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Zappi EV charger installation in Hertfordshire and London.
The myenergi zappi is our favourite home charger, especially with solar. What it does, what the law requires, what fitting one involves, and the zappis we have fitted.
The zappi, and why it is our pick
The myenergi zappi is a smart home EV charger built to work with solar panels. In its ECO modes it follows the power your roof is making and puts the spare into the car instead of exporting it. That is why it sits at number one in our top 10 home EV chargers.
It also has built-in PEN fault protection, Wi-Fi and Ethernet, an app, and a three-year warranty as standard. Without solar it works as a normal smart charger, and you can add panels later. See solar PV.
What the zappi does, in plain words
The charge modes
| Mode | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| FAST | Charges as fast as the car and your limits allow, like an ordinary charger. | No solar, or you need it charged now |
| ECO | Matches the charge rate to your spare solar. It never drops below 6A (about 1.4 kW on single-phase), so the grid tops up when the sun dips. | Solar homes charging daily |
| ECO+ | Waits for spare solar and stops when there isn’t enough. The Minimum Green Level sets how much grid top-up you accept: at 100% it stops below 1.4 kW of surplus. | Charging from your own roof |
| STOP | Blocks all charging, including boosts. | Holidays |
The CT clamp at the meter
A small clamp clips round a cable from your meter and tells the zappi what the house is importing or exporting. That is how the solar modes work. myenergi’s manual says it must “see” all the power in and out, so it goes before any Henley block, with one clamp per phase. It also lets us set a supply limit, so the charger backs off before the house overloads its main fuse.
Tethered or untethered
A tethered zappi has a 6.5m Type 2 cable fixed to it. An untethered one has a socket for your car’s own cable. Not sure which plug your car has? See Type 1 vs Type 2.
7 kW or 22 kW
The single-phase zappi charges at up to 7.4 kW. myenergi says single-phase is the supply most homes have. The three-phase version reaches 22 kW, if you have a three-phase supply and the car can accept it.
PEN fault protection, and when you still need an earth rod
On a PME (TN-C-S) supply, earth and neutral share one conductor, the PEN, in the supply cable. If it breaks, the earth at the car can become dangerous. The zappi monitors the supply and disconnects the car if it detects a PEN fault, so myenergi says it can be installed without an extra earth rod. You still need one on a TT supply, or where local rules or the customer require it. It also has 6mA DC fault detection built in.
The app
You switch modes, set timers and watch the charger in the myenergi app. myenergi says the zappi needs a permanent internet connection, so we check the signal where the car parks and ask for your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi details before we come.
The law: smart charge point rules
The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1467) came into force on 30 June 2022 and apply in England, Wales and Scotland. They cover car and van charge points sold from that date, including workplace ones, but not public charge points or rapid chargers of 50 kW or more. They require:
- Smart functionality: the charger must send and receive information over a network, and be able to change how fast and when it charges.
- Off-peak default hours: it must come with default charging hours outside peak times, which the law sets as 8am to 11am and 4pm to 10pm on weekdays. You can accept, change or remove them, and override them at any time.
- A randomised delay: by default, charging starts after a random delay of up to 600 seconds (10 minutes), so thousands of chargers don’t all start at once. The owner can cancel it.
myenergi’s manual says a new zappi covered by these rules starts in ECO+ mode. We set modes and timers with you before we leave.
What installing a zappi involves
- Survey. Where the car parks, where the meter and fuse board are, the earthing type, the cable route, and the Wi-Fi signal at the charger.
- Supply and main fuse. A zappi draws up to 32A, so we check the main fuse and the total load, and the network operator must be told. In London, the East and the South East of England that is UK Power Networks. If no upgrade is needed, the installer notifies it within 28 days of fitting. The Energy Networks Association says a home whose new maximum demand is 60A to 100A must apply first; the operator replies within 10 working days. If the supply needs upgrading, UK Power Networks quotes and books that work before the charger is connected.
- A dedicated circuit. The zappi gets its own circuit and its own RCBO in the fuse board. In Letchworth that was a 32A Type A RCBO in a spare way. If the board has no space or isn’t fit for the load, we say so at the survey (see consumer unit replacement). myenergi says a separate surge protection device must also be fitted to meet the wiring regulations.
- Cable route. The cable is clipped, ducted or buried to the charger, and wall holes are sealed.
- CT clamp fitted on the meter tail, the right way round.
- Commissioning in the myenergi app. Wi-Fi or Ethernet, clamp set-up, supply limit, paired with your phone, and proved by charging your car.
- Test and certificate. We test the circuit, label the board and give you the certificate, and the network operator is notified.
Our zappi jobs
From June 2024 to October 2026 our job system records 21 EV charger jobs, and 11 of them involved myenergi kit. These are the ones we can describe:
| When | Where | What we did |
|---|---|---|
| June 2024 | Harpenden | Took down a zappi at a business unit so it could be refitted at the client’s new property. |
| September 2024 | Private home | New surge-protected consumer unit with a bi-directional RCBO for EV and solar, and a myenergi harvi reading the intake CT clamps for load balancing. |
| December 2024 | Maidstone, Kent | zappi installed at a business unit. |
| February 2025 | London | Supplied, fitted and commissioned a three-phase, tethered, black zappi. The CT clamps read up to 100A, so the charger’s limit was set to match. |
| June 2025 | Hemel Hempstead | zappi installed on the same job as a Lutron lighting control upgrade. See smart home lighting control. |
| September 2025 | Letchworth Garden City | One day on site: new 32A Type A RCBO in a spare way, CT clamp at the meter, PFC measured at 0.670 kA, proved on the customer’s car. See the project. |
| October 2025 | St Albans (AL4) | New EV-ready consumer unit with surge protection, a 32A rotary isolator by the charger, and a black tethered zappi with a CT clamp. The old main fuse was 60A, so the board stayed off until the energy supplier upgraded the incoming supply. We went back in January 2026 to connect, test and commission. See the project. |
| September 2026 | Keston, Bromley | Fitted a replacement zappi, supplied by the client, to the existing post in the garage, recommissioned it in the myenergi app, and upgraded both EV circuits to double-pole RCBOs. |
| October 2026 | Near Baldock | Two multiphase zappis on a dual post for a business depot, on two single-phase circuits, hard-wired to the network switch, with CT load management so the site never draws more than 80A. See the project. |
We work on other makes too, from a network cable for an Indra charger in Letchworth to a failed car-park charger in Hemel Hempstead and EV charger work at Dallas Burston Polo Club. See EV charger installation.
Grants
When we checked GOV.UK on 27 October 2026 (page last updated 1 April 2026), five chargepoint grants were open until 31 March 2027:
| Grant | Who for | Up to |
|---|---|---|
| Renters and flat owners | Off-street parking | £500 |
| On-street parking | Households with only on-street parking, fitting a cross-pavement solution such as a charging gully | £500 |
| Landlords | Landlords, social housing providers, property managers | £500 per socket, 200 sockets |
| Workplace Charging Scheme | Businesses, charities, public sector | £500 per socket, 40 sockets |
| State-funded education | Schools and education institutions | £2,000 per socket, 40 sockets |
There was no grant for owners of a house with a driveway. Each scheme has its own rules, so check them on GOV.UK before you book.
How SEGplc can help
We survey, fit and commission zappi chargers across Hertfordshire and London, and pair them with your phone before we leave. We are an NICEIC Approved Contractor and TrustMark registered. From our base in St Albans we give a fixed price after the survey wherever we can, and we can look at solar at the same time.
Questions about the zappi
Do I need solar panels to have a zappi?
No. Without solar it works as a normal smart charger in FAST mode, and you can set timers in the app for a cheap overnight tariff. The ECO modes need solar or wind generation.
Does a zappi need an earth rod?
Usually not. Its built-in PEN fault protection means myenergi says it can be installed without an extra earth rod. One is still needed on a TT supply, or where local rules or the customer require it. We check your earthing at the survey.
Should I get the 7 kW or the 22 kW zappi?
The 22 kW version needs a three-phase supply and a car that can charge that fast. Most homes have a single-phase supply, so the 7 kW model is the usual choice. A multiphase unit can run on single-phase now and be converted to three-phase later. That is how we set up two at a business depot near Baldock.
Will a zappi work without Wi-Fi?
myenergi says the zappi needs an internet connection all the time. It has Wi-Fi and Ethernet built in, so if the Wi-Fi is weak where the car parks, we run a network cable instead.
Why doesn’t my charger start the moment I plug in?
The law requires off-peak default hours and a random delay of up to 10 minutes, and you can change or override both. In ECO+ it also waits for enough spare solar.
Do you tell the network operator?
Yes. Only the installer can notify UK Power Networks for you. Where the new load means an application is needed first, we apply before we fit the charger.
Can I get a grant for a zappi?
When we checked on 27 October 2026 there was no grant for owners of a house with a driveway. Flat owners, renters, homes with only on-street parking, landlords and businesses may qualify: see the grants section.
Sources
- myenergi, zappi EV charger product page
- myenergi, zappi v2.1 installation manual, Rev 1.8 (October 2023)
- myenergi support, What are the zappi charging modes?
- legislation.gov.uk, The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021
- legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 1: citation, commencement and extent
- legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 3: application
- legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 5: smart functionality
- legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 10: off-peak charging
- legislation.gov.uk, Regulation 11: randomised delay
- GOV.UK, Electric vehicle chargepoint grants
- UK Power Networks, Electric vehicle chargers: cost, time and what’s involved
- UK Power Networks, Areas we cover
- Energy Networks Association, Connecting electric vehicles and heat pumps to the networks
Written by SEGplc, NICEIC Approved Contractor electricians in St Albans, from our job records and myenergi’s own product information. Last updated 27 October 2026. Grant and network rules change, so check the sources before you rely on them.
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