diy solar

diy solar

Victron is Over-priced Eurotrash. Why would anybody buy Victron over an AiO?

you can get a lower powered EVSE they go down to 6 AMP
Charging that slow has limited usefulness unless you are talling grid/tou where you stay plugged in whenever you are not driving. Keeping in mind your useful solar output window is maybe 6-8 hours, 6A < 1500W is not going to get you much of a charge. I commute to work around 35 miles/day. If I can work from home 1-2 days/week. I need around 9KWH (at 4mi/KWH), it won't give me enough to keep my head above water. Further, during that window I am producing dramatically more power than I am using.

24A seems to be optimal with about 18KW of panels here in Phoenix. The problem with solar is you get it when you get it, not when you want it.
Typical weekend: Blue line is solar production, the red line from 1100-1430 is charging the GF's Kona. She worked 4 days the prior week, I allow EVSE to run between 1100-1530 on the weekends. 1000-1600 during the week.
1695812502621.png
 
Charging that slow has limited usefulness unless you are talling grid/tou where you stay plugged in whenever you are not driving.
Which is exactly what I'll be doing.

I expect the vast majority of my car's energy to come from my own rooftop solar PV. That my EVSE will be able to follow the available excess solar all the way down to a 6 A charge rate is still useful to me. It might not be much but that's energy I'd rather have in the car than not. Naturally when the PV is cranking it out the the EVSE can ramp up charging accordingly. My car's AC charger is limited to 6.6 kW (~39 km/hour charging).

I do not want to import energy from the grid if I can avoid doing so. Grid energy costs me between 33-61 c/kWh depending on time of day while I get 12 c/kW credit for feeding any excess energy back. So when the clouds come over, or we put on the ducted aircon, the water heater PV diverter is heating water, then I want the EV to adjust its charging accordingly.

At ~12,000 km/year, that's about 2 MWh of charge energy needed. ~A$240/year to power the car from foregone export credit. If I used overnight off-peak it would be closer to A$660.
 
Which is exactly what I'll be doing.

I expect the vast majority of my car's energy to come from my own rooftop solar PV. That my EVSE will be able to follow the available excess solar all the way down to a 6 A charge rate is still useful to me. It might not be much but that's energy I'd rather have in the car than not. Naturally when the PV is cranking it out the the EVSE can ramp up charging accordingly. My car's AC charger is limited to 6.6 kW (~39 km/hour charging).

I do not want to import energy from the grid if I can avoid doing so. Grid energy costs me between 33-61 c/kWh depending on time of day while I get 12 c/kW credit for feeding any excess energy back. So when the clouds come over, or we put on the ducted aircon, the water heater PV diverter is heating water, then I want the EV to adjust its charging accordingly.

At ~12,000 km/year, that's about 2 MWh of charge energy needed. ~A$240/year to power the car from foregone export credit. If I used overnight off-peak it would be closer to A$660.
I'm not totally following you.

I ordered an openEVSE unit a few weeks ago that supposedly allows a dynamic charge rate via an API which I want to leverage. No other unit I've researched or used allows it. The adjustable units I have/had required you to set the rate before plugging into the vehicle, after which you are locked at that rate. What EVSE did you find that allows this? (the spec does BTW) Further, what control software are you running that is monitoring your PV and adjusting your EV output accordingly? (I'm planning on writing something).

6600 is an odd rate, what kind of car is it? All of the non-Tesla EV's I've looked at have onboard level 2 chargers up to 240/32 (7600W) or better. I think the Lucid actually has a full 50A (12000W) AC unit, and a number of the newer vehicles ship with a 40A (9600W) unit.

Based on your 5.9km/KWH your only talking 10 klicks/hour at 1500, all of which assumes you are at home during the day/sunlight hours, 7 days a week to plug in to get your 350 klicks of range. In other words you can only drive at night. So IMNSHO a 6A charge rate is fairly useless. I've charged a time or two at 120/12A, it's pathetic. Unless you are not driving at all, it's not worth the bother. If you are pumping off-peak grid, you might as well just max out the rate. If you are trying to shave a few amps off your PV to charge a car battery you are likely to end up a tad frustrated. The last time I leveraged a 120/12 was when I went to a cabin that had an outlet, and the car was pretty much parked for two days. It didn't fill it up, but I was able to get enough to get back home before without charging at an EA. I saved $8 (EA is pricey).

The problem is EV's use a LOT of electricity, and electricity is just not that expensive even on-peak. My EV's have 64KWH battery packs, I only have 32KWH of battery for my solar, I want to double that. I try and optimize my charging times during daytime to soak up excess PV output, but if I could only pull 1500W, I think I'd just plug in at night. I might also note that it takes more than 32KWH to put 32KWH in my car. I do want to do something similar to what you envision, I have relays and switches all over the place including on my EV charging pedestal, so at some point I hope to be able to accomplish what you are discussing in an automated fashion, I've just not seen anything that will do it without me getting happy writing code.
 
How do you like the Leaf? What were the main reasons for the Leaf over other options?

It replaced my 2015 Leaf that got totaled. It was less expensive than other options. The floor mats from the 2015 fit the 2019. I had zero problems with the 2015 and still had close to the original range.

I went full EV, instead of a hybrid, because I didn't want another engine to change the oil on.

The 2019 is supposed to have a range of around 220 miles. But can get up to 270 miles according to the dash. Do I actually get 270 miles? Beats me, I don't keep track of it at all. I drive it and charge it when it needs it.
 
What EVSE did you find that allows this?
Any that use OCPP and work with Charge HQ:

Some OCCP EVSEs are also able to be controlled with Home Assistant integration. Note that my grid-tied PV and consumption metering is Fronius, which integrates with Charge HQ as well (and Home Assistant or other various means).

I'm likely to get the ZJ Beny unit. I have everything ready for it to connect. Picked up my EV today.
 
My 2019 Nissan Leaf SV+ uses 6.6 kW. At least that's what it says on the dash and the app.
You know, I was thinking maybe the Leaf, It was actually ~3600 for the longest time. Likely because they kept an abysmal battery in the thing forever. Things started to improve around 2016, and they finally got over 100miles on a charge. I think 2019 they still had CHAEDMO for DC. I actually don't mind that connector CCS is awful. I shopped one ~2018 but bought a PHEV instead. What would be better is a built-in MPPT style device. Just dump solar panels DC direct, let it charge the batteries. One can dream.
 
You know, I was thinking maybe the Leaf, It was actually ~3600 for the longest time. Likely because they kept an abysmal battery in the thing forever. Things started to improve around 2016, and they finally got over 100miles on a charge. I think 2019 they still had CHAEDMO for DC. I actually don't mind that connector CCS is awful. I shopped one ~2018 but bought a PHEV instead. What would be better is a built-in MPPT style device. Just dump solar panels DC direct, let it charge the batteries. One can dream.

I don't fully understand how he's using this Leaf battery, but it seems like he is actually hooking it up to MPPT, treating it as a high-voltage battery.


Maybe someone else can explain this, and if it could actually work with a Leaf.

Of course, much more adoption of V2X is on the horizon, so maybe things will drastically improve over the next couple of years.
 
Any that use OCPP and work with Charge HQ:

Some OCCP EVSEs are also able to be controlled with Home Assistant integration. Note that my grid-tied PV and consumption metering is Fronius, which integrates with Charge HQ as well (and Home Assistant or other various means).

I'm likely to get the ZJ Beny unit. I have everything ready for it to connect. Picked up my EV today.
Wrong forums for this, pretty narrow list of evse's. I thought the 'Chargepoint' home units might, not clear the last check, and they are pricey. openEVSE supports the charge point protocol I think v1.2, not sure about 2.0/1. Thanks for the heads-up. It figures tesla supports it at the car firmware, they are way ahead in the software department.
 
Further, what control software are you running that is monitoring your PV and adjusting your EV output accordingly? (I'm planning on writing something).
I may do it with Home Assistant, or perhaps just use Node Red. Already have my power flow card set up ready :)

Screen Shot 2023-09-28 at 1.49.12 pm.png

6600 is an odd rate, what kind of car is it?
MG4 Essence 64.

Based on your 5.9km/KWH your only talking 10 klicks/hour at 1500, all of which assumes you are at home during the day/sunlight hours, 7 days a week to plug in to get your 350 klicks of range.
Except it won't be charging at that low level most of the time. It will ramp up and down the charge rate based on how much solar PV we have available. IOW it will vary the charging between 1.4 kW and 6.6 kW based on hw much excess production there is.

e.g. yesterday you can see that we had plenty of excess (over 40 kWh of excess shown by the purple columns), which can instead be diverted to the EV. It can start charging early in the morning at a lower charge rate, then increase the charge rate as more excess capacity becomes available during the middle of the day, and ramp down again in the afternoon.

Screen Shot 2023-09-28 at 1.53.11 pm.png

Our car will be home for long enough often enough to use our own solar PV for most of its energy demand. On average, we have enough excess capacity for ~100 km of EV range per day. On average we do 1/3rd of that.

The last time I leveraged a 120/12
We are a 240 V supply here. Actually we are 415 V / 3-phase but most stuff is single phase 240 V.

The problem is EV's use a LOT of electricity, and electricity is just not that expensive even on-peak.
Maybe not where you live. Here's it's 61c/kWh.
 
Last edited:
I don't fully understand how he's using this Leaf battery, but it seems like he is actually hooking it up to MPPT, treating it as a high-voltage battery.


Maybe someone else can explain this, and if it could actually work with a Leaf.

Of course, much more adoption of V2X is on the horizon, so maybe things will drastically improve over the next couple of years.
He's using a leaf battery as storage for his inverter. . . ie he tapped the BMS and the HV lines into a custom box specifically for Leaf/Tesla batteries. It wont charge the battery in the car. However the V2X stuff will likely solve this issue long term. Okay Elon, make it happen and open it up!
 
Maybe not where you live. Here's it's 61c/kWh.

Love it, keep us posted.

.61*.64 = .39USD Pretty high indeed, we are like .27 in July/Aug, but I'm spoiled, we have a Nuke plant 30 miles from my house. I do expect rates to go up. I think California has numbers like yours. Even so, it's still pretty inexpensive in the grand scheme, just doesn't feel like it when you get a $400 electric bill.
 
He's using a leaf battery as storage for his inverter. . . ie he tapped the BMS and the HV lines into a custom box specifically for Leaf/Tesla batteries. It wont charge the battery in the car. However the V2X stuff will likely solve this issue long term. Okay Elon, make it happen and open it up!
Elon is on the trailing edge of this one. He said recently that Tesla will add support for it, but we'll see. Meanwhile, Ford, Nissan, Kia, Hyundai, pretty much everyone else has either rolled it out, or are in the process, except for Mazda. Mazda's not a fan of EVs...
 
Mazda's not a fan of EVs...
It's too bad.. the Miata might have made a pretty nifty EV, like the original Tesla Roadster.

Not being a fan of EVs doesn't seem like a viable strategy going forward for a company that predominantly sells car like vehicles and not trucks.
 
It replaced my 2015 Leaf that got totaled. It was less expensive than other options. The floor mats from the 2015 fit the 2019. I had zero problems with the 2015 and still had close to the original range.

I went full EV, instead of a hybrid, because I didn't want another engine to change the oil on.

The 2019 is supposed to have a range of around 220 miles. But can get up to 270 miles according to the dash. Do I actually get 270 miles? Beats me, I don't keep track of it at all. I drive it and charge it when it needs it.
Thank you for the follow up. Seems like it will be a great option for me.
Do you know what battery chemistry the 19s use?
Do you keep track of an average miles / kwh?
I'm thinking I could give it a small charge daily and full charge on the weekends, allowing me to commute for free vs ~$8 / day in my Silverado...
 
Thank you for the follow up. Seems like it will be a great option for me.
Do you know what battery chemistry the 19s use?
Do you keep track of an average miles / kwh?
I'm thinking I could give it a small charge daily and full charge on the weekends, allowing me to commute for free vs ~$8 / day in my Silverado...

From what I hear, the 2024 uses a new battery chemistry. So 2019 is the old version, NMC I think.
I don't track anything other that looking to see what the range is after each charge. Even then, I don't write it down.

With my 2015 I charged it every day at work. With the 2019 I charge it every two or three days at work. I try very hard to avoid small incremental charges. The EV tech at the dealership told me about an owner that was charging incrementally every day, maybe only 15 miles at a time. Apparently the battery really didn't like that and it either failed or ended up with a much decreased capacity (don't remember). Nissan wasn't going to warranty it due to the charging method by the owner.

I'm experimenting with the way I charge. When I let it charge from say 50 miles to empty to 100% I get around 220 to 240 miles of range. When I charge for a couple hours, let it rest for a couple hours, then charge to 100% I get 270 miles of range. I'm thinking that the pause lets the system cool down.
 
As I came to realize my 5th wheel factory installed system was woefully inadequate, started down the path of Victron and Battleborn. Yes they both cost a lot more, but the system just works wonderfully well. Dragonfly put up with my hundreds of questions, and the system worked perfectly well from startup.
 
Back
Top