Enphase home charging station AND solar panels question:

[someguy]

I have what may be a somewhat unique situation but I’ll ask anyway:

I have solar panels and have net metering with my local electric company. I understand that the Enphase home charger can be set up so that it’ll charge excess electricity to my car (when it’s plugged in) instead of sending it all to the grid.

1) if there is only minimal overproduction of electricity by my solar system, will the charger only charge that amount?

2) can I, without having to mess with the app or settings, set it up so that it will ALSO only charge after midnight (when electricity is cheapest to purchase)?

3) yes, the unit ain’t pretty.

IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector | Enphase

Charge your EV with ease using the IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector. This Level 2 charging station integrates with the Enphase Energy System, allowing for custom scheduling and excess solar charging. With a durable NACS connector and a 5-year warranty, it's the perfect choice for any EV owner.

enphase.com

 

[MikeOH]

I have what may be a somewhat unique situation but I’ll ask anyway:

I have solar panels and have net metering with my local electric company. I understand that the Enphase home charger can be set up so that it’ll charge excess electricity to my car (when it’s plugged in) instead of sending it all to the grid.

1) if there is only minimal overproduction of electricity by my solar system, will the charger only charge that amount?

2) can I, without having to mess with the app or settings, set it up so that it will ALSO only charge after midnight (when electricity is cheapest to purchase)?

3) yes, the unit ain’t pretty.

IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector | Enphase

Charge your EV with ease using the IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector. This Level 2 charging station integrates with the Enphase Energy System, allowing for custom scheduling and excess solar charging. With a durable NACS connector and a 5-year warranty, it's the perfect choice for any EV owner.

enphase.com

With a Tesla Powerwall 3 and ANY EVSE (does not have to be Tesla EVSE), a Tesla car will adjust it’s charge rate up and down dynamically to consume the excess solar production rather than send it to the grid. This of course does not work with non-Tesla cars.

Not sure how a car would react if it was the EVSE that was dynamically adjusting the current it sends to the car but it sounds like the enphase EVSE will do that in the scenario you describe with an enphase solar gateway and EVSE

 

[DeaneG]

I have what may be a somewhat unique situation but I’ll ask anyway:

I have solar panels and have net metering with my local electric company. I understand that the Enphase home charger can be set up so that it’ll charge excess electricity to my car (when it’s plugged in) instead of sending it all to the grid.

1) if there is only minimal overproduction of electricity by my solar system, will the charger only charge that amount?

2) can I, without having to mess with the app or settings, set it up so that it will ALSO only charge after midnight (when electricity is cheapest to purchase)?

3) yes, the unit ain’t pretty.

IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector | Enphase

Charge your EV with ease using the IQ 50 EV Charger with NACS connector. This Level 2 charging station integrates with the Enphase Energy System, allowing for custom scheduling and excess solar charging. With a durable NACS connector and a 5-year warranty, it's the perfect choice for any EV owner.

enphase.com

I have exactly this setup and use it daily with out Air and XC40 EVs. There is one BIG caveat when trying to use it with the Air or Gravity. It works great with any other EV.

1) Yes. The IQ charger will adjust its charging current signal to the car in quanta (steps) of 25% of the charger's maximum current. The charger current will always be less than the PV excess production. Sometimes a fair amount less, due to the four available charging current steps. So you'll still export some electricity that you wish you were sending to the car.

2) Yes, there is an option to add on a fixed schedule for nighttime charging.

3) No it ain't. We replaced a lovely Chargepoint home flex with this.

The caveat: Lucid cars are not compatible with external charge scheduling, where the EVSE (charger) turns off charging completely for a while. The Air and Gravity will fall asleep and not wake up when charging current is available. You can get around this by using Home Assistant, and having it wake the car when charging current it available or your scheduled charger interval begins. This is what I did.

Or you can just buy any other EV, which would work properly with external charge scheduling.

Enphase may release their IQ Charger 2 in the USA in 2026. It is much more modern looking than the current IQ station and is already shipping to the EU. It has much finer controls over charging current, so more power will go into your car instead of being exported. It can also do bidirectional V2H/V2G with many types of cars. Not sure if Lucid will be on the list, but it's reasonable to expect it might be at some point - if you can wake the car up to charge or discharge.