[cdavies]

Is anyone aware of a hybrid or smart charger solution that will allow your solar panels to charge your car during the day with excess solar power?
My apologies if this was covered in another thread but I thought I saw reference to a way to better leverage your solar power than pumping it into the grid during the day and paying to take it out at night. I'm in California and they have made it very prohibitive as of 2022 to own solar, charging more for the grid connection and paying very little for the excess power sent to the grid from your panels. The most cost effective solution would be to use any excess solar to charge my car during the day and not send it to the grid, saving on higher costs of pulling power out during non-peak hours (our electricity is pretty expensive even off-peak at 20 cents/kwh). I am about to spring for a main panel upgrade on my 1970's house so I can upgrade my 240V circuit for a 48 Amp fast level 2 charger as noted in other threads and if I am going to spend $$$$ for that I'd like to tie in my on-roof solar if possible. I really like some of the Open EVSE solutions in other threads that might be smart enough to tell you when one car is done charging and switch to charging the other car (we now have 2 EV's!).

 

[Burner]

Hello neighbor!

I have a house made in 1950s (modest upgrades in early 2000s), with solar panels installed 10 years ago, and just installed a 48A L2 charger. My 2 recommendations:
1. Switch to the EV-A program, where you pay 21 cents from midnight to 3PM. Of course, only charge the EV car during those hours.
2. Make sure you use (in aggregate) more than what your solar system is producing.
Unless you want to install a battery storage system, the above will suffice. Your cost/mile will be 3-4 times lower than gas.

I'm sure you noticed that the utility company will buy your energy at the same price you are buying it from them, unless you produce more than what you consume. In that case, that extra is bought by them at a lower rate, as they want to discourage individuals to become de-facto energy producers, vs individuals who look to lower their energy cost.

 

[mickmick]

Quels sont les prix moyens (heures pleines/heures de pointe) aux États-Unis, s'il vous plaît ?

 

[jjswan33]

I know when I had my solar install what you want was presented to me as an option. I think emphase might have an option. Also found this with a quick search:

Solaredge US | Offer Home EV Charging with Solar

Differentiate your business and drive sales with the only EV charger under the sun that’s powered by the sun. Read more about SolarEdge’s Smart EV Charger.

www.solaredge.com

I’d suggest talking with your solar installer

 

[Burner]

Quels sont les prix moyens (heures pleines/heures de pointe) aux États-Unis, s'il vous plaît ?

In Northern California the lowest cost is 0.21$/KW for most customers, and 0.16$ for customers who install a separate meter.

 

[DMiller]

Quels sont les prix moyens (heures pleines/heures de pointe) aux États-Unis, s'il vous plaît ?

It varies, mainly by state. The government has a table showing the average price in each state here. I live in Texas where it says the average is 8.36 (cents per kW-hour). We don't always have time of day rates, so that is for any time of the day.

Ça depende sur l'état. Je vis dans Texas où le prix moyen est 8.36 (centime par kW-heure). Souvent il n'y a qu'un seul tarif pour toutes les heures. Regardez la table ici.

 

[pss]

Exactly what you want is the dcbel. This product is by a company of the name that is in Montreal, Canada. They are taking pre-orders. This will charge your vehicle with both L2 AC as well as directly with DC current from PV you generate. Check out their website.

 

[pss]

Is anyone aware of a hybrid or smart charger solution that will allow your solar panels to charge your car during the day with excess solar power?
My apologies if this was covered in another thread but I thought I saw reference to a way to better leverage your solar power than pumping it into the grid during the day and paying to take it out at night. I'm in California and they have made it very prohibitive as of 2022 to own solar, charging more for the grid connection and paying very little for the excess power sent to the grid from your panels. The most cost effective solution would be to use any excess solar to charge my car during the day and not send it to the grid, saving on higher costs of pulling power out during non-peak hours (our electricity is pretty expensive even off-peak at 20 cents/kwh). I am about to spring for a main panel upgrade on my 1970's house so I can upgrade my 240V circuit for a 48 Amp fast level 2 charger as noted in other threads and if I am going to spend $$$$ for that I'd like to tie in my on-roof solar if possible. I really like some of the Open EVSE solutions in other threads that might be smart enough to tell you when one car is done charging and switch to charging the other car (we now have 2 EV's!).

dcbel

 

[YellowFE]

I've been looking at the L1/L2 OpenEVSE (OpenEVSE - Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions) and the firmware has a real-time solar diversion option (listed under Smart Features).

Also see OpenEVSE / EmonEVSE Setup Guide

 

[pss]

I looked at open evse.
I didn't see anything cheap and nothing that would output any significant amount of DC current.

 

[Skid]

Quels sont les prix moyens (heures pleines/heures de pointe) aux États-Unis, s'il vous plaît ?

Au Canada, province du Nouveau-Brunswick, 13 cents le kwh, en tout temps….

 

[Burner]

Exactly what you want is the dcbel. This product is by a company of the name that is in Montreal, Canada. They are taking pre-orders. This will charge your vehicle with both L2 AC as well as directly with DC current from PV you generate. Check out their website.

I spoke to them last week before installing a regular L2 charger. Dcbel is basically a smart inverter, that can replace your current inverter from the solar panels and provide control over where the energy is being sent, between the home, the EV charger and the grid. Unless you are adding new solar panel now I don't believe it is worth it, but others might have a different use case...

 

[pss]

From my reading of the dcbel specs, in addition to being a level 2 charger, it can also directly use PV input, increase the DC voltage output to like 250 and output 16 kW of DC into the vehicle. I know of no other home charger that can do this yet. Now you would not be getting a 50 kW or 150 kW or 350 kW charger, but you would be getting a free 16 kW from your PV. And at 77.4 that's like a 4.5 hour charger. But I too think it is too much money, especially since I have an outback Radian that output 240 volt from PV and I can power my charger like that, indirectly using the PV.

 

[avh]

From my reading of the dcbel specs, in addition to being a level 2 charger, it can also directly use PV input, increase the DC voltage output to like 250 and output 16 kW of DC into the vehicle. I know of no other home charger that can do this yet. Now you would not be getting a 50 kW or 150 kW or 350 kW charger, but you would be getting a free 16 kW from your PV. And at 77.4 that's like a 4.5 hour charger. But I too think it is too much money, especially since I have an outback Radian that output 240 volt from PV and I can power my charger like that, indirectly using the PV.

I'm late to the game but it might help future EV owners. I have a solar panels array and I was thinking about the same scenario: Can I control the EV charger to prioritize using solar power?
I think I found a solution, I will post more after I receive the EV and the charger but I confirmed with Emporia support over chat and they said it can be done. They make an EV charger that paired with their energy monitoring solution can control charging. I was thinking on getting the Emporia EV 48 AMPs charger anyways because is a great value. I'm only waiting for the UL listed hardware to start shipping at the end of May. In theory they can monitor and match the solar output if you install the monitoring clamps on the wires that are coming from the solar panels.
Emporia: Smarter Home Energy Management (emporiaenergy.com)

 

[Rog M]

So I have bought the Zappi charger that can supposedly directly draw power from my house's solar panels.
I live in Australia and this is a UK design product. So not sure if you can get in the USA. But I would think you need to find something similar. It has different modes to optimise when it draws power from the solar. Can set it to only use excess solar, solar only. Combination of solar and grid. Or just use grid.
I am not a expert and I haven't had it installed or tested yet. Waiting on my electrician to get round to put it in. Will update you when I confirm it does what it says. But have seen online reviews saying they happy with it.

Zappi type 2 charger

 

[pss]

So I have bought the Zappi charger that can supposedly directly draw power from my house's solar panels.
I live in Australia and this is a UK design product. So not sure if you can get in the USA. But I would think you need to find something similar. It has different modes to optimise when it draws power from the solar. Can set it to only use excess solar, solar only. Combination of solar and grid. Or just use grid.
I am not a expert and I haven't had it installed or tested yet. Waiting on my electrician to get round to put it in. Will update you when I confirm it does what it says. But have seen online reviews saying they happy with it.

Zappi type 2 charger

dcbel charger and inverter, montreal, Canada

 

[Cataract2]

Is anyone aware of a hybrid or smart charger solution that will allow your solar panels to charge your car during the day with excess solar power?
My apologies if this was covered in another thread but I thought I saw reference to a way to better leverage your solar power than pumping it into the grid during the day and paying to take it out at night. I'm in California and they have made it very prohibitive as of 2022 to own solar, charging more for the grid connection and paying very little for the excess power sent to the grid from your panels. The most cost effective solution would be to use any excess solar to charge my car during the day and not send it to the grid, saving on higher costs of pulling power out during non-peak hours (our electricity is pretty expensive even off-peak at 20 cents/kwh). I am about to spring for a main panel upgrade on my 1970's house so I can upgrade my 240V circuit for a 48 Amp fast level 2 charger as noted in other threads and if I am going to spend $$$$ for that I'd like to tie in my on-roof solar if possible. I really like some of the Open EVSE solutions in other threads that might be smart enough to tell you when one car is done charging and switch to charging the other car (we now have 2 EV's!).

I know nothing of what you are talking about.

I've been looking at the L1/L2 OpenEVSE (OpenEVSE - Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions) and the firmware has a real-time solar diversion option (listed under Smart Features).

Also see OpenEVSE / EmonEVSE Setup Guide

Using this one in combination with IotaWatt.

 

[1AVI8OR]

I live in SC and have a 5kW solar roof installation. My 20 year contract with the local utility company is a pure Net-Metering agreement, i.e. they take my kWh for the same rate I take it from them. Over-production is credited and I produce more than enough to get me through December and January, when the short days and poor weather severely curtail my production. For the past three years, I have not paid for electricity other than the base-fee, which is only fair, since I am still using their infrastructure. On average, my daily production is about 22kWh throughout each year.
This week a L2 wall charger will be wired up in my garage and I will be able to charge at any time of the day, since we don't have peak/off-peak rates.
I'll let you know how that set-up works out for me.