again afterwards. Through Home Assistant, I do have some visibility of things like the Tesla state of charge, and I also have a certain amount of control over the charging rate through the current that the car is set to draw from the supply, but it's not nearly as much control as the Zappi gives, and (because it depends on when the car happens to talk to the cloud), these things can't be monitored or updated very promptly or frequently. Now, if I wanted a bigger project, I could probably build something interesting around OpenEVSE, and control it locally... 🙂 Q

[@UKenGB]

​@@quentinsf Aha, OpenEVSE, now you're talking. 😀 The one EVSE I have already installed is one of those. How well can those be integrated into HA? I am in the process of looking into all this and not got there yet. The trouble with using the EVSE for any of this, like schedules etc is that it gets problematic with more than one EVSE. You end up having to set them all up individually, and then any modifications to the setup have to be duplicated to each and so on. If you want any variation to suit different cars, that would have to be locked in to the EVSE. So each car would always have to connect to a specific EVSE which is not great IMO and certainly not how I want it. So I really want dumb EVSEs, all controlled from HA. Schedules set up only once in HA and then ideally be able to detect which car was connected to which EVSE and apply the correct schedule to suit the car. Would like to also use HA to handle solar, batteries etc. but that may well require a proprietary app. 😕 Basically, I want HA to control everything as it's one interface to deal with and I get control over how that interface appears and operates. Also, it is NOT dependent on Internet connectivity. Not that I have a problem with my Internet connection (FTTP is fantastic), but I don't want to be reliant on anyone else's servers controlling my home. They do NOT have my best interests at heart and can introduce unwanted changes, change their mind about ongoing support or even go out of business at any time. I'm not yet sure about which EVSE is best suited for that though.

[@matthewtaylor3351]

Can the % of solar be adjusted remotely via an app? It would be nice to adjust the % of solar when I’m away from the house.

[@quentinsf]

Yes, there's a slider in the app to change the percentage. You can perhaps see it if you manage to stop the video at 12:42. It's not very well labelled on the screen, though; you have to know what it's for!

[@nikelliot8105]

Great review! We have Zappi 2 and Tesla Powerwall 2. We are on intelligent octopus and find the battery discharges to charge the car if a charge session is set by octopus outside the normal 11:30 - 5:30 cheap rate. Obvious thing would be to put the Zappi upstream of the battery but then you lose the ability to charge car off solar. Could Home Automation be configured to address this? Thanks👍

[@quentinsf]

Hi Nik - This is one of the reasons I've stuck to Octopus Go - the Intelligent stuff gets quite hard to manage! And I don't know enough about the Powerwall to know what's possible there, I'm afraid. I DO have a video explaining how I wired my system to avoid this, if that's at all relevant for your system? kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6qzqoucqLNprZI Quentin

[@mikejoseph425]

I realise this video is 10 months old but is it not more profitable to export solar at 15p rather than charge your car with solar which saves the off peak tariff of 7p?

[@quentinsf]

Hi Mike - if you can get those tariffs, then yes! When I first got this installed, my off-peak rate was 10p and my export rate was 5p. Now, I pay 9p for off-peak and get 8p for export, so there's less value in things like diverting power to my car or immersion heater, but still a very little bit. But I don't regret having the flexibility to do that, because Octopus have various special deals here where they'll sometimes give you free power for a couple of hours on windy days (I'm in one of those 'Power Ups' right now, so everything's charging and heating!) and other 'Saving sessions' where the grid load is high and you can get £2 or more per kWh if you can export. To make best use of these, of course, does require a certain amount of automation... I must do another video soon!

[@stevenlyhne1]

Thanks for your video. How would you preheat your battery for a timed departure using a Zappi?

[@quentinsf]

Ah - that's a very good question... It would be hard to do AUTOMATICALLY if you're using the Zappi the way I'm using it. I have a scheduled boost in the middle of the night, and my Zappi is in ECO+ mode so it's effectively off at other times, unless there's excess solar. You'd need to tell the car to preheat the battery, and make sure the Zappi was supplying power at the same time... but you can only set one Scheduled boost time per day on the Zappi. So if you're already using that in the middle of the night, you can't also have, say, an early morning boost to coincide with your preheating. In my case, I could script it using Home Assistant -- switching the Zappi into Fast Mode at the right time and then reverting to ECO+ at other times. Otherwise, I think you might have to leave the Zappi in Fast mode and rely on scheduling in the car... but that does mean you can't take such good advantage of excess solar if you have it.

[@user-uu8mp2uq2n]

Very new to all this and not technically savvy. My question is when you speak of the charger making use of the electricity being generated by solar does this also include that solar saved in the battery?

[@quentinsf]

Hi Roger - well, that's certainly possible, but in general I don't want to do that, because the car battery is a lot bigger than the house battery, so you could easily drain the house while charging the car and leave nothing for the house to use. How easy it is to control this depends a lot on your system, but if you're interested, I made a video about how I avoid this on my system here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/n6qzqoucqLNprZI And there's a more general introduction to my whole installation here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iprKZGh-eLGnY9U Hope those help a bit! Quentin

[@rubenconzales9718]

Thanks. Is your HA integration with Zappi through local network or cloud based?

[@quentinsf]

It does go via the cloud, sadly. But otherwise works well. More details here: github.com/cjne/ha-myenergi

[@maruda80]

Thank you for your video. Can you tell me if you had to replace your charger main cable as well. I have a Rolec charger at the moment, and i also have solar panel. I want to replace my current Rolec charger with a Zappi, but i am wondering if electrician can just replace charger unit, or if there is a need to replace a cable that runs around the house into the fuse board. I hope that makes sense🤔

[@maruda80]

And I have a blue Tesla too 😮

[@quentinsf]

Hi Thomas - well, you should check with an electrician, but in general I would expect the Zappi to work fine with the existing cabling - mine did! (The v2 Zappi also has some circuitry which means that, unlike many chargers, it doesn't need a special earthing stake.) So I'd be surprised if you needed new wires. Best, Quentin

[@SteveEdson12]

Really helpful, how are you integrating the Zappi into home assistant, and can you share your dashboard + scripts please?

[@quentinsf]

There’s a Myenergi plugin at github.com/CJNE/ha-myenergi Sorry - away from base at present but will dig out other stuff in a couple of weeks. Quentin

[@billmarsden8602]

@@quentinsf Very interesting and informative. I've just installed Home Assistant with the MyEnergi plugin and would be very keen to be enlightened with your impressive dashboard and the scripts which make it all work. I'm finding it extremely slow progress trying to make the plugin of real use in HA. Thanks. Bill

[@quentinsf]

It's worth noting that the bits where I show HA controlling the target charging levels are interactions with the Tesla, though, not the Zappi...

[@billmarsden8602]

@@quentinsf Ah. Ta for that. I'm not sure there is any way for HA to interact with my Hyundai Ioniq.

[@quentinsf]

@@billmarsden8602 There seems to be some work going on - a quick Google took me to this: community.home-assistant.io/t/hyundai-bluelink-integration/319129

[@PaulHolmes-gg7kg]

Thank you this is great. On your home assistant you say you are able to set the car to 100% charge when needed. A question if I may. Can the Tesla in this case not be left at 100% but use the Zappi to control the % the car has or does the Zappi scheduled boost for example put in 80% (if that’s what you have set) regardless of what charge the car already has? So if Zappi is set to 80% and the car already has 20% you will end up with 100% or will Zappi only add 60% to get to its total? Hope that makes sense.

[@quentinsf]

Hi Paul - good question, but no, the Zappi doesn’t know anything about how much charge the car has (unlike rapid chargers, which can find out the percentage). So it can control how much it’s adding, but it doesn’t know the starting point. I could automate that in Home Assistant, if I knew that I wanted the car charged to 85%, say, but I haven’t tried because the reports I get from the Tesla into HA about charging status don’t update very frequently or reliably. If either of them provided a good non-cloud API with more regular updates, things might be different! Best, Q

[@PaulHolmes-gg7kg]

@@quentinsf thank you so much, super clear.

[@quentinsf]

Oh, and just to clarify, the *scheduled* boost on the Zappi sets an amount of *time*, not an amount of charge to add.

[@TheHiphopast]

What is this thing? Well its look like urinal and i think all men need one.