GivEnergy EV Charger: Unboxing + First Look In The Wild!
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Yes it really does exist! I'm going to give you a quick tour of the new GivEnergy EV Charger. We'll take a look at what's in the box, have a close up look inside the unit itself, get it all installed, and then run through the available features.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:24 Unboxing
02:58 Inside the charger
04:53 Installation day
07:12 EM115 energy meter
08:15 Plug holder
08:38 Functions and features - Авто та транспорт
Current GivTCP (local control) status: 2023-10-07 - in development, basic read functionality is in the beta branch.
Just having mine installed and the vidieo answered more questions than the installers could. Thanks!
Glad it helped!
yo! you created well content- ))
Excellent overview Oliver. I've been waiting for this ev charger ever since my GE solar kit was installed 18 months ago so it's good to see it at last although with winter coming and the change in Octopus export, its negated the solar diversion need somewhat. It will be nice to have it all under the same ecosystem though so I'll be getting one of these installed next year sometime.
BTW, we won't tell Mrs Geek about you unloading the kit onto the lovely dining table. 🤫
Haha it’s ok, she rarely watches my videos. Something about them being boring.
Boring? Is she watching the same videos?
Before you comment asking "when is it going to be released??", please understand that I don't know! All I know is what's been published by GivEnergy on social media and that they have hinted at a big announcement event very soon. Very, very soon...!
Great video as usual - thanks. We currently have a Rolec wall charge point with a Type 1 connector because we own a Mitsubushi PHEV. Is there any reason why when the installation takes place that the Type 1 lead can be removed from the Rolec and fitted to the GivEnergy wall charger? Yes I know you can get adapters but trying to avoid the multi-plug issue. Appreciate any feedback.
I wouldn’t know that one sorry, it might be something you’d have to ask GivEnergy directly. I do know the cable is easy enough to replace but I don’t know if a type 1 connector directly wired to it would work.
Hi, great video.
Was it straight forward to install the RCBO and meter into the gateway?
Did you buy this as a kit from GE, as I presume you needed links for the bus bar etc
I paid an installer to do it all properly for me, but yes it was straightforward and the wires were crimped with ferrules so as they could connect to the busbar easily.
An interesting option on this charge point is the ability to adjust the fast charge rate down from a max of 7.5 kwhs although unless my heatpump cooker and all else was working I can’t really see why I’d use it. Perhaps you can?
Some people are using that feature on certain chargers to game the intelligent octopus tariff, or perhaps you only want to gently charge the car over several hours without taxing your cabling, but the main reason for the rate customisation is because the solar and hybrid modes use it automatically, so why not make it available for manual control too?
Great to see it finally in the wild and out with a real user for testing. Given how long it’s taken to reach the marketplace I hope that the internal testing has been more comprehensive than the AIO which quite a few people on the GivEnergy forum have reported soc issues with.
Do you know if it supports (or has a plan to support) V2G? That for me would be a real game changer, the ability to use your EV as a massive additional home storage battery
It will never be able to support V2G as it does t contain an inverter and neither does it have any of the isolation and safety systems needed to support V2G, that capability is 10-20 years away.
I've not heard anything about V2G sorry but I would love that feature too. I think it might need specialist hardware though. In terms of the AIO, I have that and yes, there have been a few SOC issues which were resolved in the last firmware for me. It's important to remember with those SOC issues though that even though the SOC might have suddenly dropped from 30%-4%, you aren't actually getting any less energy out of the battery, it's just that its estimated charge state was out of sync and it suddenly caught up when it realised. It's quite a tricky bit of maths to get an accurate SOC from a battery given varying environmental conditions. That said, I have had no SOC jump issues with my AIO since the last update.
@@G6EJD20 years 😂
So a couple of years ago, I was told by someone "in the know" that CCS can do AC V2G but that Chademo had some legal hold on V2G until 2025... we will have to wait and see...
@@edwardpickering9006 to achieve V2G there has to be an inverter the size of a typical house Solar or battery inverter and located either in the vehicle or house, then the DC from the battery can be used to supply either AC to the house or grid. Clearly the EV will not house the inverter and so extensive safety requirements have to be built into the property (high voltage DC from batteries), so it’s not even remotely viable and nothing to do with the connectors as that is just the interface.
HOWdy S-t-t-G, ...
Thanks for the UN-BOXING & Review ...
COOP ...
the WiSeNhEiMeR from Richmond, INDIANA ...
...
Wow! If they allow local control my Zappi will get the boot as soon as I can get hold of the GivEnergy charger.
Local control via Home Assistant (or another MQTT compatible home automation solution) is definitely going to happen. It's partially there already in the GivTCP beta.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Fantastic! I am sure there are no technical limitations that would prevent local control. It is normally the manufacturer that restricts the access for whatever reasons. Usually a misguided desire of collecting user data.
Looks good. Any idea it it integrates with Octopus Agile or if there are plans for it to work with Intelligent Octopus?
All of the back-end controls are in place ready for it to work with Octopus, I'm told that it's currently with Octopus to do their side of the integration with their tariffs.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
This is correct. Waiting on Octopus
Now officially launched and available from suppliers, but not a word on the Octopus Intelligent Go or Agile pages that it is compatible. Until this is sorted, looks like Ohme is Octopus' favourite child!
Can you set the charger to never draw energy from the house storage battery under one of the settings?
Not at the moment but the feature has been requested
It will have a mode were you can set how much percentage of solar goes to the battery and the EV charger, this will stop pulling from the battery.
The one thing I want to know is how tight the integration is with the existing GivEnergy kit. For example does it now not lump eV charging in with home load? And if you have your batteries set to solar charge only, will the charger only pull from the grid? (No battery drain) or you still have to set the batteries to charge at the same time
If you tell the charger to pull from the grid it will, but if you set it to solar or hybrid mode it will limit itself to either excess solar only or solar + battery at 1.4kW minimum. Full inverter control being tested currently, can see the options in the app.
It really depends how you set it up / connect it up. I have it wired to the grid side of my gateway which means that my AIO can see it and can output power to it. I do also set it to charge the car off-peak at the same time as the battery, this is standard for any battery / charger combo. If your batteries are set to not discharge (so Eco mode is off) then it will not discharge to the charger or your home either, so I don't think this is what you'd intend to happen? If you want to charge your car from the grid during peak and not drain your battery, you will need to pause your battery first at least at the moment. I know that all sorts of control scenarios are being worked on and tested in the background with your battery inverter being able to control everything. Exactly how far that will go in terms of functionality I don't know yet though.
Basically I’m thinking along the lines of what myenergi have been able to do with the libbi. Just one tick and the charger is effectively “ignored” by the battery (so the battery keeps powering the house etc, but doesn’t send anything to the charger). So you can leave the GE battery set to solar charge only. I really want to see this as it’s the point of a total ecosystem…
Not at this stage it's not possible, it would require dynamic adjustment of the battery output to match the load. I know that people have done this using Home Assistant and non-GivEnergy EV chargers so it's entirely possible, and it's likely this will be a feature coming soon as part of the various inverter control automations I've heard are being worked on. You can of course wire the charger totally outside of the inverter monitoring so as it never sees it, but that would be less flexible than a software option. The scenario you are suggesting though is not one that I've ever had the need for in my 3 years of EV ownership. If I'm charging at peak, I might as well drain from the battery too because it's not like it's going to cost me any more as my overall usage remains the same, but if you have dynamic tariffs then I guess the situation could be different.
This is my unique point to buy the produce, I also have AIO with GW and I’m quite surprised that functionality isn’t there at launch as that for me was the USP of staying in the eco system. I shouldn’t have to mess around in HA as it clearly should be a native control, especially as the invertor can see the loads required.
Really undecided either this givenergy or zappi charger.i want to install givenergy all in one future but i just don’t like how the cable wraps around the givenergy ev charger compared to zappi.how do you find the wrapping of the cable around givenergy ev does it look tidy
I was a bit unsure at first about that but you get used to it - it coils around it quite neatly if you get the twist right.
Hi can you change settings to only allow charger to charge ev to 80% only?
No, like all home chargers that I know of it can’t see the car’s state of charge. You can tell it an energy limit to put in, so if you know your car’s capacity then a bit of maths would tell you how much to put in to get to a particular percentage
I was given a free BP Pulse charger with an electric car purchase but it no longer recognises charging schedules (everything to do with BP Pulse is terrible!!)
I have a GivEnergy battery and "box" along with a solaredge "box" with optimisers on the panels - I don't know how it all works together but assume one of these chargers would work with the GivEnergy stuff?
Yeah it would work fine with all of your kit - it could be wired into your GivEnergy inverter allowing that to control it, or it can be totally separate (the inverter would still be happy with that)
In the video you did the setup yourself - is this standard? You've got an AIO/GW and so have I, is there anything special needed on the AIO-side aside from the EM114/RCD being installed or do they operate as separate units?
I was worried that if I got the Giv EV from somewhere else other than my original installer it would need someone to take over the whole system and recommission it - do you know if that's the case or not?
I don't know how the official setup process will work when released, but if you already have a GivEnergy account then I imagine the setup process is possibly easier for a user to do it themselves once it's powered on. It was a pretty easy process to do, but I'm sure there will be installer guidelines released at launch though. As far as the AIO goes, both systems are totally standalone really - I've just used the gateway's empty RCD and meter slots for it. The link between the AIO and EV charger is being worked on using cloud-control to start with from what I'm aware of, but it will be possible to hardware link them too for faster response times. The commission process for the EV charger is different to that of a battery system, so I very much doubt that a charger installer would need to take over an existing battery system. Certainly that wasn't the case for me.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thanks. I’m pretty competent in Giv stuff now seeing as I ended up educating my installer but it’s good to hear it will probably be a “self install” type setup on the software side.
@@BlackCountryLad that’s the same for any EV charge point installation. We are only talking about the software commissioning here.
@@jonathanthomson5000 the commissioning is done on your Givenergy account within the app.
What GivEnergy integration are you using with Home Assistant?
Any info would be greatly appreciated..
Make sure you’re subscribed and you’ll find out tomorrow :)
Looking forward to the release, hopefully do away with my granny charger and GO and get on IO. With my large array can see charging my Jeep purely from solar with no DC/AC conversion save even more money.
There will still be DC/AC conversions as this is an AC charger the same as all (to my knowledge) home chargers.
Technically is there a reason why they don’t make a DC hybrid charger ? My home batteries are DC /DC charging wouldn’t it make sense?
I’m not sure, but it’s probably to do with the complexity. It would require a special solar or battery inverter that had a DC pass through of some sort, and it would have to use CCS not standard type 2 into your car. I think the cost of such a solution is likely to outweigh any savings at the moment. Perhaps when the tech is cheaper it might start to make sense
Can you specify not to use the home battery at all when charging car? I only have a 5.2kwh for the house and I would like to not use any of that energy while car charging
Right now that depends on how you have it wired up - if you wire it outside the CT clamp used for your inverter then your battery will never see it and can't discharge to it. If you want it managed dynamically via software though then that feature is coming soon I'm told. Personally, it's not a feature I use as I never charge at peak time, so off-peak both my battery and car are charged at the same time so battery discharge to the car never happens.
not being a EV owner at the moment, my question is, will it lock itself to prevent someone unplugging the charge and plugging it into there EV and also can you turn it off, when it is not in use ?
Yes, it locks into the car (I think the car actually does the locking, but you can lock/unlock it from your app). And yes you can power it off when not in use if you install an isolation switch, or flip the RCD it's on. Having had a charger for 3 years, this has never been something I've considered. If you're concerned about other people coming along and using it, you can disable 'plug&go' which means it won't work for casual plugging in and will only respond to charge schedules you set up. You could also enable the RFID tags which means you have to tap a tag to charge it. Many ways to secure it if you want to.
You can switch off plug and go. Auto start when plugged in
Then start from the App, or RFID tag
I recently had a GivEnergy gateway and GivEnergy EV charger installed, but they didn’t fit an EM115 meter. What does this meter do and is it a problem if the meter is missing from the setup? Where the meter should be, instead there is a MCG BM1P blank. Please help…
If you have a GivEnergy gateway / battery system already then you don't necessarily need a meter because it can be configured to talk to your existing kit. The meter is intended to watch the grid feed so as it knows whether there is export to divert or if there's too much import and it needs to throttle. Your GivEnergy battery system should be doing that already so provides that functionality. I have a meter, I am in Configuration C as shown on the second page of the manual (givenergy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/UK-Installation-Manual-EV-Charger.pdf). Hopefully you will be in Configuration D. I personally don't think Configuration A and B are a good idea because there's no way to automatically reduce the charger speed if you near your fuse limit, or detect exported solar if you have panels.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTechThank you for your insight. As well as the all in one system, we have a GivEnergy gen3 hybrid inverter. The hybrid inverter is on a separate GivEnergy account from the Gateway and 13.5kWh battery. Taking your advice I looked at the EV configuration and found it was set in A or B mode GRID only. I have switched the configuration to D mode and then selected hybrid. This won’t drain my 13.5kW battery will it? The installer guy setting up the system spent more than half a day connecting the equipment to the internet. So when it came to adding the EV I don’t think he could be bothered anymore. In the meantime, we have left space to potentially add a 9.5kWh battery to the hybrid inverter. The hybrid inverter account does not know the Gateway exists. What needs to be done to make this odd two battery configuration work or would you advise against even trying? Thank again… Mark
Does the eV charger use show up on the battery energy graphs separately or is it still lumped into home load?
It depends on how you have it wired up. For me, it’s seen as load by the all in one because it’s wired after the CT clamp, but if you wire it before your inverter’s CT clamp then the battery can never know about it
Is it just lumped as house load though or does it separate it?
Both. If you’re looking at the inverter energy and the charger is wired on the load side, then yes. But it’s still viewable separately to the house load
Good video thanks . I hope it will work with my model 3 as at the moment my zappi does not like the Tesla and will not schedule charge without problems. Tesla tell me to only use the Tesla app.
I know that somebody else on the beta has a Model 3 and it works fine for them.
I've got a Tesla and a Giv charger, zero issues
Does this Ev charger support Intelligent Octopus Go Integration. ?
Octopus are being regularly chased by GivEnergy to add support for it - It supports the necessary standards for Octopus to get it working but they are working through a number of different manufacturers. I'm hoping they get around to it very soon because I want that too!
All give energy needs now is a Eddi equivalent 😮
That is a gap in their portfolio, but honestly the more battery storage I get, the less useful a diverter for hot water is. I generally end up boosting at full power from the battery using my Eddi anyway when we need evening showers
Why does the GivEnergy EV Charger need an EM114 energy meter? Is this instead of CT clamps?
It is instead of just a CT clamp - the EM115 has a CT clamp attached to it and it allows for much faster responses to the changes in current than most EV chargers can manage. It also enables direct wired EV charger to battery/solar inverter communication too.
Hey @@SpeakToTheGeekTech, Thaks for sharing. Do you know if the EV charger needs a seperate CT clamp from the inverter or can they use the same.
The EV charger connects to an EM115, and the EM115 has a CT clamp. I think there might be plans for the charger to share an EM115 with the one used by GivEnergy inverter, but that's not a feature I've got much information on. To be honest, I'd work on needing a separate EM115/CT clamp combo per device.
Yes it does work....😜
When will this unit be compatible with Octopus intelligent go??
That's the million-dollar question :) Still waiting - it's technically compatible, but we are waiting for Octopus to add it to their supported devices. They have it in their R&D service at the moment (been there about three months I think so far) so must be testing it in the background.
Thank you
I assume it has PEN. Fold (sp?) protection? I.e doesn’t require an earth rod?
Yup, correct
Hi, i currently have an EV charger and its only about 16 months old. I am about to have a solar install and GivEnergy inverter and battery. My question is is it a super easy job for an electrician to just take the old box off and use all the existing cable etc? I was quoted £700 for install by the solar company and that didnt include the price of the charger!!! Many thanks
Is £700 just for the install of the a new GivEnergy charger? That sounds expensive if existing wiring is being used.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Yes thats what i was told, im not paying that it daylight robbery. Hopefully when the sparky is here doing the install i will just ask him direct if he can do it and i will pay him direct.
Any mention of V2H capabilities? Given the AIO/Gateway are very specifically marketed as having this capability it would make sense - but I don't take it as a given!
No mention of that sorry, but from what I know of that it requires very specific bidirectional hardware and cars that support it too. As much as I would love that feature I don’t think there’s any consumer offering yet in the UK at all. There was an Octopus trial using old Nissan Leafs once but nothing I’ve heard of since.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech thank you for the insights. I'm even more perplexed that the AIO is specifically marketed with V2H given how apparently niche/complicated it is!
The AIO isn't marketed with v2h as far as I'm aware, where have you seen that mentioned?
Good review :-) Cant wait for these to be available, Granny charging is getting tiresome....
Shouldn't be long I reckon. There have been hints on social media about a big announcement soon.
Yeah, at the Solar and Storage live at the NEC I believe.@@SpeakToTheGeekTech
Had mine installed and it keeps going offline, is your GivEnergy EV charger connected using a 2.4ghz network which isn't mentioned in the manual or on the unit itself? 😡
Mine is hard wired using an Ethernet cable. There is a bug in the 1.07 firmware which can cause it to go offline, 1.10 was released a couple of weeks ago. Also, there are issues if you are using GivTCP to manage the charger through something like Home Assistant that can cause it to drop offline. Of course, it could just be that your wifi signal at that location is weak?
I really regret selecting GivEnergy, poor product software design and support is below par. Had a faulty DOA inverter and issues since 😢
I just discovered that my installers did not fit the EM115 meter, thus not being able to charge from excess solar! Mind you would help if the Sun came out more 🙂
Do you have a GivEnergy inverter too? If so, you can put the charger into Configuration Mode D which will talk via the cloud to your inverter and enable solar divert. Give GivEnergy support a call and they can talk you through that if you want to give it a try.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I have the GE AIO and a separate Gen3 5kW used just as a solar / string inverter (no battery)
Excellent, so probably the AIO is the best one to link it with because it's most likely to be monitoring your grid via the gateway, but provided that either inverter is able to see your grid feed between the meter and your charger (so it would see excess and the load from the charger) then config D will work. You are best speaking to GivEnergy directly to get it working though because the multiple inverter situation could make it complicated to set up yourself.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I have asked my installer to fit a meter. I think its absence is causing other issues, and as you and they say, it should be fitted
Yup, then you can use Config C (what I use) which doesn't rely on anything else
I agree, the music is distracting.
Distracting you from my massive nose and Brummie accent??
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech I like to concentrate on what you’re saying, no big deal.
Sad to learn that it only works in solar charging mode with a GivEnergy inverter. Unfortunately learned this the hard way 😢
That's not true. I have a SolarEdge inverter. The EV charger monitors your grid using a CT clamp connected to an EM115 energy monitor and can react very quickly, diverting anything from 1.4kW to 7.2kW to the car. I've used it quite a few times.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech well hopefully it can be sorted out then as currently have it installed with the GEM120CT energy monitor (their own version of the EM115) and it doesn't work at all in solar mode. This was from their customer services after many emails "I believe with your inverter you wouldn't be able to benefit from the solar generation due to it not being one of our inverters. so unfortunately the only charging option you will have is via grid."
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech Can I ask, where is your CT clamp located? Main incoming tails or solar tails?
@@AdamAugustPhoto The mains incoming tails, it has to monitor your grid connection so as it knows whether you are exporting or not, and therefore if there's excess power to divert. Putting a CT clamp around your solar inverter's tails would not work.
5m cable counts me out :(
Not many chargers come with longer than that, but I have also provided them feedback that a 7m one would be better. I have been told it’s really easy to change the cable so I might have a go when I get chance.
@@SpeakToTheGeekTech10m .. or untethered - but swapping the cable would be very interesting :)
Only my opinion, but I don't like the look of it all! I've got a basic Tesla charger and it looks amazing!
I guess it's subjective. I quite the look of it. I think it looks much nicer than my old Pod Point or the Zappi, but if I'm being picky then the square shape makes it look a little odd when the cable is wound around it compared to those other two, and the LEDs are way too bright (but they can be turned off if I wanted to). The white of this also goes better with my white uPVC window frames and the white (ish) meter box.
Of course you prefer the Tesla charger why wouldn’t you? I like my myenergi one and that’s great because we’re all different, not androids. 😅
Very interesting as usual, thanks. Any chance of getting rid of that annoying repeating background music in future videos please?
Ha thanks, and nope, I like my annoying background music, even if it's for the occasional comment from people saying they hate it :) I may switch it up and add different music from time to time though...if I can make it even more annoying :)
@@SpeakToTheGeekTechwhat about the host? Can we change him?
I've asked around the Speak to the Geek office and we've unanimously voted to keep the big-nosed host in his current role.
Annoys me too I can't concentrate with music playing. That includes in shops.
Surely you are trying to please your audience not yourself.😞
Is it a charger? If the Output is still A.C. Then it is using your car's on board charger. Which is probably 7 or 11Kw! The faster commercial charger use A.C. So why not have a home inverter & Charger & charge your car more quickly & efficiently! Unless you are in for the night? What if you become a 2 or 3 EV car family? Can you charge all 3 overnight????
Because a home DC charger is not a thing