Charge from solar???

[Lucero]

None of this works unless you are utilising an export tariff otherwise the CT clamps won't see the export charge and sit there doing nothing.

To generate 1.4Kw you need 5x300w panels (minimum). Even then, this is not going to charge the car if other daytime demands exist on the property. Added to that are the fact that 1.5Kw from solar is slower than a granny plug which will technically use the solar energy anyway, plus a little from the grid, without needing to faff with the charger apps and avoid connect/disconnects

The added dilemma is, moving to an export tariff to make use of the solar energy during the day (assuming the car is at home and charging), or going with something like Intelligent Octopus for the 6 hours free overnight charge.

[RichR]

You can export and have Octopus Intelligent at the same time, that's not a problem. Charging the car is not the primary objective - not exporting to the grid is. So my car sits plugged in to the Zappi whenever it's parked at home. If it happens to be sunny enough that we've got 1.5kW or more excess (I have seen it pushing over 3.1kW to the car) then rather than 'wasting' it to the grid, it's topping up the car. Only if the car is full does anything go to the grid.

Also if you have house batteries in the mix, then you don't want to be discharging those by charging the car, which you would if you used a simple charger that can't sense that there's surplus. So for me, the solar charges the house batteries and supplies most of the household loads, then when the house batteries are full, the car charges. With a little foresight I can make sure the car is at 80% ready for the weekend purely off surplus solar. If I need more then I can charge on off-peak overnight at 7.2kW.

[Lucero]

You can export and have Octopus Intelligent at the same time, that's not a problem. Charging the car is not the primary objective - not exporting to the grid is. So my car sits plugged in to the Zappi whenever it's parked at home. If it happens to be sunny enough that we've got 1.5kW or more excess (I have seen it pushing over 3.1kW to the car) then rather than 'wasting' it to the grid, it's topping up the car. Only if the car is full does anything go to the grid.

Also if you have house batteries in the mix, then you don't want to be discharging those by charging the car, which you would if you used a simple charger that can't sense that there's surplus. So for me, the solar charges the house batteries and supplies most of the household loads, then when the house batteries are full, the car charges. With a little foresight I can make sure the car is at 80% ready for the weekend purely off surplus solar. If I need more then I can charge on off-peak overnight at 7.2kW.

Actually, I don't think you can anymore. If you sign up for Outgoing Octopus (and you already have IO) it says the tariff you are choosing is not compatible.

[RichR]

We must have been lucky then