Dave Jones Posted June 30 Posted June 30 octopus are taking signups for a lease package of BYD and wall charger to use your car as a battery for the house. First DNO approved system. Looking at ordering the charger as it should work with our ID4 as it is V2G ready supposedly.
JohnMo Posted June 30 Posted June 30 15 minutes ago, Dave Jones said: Looking at ordering the charger Is it actually going to house? Or is it going to the grid, bypassing the house, when octopus wants it too? V2G is used to balance the grid only. The controller (energy company) uses your battery as a resource. Not sure on the impact on battery life? Bit like discharging and charging your phone a couple of times a day? Ok if leased, but if you bought the car, not sure I would bother. V2H is car to home only which may be want you want?
Kelvin Posted June 30 Posted June 30 (edited) According to this it’s V2G. https://octopus.energy/power-pack/ SigEnergy have a module for their system that is a V2X bi-directional DC charger. They have a 12kW and 25kW version of it. Yet to be approved for UK use but it’s coming soon apparently. My interest would be more to back the house up. It’s CCS only so no buying a cheap Leaf and leaving it permanently plugged in. I know you can get adapters but they seem to be very expensive and I’m not sure I’d trust them. Edited June 30 by Kelvin
S2D2 Posted June 30 Posted June 30 For the octopus deal its the car doing V2G afaik, nothing special about the charger. Octopus also control it, which is fair enough as the savings are passed on in the lease cost, but unsure if it would cover house load by design.
Kelvin Posted June 30 Posted June 30 1 hour ago, S2D2 said: For the octopus deal its the car doing V2G afaik, nothing special about the charger. Octopus also control it, which is fair enough as the savings are passed on in the lease cost, but unsure if it would cover house load by design. It has to be a V2G enabled charger too. They specify the Zaptec Go Pro for CCS chargers. It’s all in the link I posted. The way it’s worded it doesn’t cover the house load. If you’re on Intelligent go it will likely save you less than £200 per year doing this compared.
S2D2 Posted June 30 Posted June 30 1 hour ago, Kelvin said: It has to be a V2G enabled charger too. They specify the Zaptec Go Pro for CCS chargers. It’s all in the link I posted. The way it’s worded it doesn’t cover the house load. If you’re on Intelligent go it will likely save you less than £200 per year doing this compared. It sounded like Zaptec enabled V2G via a firmware update, is there specific hardware required for bidirectional AC or is it just some comms that other charger companies could add with a firmware update? The price of the charger indicates nothing fancy?
Kelvin Posted June 30 Posted June 30 This suggests it’s a new charger https://www.zaptec.com/en-uk/info-hub/inside-zaptec/zaptec-go-2
S2D2 Posted June 30 Posted June 30 12 minutes ago, Kelvin said: This suggests it’s a new charger https://www.zaptec.com/en-uk/info-hub/inside-zaptec/zaptec-go-2 The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it?
Kelvin Posted June 30 Posted June 30 15 minutes ago, S2D2 said: The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it? I assumed that’s a mistake as the Pro is the commercial version. We had them in our work car park. The only one that mentions V2G on their website is the Go 2. Octopus only mention two compatible chargers one from Zaptec and the other from Wallbox
S2D2 Posted June 30 Posted June 30 1 hour ago, Kelvin said: I assumed that’s a mistake as the Pro is the commercial version. We had them in our work car park. The only one that mentions V2G on their website is the Go 2. Octopus only mention two compatible chargers one from Zaptec and the other from Wallbox Seems like specific but inexpensive hardware is required so they were planning ahead with the Pro. MyEnergi also claim to be launching a bidirectional charger this year: https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/15196766224273-Can-zappi-do-vehicle-to-grid-V2G
Dave Jones Posted June 30 Author Posted June 30 2 hours ago, S2D2 said: The Octopus deal is for a Zaptec Pro isn't it? by pro they mean 3-phase i think.
Kelvin Posted June 30 Posted June 30 2 hours ago, S2D2 said: Seems like specific but inexpensive hardware is required so they were planning ahead with the Pro. MyEnergi also claim to be launching a bidirectional charger this year: https://support.myenergi.com/hc/en-gb/articles/15196766224273-Can-zappi-do-vehicle-to-grid-V2G Inexpensive? Some of them cost a fortune. The Wallbox Quasar 2 costs over 6000 Euro last time I looked. It supports V2H so it’s more than just a charger as it has to safely island the car from the grid etc I’m unconvinced by V2H as a thing anyway. While batteries are still dear they have reduced in price a fair bit so you can put in a fair amount of battery storage for an almost affordable amount of money without the complication of trying to do that with your car.
S2D2 Posted June 30 Posted June 30 30 minutes ago, Kelvin said: Inexpensive? Some of them cost a fortune. The Wallbox Quasar 2 costs over 6000 Euro last time I looked. It supports V2H so it’s more than just a charger as it has to safely island the car from the grid etc I’m unconvinced by V2H as a thing anyway. While batteries are still dear they have reduced in price a fair bit so you can put in a fair amount of battery storage for an almost affordable amount of money without the complication of trying to do that with your car. To be clear, I'm talking about bidirectional AC, where the pricey DC to AC inverter is in the car. The Zaptec Pro can be had for £800, a bit pricier than alternatives but cheaper than the AC to DC chargers like the Quasar. There's also no requirement to support islanding on cheaper models, it can just shut off if it loses grid connection like a standard inverter, islanding should be a premium add on and won't be supported on the octopus deal. I agree it has some way to go, but if every car supported bidirectional AC by default the decision would be much easier. My EV doesn't so I invested in an extra battery module for my hybrid inverter as it just makes more sense at the moment. I still use a granny charger as I dont want to invest in technology that's likely to become out of date immediately this year when bidirectional charging is readily available.
Dave Jones Posted July 13 Author Posted July 13 well its live and they taking orders. Free charging on this tariff, assume including on the eletroverse network, . Starting at £299 a month, Single phase bi directional wall charger is supplied.
JamesPa Posted July 30 Posted July 30 On 30/06/2025 at 20:30, S2D2 said: I still use a granny charger as I dont want to invest in technology that's likely to become out of date immediately this year when bidirectional charging is readily available. Its nice to hear that I'm not the only person who has come to that conclusion! Standalone Zaptec Go2 available here for ~EUR1000. Annoyingly they will ship to plenty of countries outside the EU, but not the UK. I wonder when the technology will finally come here other than through some sort of complex deal, my dream is to swap my petrol Fiesta for an aging Nissan leaf, thus getting a 24-30kWh battery for about £5k, which will also serve as a second car for the few times we need one.
S2D2 Posted July 30 Posted July 30 29 minutes ago, JamesPa said: wonder when the technology will finally come here other than through some sort of complex deal I did notice octopus are no longer installing Zappis, I can't find any additional information on what their charge charger (stupid name) supports but given they went with Zaptec for power pack I'd be surprised if it was bidirectional. More info next month probably. I imagine part of the UK issue is DNO permission, I assume they'll update the definition of generator to include bidirectional chargers. I'm assuming that technically at the moment the inverter in the car would need permission, but that makes no sense when your guest plugs in their car, or you plug it in at a different house.
Kelvin Posted July 30 Posted July 30 That must be a recent change as they installed my Zappi last month.
JamesPa Posted July 30 Posted July 30 (edited) 24 minutes ago, S2D2 said: I imagine part of the UK issue is DNO permission, I assume they'll update the definition of generator to include bidirectional chargers. I'm assuming that technically at the moment the inverter in the car would need permission, but that makes no sense when your guest plugs in their car, or you plug it in at a different house. It could be set to zero export, then it should just be a matter of certification rather than permission. Not sure what the intent is here and of course if you already have solar that potentially complicates regulating the export. On the other hand if octopus can offer it there are clearly ways through. Edited July 30 by JamesPa
S2D2 Posted July 30 Posted July 30 11 minutes ago, Kelvin said: That must be a recent change as they installed my Zappi last month. Yes they had a reduced price on until recently, I thought they'd swap it out for the Glo but it's just disappeared entirely. 8 minutes ago, JamesPa said: It could be set to zero export, then it should just be a matter of certification rather than permission. Not sure what the intent is here and of course if you already have solar that potentially complicates regulating the export. On the other hand if octopus can offer it there are clearly ways through. Zero export removes the opportunity to balance the grid however, so I don't see that going through. It still requires G100 at the moment. Power pack needs a G99 certificate, so DNO permission is covered that way.
JamesPa Posted July 30 Posted July 30 (edited) 29 minutes ago, S2D2 said: Zero export removes the opportunity to balance the grid however, so I don't see that going through. It still requires G100 at the moment Fair enough but ... not having a battery because it's too much hassle also removes the option to balance the grid! Meanwhile having one with zero export allows self consumption to be zeroed out. So I don't really see the rational objection. If you want to export then fine, a bit more hassle justified and you will get paid for it so that's a fair exchange. DNOs should be enablers not barriers - oh, I forgot, they are privatised monopolies. Edited July 30 by JamesPa
Kelvin Posted July 30 Posted July 30 I was rather hoping they’d add the Sigenergy AC charger to their Intelligent Go tariff but no joy so went with the Zappi. I like that it has a screen so you have some idea what it’s doing without having to mess about with your phone. The slightly annoying thing about the Octopus site and chargers is they’ve gone to the trouble of listing just about every charger available rather than just listing the ones that work with Intelligent Octopus Go.
JohnMo Posted July 30 Posted July 30 I may be wrong but everything I have read seems there are different systems and have different results. Isn't V2G, basically car to grid, missing the house out all together. So ok for an export tariff, but not much else. Wouldn't you want V2H, so house could take advantage of car for self consumption via car battery. There is a bidirectional inverter in both V2G and V2H, but configuration very different.
S2D2 Posted July 30 Posted July 30 13 minutes ago, JamesPa said: DNOs should be enablers not barriers - oh, I forgot, they are privatised monopolies. I did a bit of digging and Octopus were asking for 5kW minimum g99 for power pack. Given lots of potential adopters will have g98 already, I don't see the DNOs approving a glut of 9kW+ export limits when this is more widespread. Tricky to see how that will come out the wash other than DNOs dynamically setting export limits e.g. via Octopus kraken. So more likely V2G will only be available if handing over control to your energy provider, or V2H with g100 without the grid balancing incentives.
Dillsue Posted July 30 Posted July 30 1 hour ago, JamesPa said: Its nice to hear that I'm not the only person who has come to that conclusion! Standalone Zaptec Go2 available here for ~EUR1000. Annoyingly they will ship to plenty of countries outside the EU, but not the UK. I wonder when the technology will finally come here other than through some sort of complex deal, my dream is to swap my petrol Fiesta for an aging Nissan leaf, thus getting a 24-30kWh battery for about £5k, which will also serve as a second car for the few times we need one. Gen 1 and 2 leafs use CHADEMO for bidirectional charging and I don't think anyone is likely to develop any more V2X kit for CHADEMO in Europe. I've been fruitlessly looking for an ex trial V2X charger but those that come up are expensive and seem to be locked to the original trial?? I think there's hacks that involve altering the car but how reliable/safe/legit they are is anyone's guess....the US one I saw wouldn't cut it over here
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