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Solar compatibility and using excess solar to charge my EV?

Our chargers come with solar integration as standard!

Understanding how your various electrical systems integrate can be complex. We understand that if you have excess solar power and your EV is plugged in, you’ll likely want to use this excess power to charge your car, rather than export it to the grid. That’s why all our chargers come with ‘solar matching’ functionality as standard!

 

If you have battery storage installed with your solar system, we would recommend speaking to our team before purchasing. Due to the numerous installation methods, brand of batteries and configuration of your battery storage system, full integration with the battery system can be challenging for any charger on the market. 

 

We recommend using solar matching as an additional feature and not one to replace scheduled charging. While using excess solar energy is great, it’s not a guarantee that the excess energy will be there, or how long it will be there for. Dependant on your home battery charge level, solar production levels and household demand, there may not be enough excess solar for your EV charging needs.

 

What is solar matching?

Solar matching is a term used with EV chargers, where the rate energy is being sent back to the grid at is matched by the charger, to power your vehicle. This results in the charge speed and the export being matched, to give an export figure as close to zero as possible.

 

 

How do I activate it?

Within your charger app, find the solar settings and turn it on. All the hardware and connections have been made when the charger was installed. Aside from setting the app settings to allow this, there is nothing more you need to do.

 

Depending on the brand of charger you have, the settings and configurability of this will vary. For the most accurate response, please contact the manufacturer, who may even be able to enable this in the background for you.

 

Do I need to do anything on my solar system?

No. Everything is managed by your EV charger; your solar system settings or configuration does not need to be changed.

 

What happens if the house needs power?

Your property will always take priority over any energy usage. If your property needs power, the charger will recognise this and try to prevent power being purchased from the grid where possible. See the next section for further details.

 

What happens if the export decreases?

As solar production decreases the car charging rate will also decrease to match it, as much as possible. If the exported energy amount drops below 1.4kW (~6 amps), the vehicle cannot be charged by this amount of energy. In this case, the energy would be exported to the grid instead.

 

If the production from your solar system remains consistent, but property consumption increases, this will be seen as reduction in the export amount. If this drops below 1.4kW, as above, this will stop charging.