I am looking at using the EVSE charger vs Tesla's since it is cheaper and Tesla is not updating its app to allow changing the rate from the phone/wifi to take advantage of solar to charge the car. One advantage of EVSE also is it can be integrated with PiMon which monitors your solar production. So from what I read, one can set PiMon to adjust automatically the charge rate on the car, ie my objective is to charge the car with just solar even if it takes more days, and never receive power from your provider. Since solar intensity changes, the Amps will be adjusted accordingly and I am curious if this affects/impacts the battery overall performance.
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Leonar, thanks for the response !. BTW, EVSE is a wall charger, OpenEVSE - Electric Vehicle Charging Solutions , a lot less expensive than Tesla's PWC and seems ideal for those with solar.
Don’t forget there is a federal rebate for EV charger install and hardware costs
- About Form 8911, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit | Internal Revenue Service
- 4 things you need to know about the EV Charging Tax Credit | The Environmental Center
- About Form 8911, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit | Internal Revenue Service
- 4 things you need to know about the EV Charging Tax Credit | The Environmental Center
OMG, you made my day, I did not know the credit could be applied to the charger also ! THANKS!
if the goal is to charge strictly using solar wouldn't it be easier just to use a battery backup such as a powerwall or some such thing to charge the car with using the stored solar energy? Although I guess having that much stored energy would be pretty expensive.
From my point of view, it is all dependent on one's life style. If you are not going to be home during the solar peak times, then the battery may be a way to go but depends on the ROI (battery cost currently is high but expected to come down and more efficient). One can say but who cares, you are selling it to the power co. and then using it another day? But I am a NEM 2.0 in San Diego and how it works is there is a charge any time you are receiving from the power company, ie, the sell/buy ratio is not really 1:1. Since I am retired driving about 40 miles every 2-3 days, I do not care if the car takes more than a day to charge (I like to keep the car charged to the 80%). I get home and plug the car, then when my solar is producing at least 2.4kW/hr (10AM-3PM), I set the car amps so I do not exceed 2.4kW. I know my solar at times will be higher than 2.4kW, and why I am looking at this openEVSE/emonPi, to auto adjust my car amps to the solar capacity and eliminate the need to manually fine tune the car to match my solar. (BTW, presently I am kind of semi-automated; I run the Tesla Plugin android app on my phone together with MacroAndroid, so everyday between 10-3PM it turns my car charging on/off with a preset of 240V/10Amp no matter where I am, however if no solar I have to turn the macro off.)
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