myenergi Zappi GLO vs CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3: £336 apart, different planets

A solar diverter and a car-park unit walk into a driveway

The myenergi Zappi GLO costs £750. The CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 costs £1,086 — £336 more. They both offer 22 kW on three-phase and roughly 7 kW on single-phase, and they are both OZEV-approved. That is about where the similarities end.

• Zappi GLO — a consumer solar charger with Eco+ diversion, a 6.5-metre tethered cable, and the myenergi app. Built for a house with panels on the roof.
• CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 — an OCPP-native, MID-metered, IK10-rated unit designed for commercial sites that happens to be mountable at home. Built for a property with three-phase power and a back-end to manage it.

Who the CTEK is actually for

The Chargestorm Connected 3 weighs up to 24 kg. It carries a MID-approved energy meter, Eichrecht billing compliance, dual Ethernet ports, and OCPP 2.0.1. It has an IK10 impact rating — the same spec demanded in multi-storey car parks. None of this is decorative; it exists because the unit was designed to sit on a commercial pillar, managed remotely by a charge-point operator.

Can you install it at home? Yes. Should you? Only in a narrow set of circumstances. You need three-phase supply to unlock the 22 kW that justifies the price. You need to be comfortable scheduling via a third-party OCPP platform like Monta, because CTEK offers no first-party app with smart-tariff hooks — no Octopus Intelligent Go integration, no OVO Charge Anytime tie-in. And you need to budget for install costs of £900–£1,300, which can push the all-in spend past £2,000 before the £500 OZEV grant.

The built-in Type B MRCD is a genuine saving — most other chargers require a separate Type B RCD at the consumer unit, typically £100–£150 in parts and labour. The five-year warranty is two years longer than the Zappi GLO's. These are real advantages. They are just advantages aimed at a buyer who probably also has a fleet management dashboard open on a second monitor.

When the Zappi GLO earns every penny

The Zappi GLO exists to do one thing well: move surplus solar generation into a car battery instead of exporting it to the grid for 4–5p per kWh. Eco+ mode charges only from solar surplus. Eco mode blends surplus with grid import to maintain a minimum rate. If you have a 4 kW array and an EV parked on the drive during the day, the maths is straightforward — every kWh diverted is a kWh you did not buy at 24p.

It also plugs into the wider myenergi ecosystem. Pair it with an eddi to divert surplus to hot water when the car is full, or a libbi home battery for overnight use. The CTEK has no equivalent ecosystem; it is a standalone unit that talks OCPP and waits for instructions.

At £750, the Zappi GLO is not cheap for a 7 kW single-phase charger. Without solar panels, it is overpriced — buyers on a fixed off-peak tariff like Octopus Go would do better with the Ohme Home Pro at £535 or the Easee One at £405. But *with* panels, the solar diversion is the whole point, and no other UK charger does it as maturely. For a fuller look at that decision, the Zappi GLO vs GivEnergy EV Charger comparison covers the solar-ecosystem angle in detail.

Smart tariffs — neither charger's strength

This is worth being blunt about. If your primary concern is automated half-hourly tariff chasing on Octopus Agile, neither charger is the right answer. The Zappi GLO's tariff support is manual, not API-driven. The CTEK has no first-party tariff integration at all. The Ohme Home Pro or the Hypervolt Home 3 Pro handle that job with less friction and less money.

On a simple fixed off-peak window — Octopus Go at 8.5p/kWh from 00:30–05:30, say — the Zappi GLO's app can schedule a charge session just fine. The CTEK can do the same via Monta. Neither is elegant; both are adequate.

Which to buy

Buy the myenergi Zappi GLO if:

• You have solar panels and want to charge from surplus generation
• You are on single-phase supply — which is almost every UK home
• You value a mature consumer app over OCPP back-end flexibility

Buy the CTEK Chargestorm Connected 3 if:

• You have three-phase power and want to charge at 22 kW
• You need MID-approved metering for billing or expense tracking
• You are already running an OCPP platform and want an open-protocol unit

For most domestic buyers, the Zappi GLO is the more useful charger at the lower price. The CTEK is a fine piece of engineering — overbuilt for a residential driveway, perfectly built for a three-phase property with commercial ambitions. The £336 gap buys hardware most homes cannot exploit. Put the Zappi GLO on the wall, spend the difference on another solar panel, and let Eco+ do the rest.