Can you adjust the charging current?

[momo3605]

In a couple months, I'm planning to swap my Chargepoint Home Flex out for an Enphase IQ charging station, which can automatically adjust its output to match excess solar production. In the best case you can minimize both drawing power from the grid, and selling power back to it, as long as your car has available capacity to store the energy.

I want to be able to limit my charge current for the same reason. I have solar excess production, and would like to trickle charge my EV during peak daylight hours. If I let it charge at a full 40 amps, I’ll end up drawing from the grid. My rivian and Tesla both allow me to drop amps to 16 or 24 and limit the draw.

 

[DeaneG]

I want to be able to limit my charge current for the same reason. I have solar excess production, and would like to trickle charge my EV during peak daylight hours. If I let it charge at a full 40 amps, I’ll end up drawing from the grid. My rivian and Tesla both allow me to drop amps to 16 or 24 and limit the draw.

The Enphase charger is working pretty well for us. It modulates charging current up or down every 15 minutes to compensate for air conditioners, ovens, etc turning on and off.

I believe there are other EVSEs that can do this as well. AFAIK they all rely on current transformers to assess PV production and household demand, and I assume a cloud infrastructure doing the control.

 

[momo3605]

The Enphase charger is working pretty well for us. It modulates charging current up or down every 15 minutes to compensate for air conditioners, ovens, etc turning on and off.

I believe there are other EVSEs that can do this as well. AFAIK they all rely on current transformers to assess PV production and household demand, and I assume a cloud infrastructure doing the control.

do they only work with enphase solar? Or can it auto-detect from any solar system (like tesla)?

 

[DeaneG]

do they only work with enphase solar? Or can it auto-detect from any solar system (like tesla)?

AFAIK it requires Enphase CTs reporting to Enphase's cloud, so you'd need to have some system set up at Enphase. But a friend mentioned that there was at least one other third party EVSE that can do the same.

 

[momo3605]

AFAIK it requires Enphase CTs reporting to Enphase's cloud, so you'd need to have some system set up at Enphase. But a friend mentioned that there was at least one other third party EVSE that can do the same.

from website says it only works with their solar system, so wouldn't work for me. It would be much better if you could just control it from the car. Simple feature that's pretty commonly available across different automakers

 

[borski]

AFAIK it requires Enphase CTs reporting to Enphase's cloud, so you'd need to have some system set up at Enphase. But a friend mentioned that there was at least one other third party EVSE that can do the same.

Wallbox can do this.

Eco-Smart Solar EV Charging - Energy management by Wallbox

wallbox.com

 

[DeaneG]

from website says it only works with their solar system, so wouldn't work for me. It would be much better if you could just control it from the car. Simple feature that's pretty commonly available across different automakers

One thing to watch our for with any similar charging solution and the Air: if your excess PV production drops to zero for a bit (maybe because you turned on the microwave oven or clothes dryer), and the EVSE signals to the Air that zero current is available, the Air will go to sleep and not wake back up to resume charging when current becomes available again. You have to manually wake up the Air to get it to start charging again. I think it's the same bug that prevents the Air from working well with EVSEs that have a charging schedule of their own.

So the excess-PV charging function isn't that handy with the Air. It does work fine with our other EV, and I assume with all other EVs, as they all can handle EVSE-side charge scheduling.

 

[borski]

One thing to watch our for with any similar charging solution and the Air: if your excess PV production drops to zero for a bit (maybe because you turned on the microwave oven or clothes dryer), and the EVSE signals to the Air that zero current is available, the Air will go to sleep and not wake back up to resume charging when current becomes available again. You have to manually wake up the Air to get it to start charging again. I think it's the same bug that prevents the Air from working well with EVSEs that have a charging schedule of their own.

So the excess-PV charging function isn't that handy with the Air. It does work fine with our other EV, and I assume with all other EVs, as they all can handle EVSE-side charge scheduling.

Yeah, this is an annoying bug.

 

[momo3605]

One thing to watch our for with any similar charging solution and the Air: if your excess PV production drops to zero for a bit (maybe because you turned on the microwave oven or clothes dryer), and the EVSE signals to the Air that zero current is available, the Air will go to sleep and not wake back up to resume charging when current becomes available again. You have to manually wake up the Air to get it to start charging again. I think it's the same bug that prevents the Air from working well with EVSEs that have a charging schedule of their own.

So the excess-PV charging function isn't that handy with the Air. It does work fine with our other EV, and I assume with all other EVs, as they all can handle EVSE-side charge scheduling.

I’ve noticed an another bug too. If I stop charging from the app, it will automatically restart if you open up the app again or walk near the car.

 

[DeaneG]

I’ve noticed an another bug too. If I stop charging from the app, it will automatically restart if you open up the app again or walk near the car.

That may be the same bug that triggers the car to start charging before its scheduled time, if scheduled charging is enabled in the car and the car is awakened via the phone app.