we're back at our smart home takeover and EV charger installation and we're back at
the mains end and i've got one question why yeah okay we've almost lived at this point here because
we're featured in a lot of videos before but today we're looking at the issue of current transformers
and when i think of current transformers and i think of EV installations i think about monitoring
the amount of load the installation is taking so i don't blow that incoming fuse which is 100 amps
in this instance yeah so yeah we're probably unlikely to blow it in this one but if you've
got an installation where you're at 60 amps or you've got a lot of current using appliances
induction hubs electric heating there is a chance because that EV charges on all the time
it could blow the main fuse does that mean i've got to get a cable from here at the
main end and i think we installed our EV charger some 30 meters right at the back of the property
cable all the way up to there yeah you're right Gary this was an epic install and yeah a lot
of EV chargers have current transformers but they require a hard-wired connection
all the way back to the main tails feeding into the property but the great thing about the Harvi
is it does it wirelessly wow wirelessly so it must have something to send a signal okay what is going
to send that signal out so in other words our EV charger can work out what we're actually taking
for power yeah so it sends a wireless signal but the really clever thing about the Harvi itself a
little box of electronics behind us doesn't have any batteries doesn't need its own power supply
it harvests its power to work and transmit that wireless signal by getting its energy from the
power flowing through the tails tapped off the current transformer that's needed to monitor the
current and i would have said in previous videos when you said that it works on magic so it's
harvest that energy it sent the signal but where does it send that signal to okay so the Harvi
works seamlessly with other MyEnergi products the Eddi that we have featured on the channel before
and the Zappi EV charger that's incredibly popular because it makes electricians lives easy
solving installation problems the PEN fault being the one that people mainly think about
but we think the Harvi is a great little product that will help you with that reduce your wiring
and has some other features that we're going to look at in this video you talk about those other
features this installation here has solar PV and can i therefore work out what energy that's
producing what i'm using in the installation maybe do that mathematical calculation for me
yeah you can Gary there was when we installed this initially we've only added one current transformer
so we can only see the energy that's been imported or exported from the property and that means we're
not picking up actually what's happening with our solar panels is the power being used in the house
or is it being exported so today we're going to fit another current transformer which brings us
to another little issue that was flagged up when some efixx viewers spotted the Harvi inside this
box here Gary the question is can you install equipment that isn't from the supply authorities
or the DNO inside the meter box in other words on that meter board what's the answer Gordon
uh well the answer is yes and no depends on who you're asking but we're seeing a lot of people
think small consumer units and sometimes you open these and it's a plethora of equipment there's not
a lot of room in there we are looking at that so watch for the video that will try and give you a
comprehensive answers to what you can or can't put inside this cabinet and there's a word of advice
if you're watching it and you haven't seen that other video yet i'd be going no no and wait to
find out that answer yeah but we do see a lot of it so we're going to use the opportunity of adding
another current transformer to see where else in the installation we could put the Harvi so we're
going to move across to the consumer unit so not to ruffle the feathers of the DNO we've removed
the Harvi from inside the meter box but what's inside the Harvi okay i'll just pop it under the
cover there you will see there are six connections but only two are needed for each current
transformer plus and minus you see there but this will support three current transformers we're
going to add another one but what you don't see is any form of power supply so this yes so you would
say Gary does work by magic and then obviously that's paired with the current transformer
that comes with the MyEnergi products the Harvi is an accessory add-on but yeah very easy to set up
a little pairing button at the start there so you just press that to put in the pairing mode and
then pick it up on your other MyEnergi devices in the system easy so before we get to the excitement
of seeing Gary fit this current transformer within the consumer unit let's stop off at Harvi's close
relative the MyEngergi hub so you need a hub for a number of reasons the main one that most
people think about is so you can make your EV charger smart but that's just the beginning
of its capabilities so what you can do once you have the hub is access what's happening on an app
in your home for its energy performance so you can see power being imported you can see what
you're using in the property it can track your EV charging and if you're lucky enough to have the
Eddi you can see how much is going into your hot water build up a pattern over time to see what's
going on hook into some of those smart tariffs and even the LEDs on the front of the hub itself are
useful because they can tell you what's going on with your devices are they connected to the
internet can you access them by the hub and you'll notice there's a little red light popped up at the
moment to say the Harvi's not there and that's for good reason because it's in my hand here
so now i have two current transformers to fit the one that i've moved that was on the incoming tails
pointing into the installation which is this one here just to remind ourselves we've got a picture
of the house and we've got a picture of the arrow so we must make sure that we get it pointing
correctly and i will need to extend this in order that it can make its way to the Harvi so if i pull
my tails forward it's fully isolated outside and inside and we can clip that one on like so we can
see we've got it now pointing into the property house this side on our line conductor and there we
go that sits into there we've also got to do the same now if we want to monitor the energy being
produced by our solar PV which is this breaker here and actually it's the supply coming into this
breaker from our solar array on the roof so we've got to make sure that we get our arrow correctly
it's coming down the energy is coming down into the top of this breaker and effectively living
up the bus bar in reverse so make sure we put that one on correctly if i wrap that one round
like so clip it into place and then i will locate these best as i can in order to get the lid on
and then i'll make my connections to my Harvi question now we've just had the question can we
install stuff in the DNO's meter cabinet outside and we suggested maybe not i'm sure there's some
comments going to be below about installing these within the consumer unit we have no other
choice that's where they've got to go so we'll install the Harvi next let's slip a top tip in
while we're here i've moved the towels around so i've got my torque screwdriver out as well
as moving the conductors in top of the RCBO so i've set the required torque setting according to
the manufacturer it's listed down here for me for all the devices so i've set my torque screwdriver
up and i'm just going to return these after moving them back to the required torque setting
if you want to know why we changed this consumer unit over to the Schneider easy nine check out the
video in the link in the description or the eye above my head and the thinking behind having to
change it when we were doing this EV install so i've relocated the Harvi to the underside of the
consumer unit i've moved it from the DNO's meter box because we're still unsure whether it can be
in there and i've connected my two CT's however you rushed off upstairs what were you up to yeah
so i absolutely have to introduce the seat to the system so we previously paired that Harvi to our
Eddi that obviously is diverting the solar energy into the hot water when there's an excess um so it
knew there was already one current transformer in the system so i had to just navigate through
and tell it there was a second one but also tell it the purpose of that transformer so is
it another source of energy which in case it is here it's generation coming from the roof from
the solar panels uh so quickly through the menu and that's it configured in the system and then
as soon as i've done that i could then see that in the app yeah and that's beautiful isn't it all of
a sudden now we can work out what the sun's doing where that energy is going and hopefully we're
not giving it back to the grid yeah so in this installation there is two choices obviously the
Zappi charger we fitted in some previous videos check those if you haven't seen them already
or our energy diver if you're out for the day the sun's beating down you might want
to put that hot that energy into your hot water system check that but i've found when you look
at the app and you can see that power flow it becomes quite addictive you know where's the
where's the energy going how much we're generating and but that is just so visual and i think the
ease in which we've added that to this system is fantastic and it's levelled up this smart
home takeover once again so the solar PV when we first arrived was pretty much exporting it
all day long when we're out of work wasn't it into the road and now we've moved it we've put
it into the car and we've put it into the hot water system but as always we're interested in
your feedbacks and your comments have you been using the Harvi or the Eddi and what's your
experience with it leave all those comments below and we'll try and get back to as many as we can