Hi all technically sound peoples,
Please help me with two questions.
I have solar panels and 9.5k battery and car without proper EV charging system.
Now I’m trying to understand why’s my car only charging in night (7.5) if I stopped my home battery to pause, anyone else can help to fix it.
Second what is best way in day to keep my home battery charged and I can use solar powered to charge my car.
Anyone else have any suggestions please.
Kind regards
Jayesh
Jayesh car without proper EV charging system
You mean you're just using a 3-pin (granny) charger ?
Does the car have an API you can use to turn charging on/off ?
Now I’m trying to understand why’s my car only charging in night (7.5) if I stopped my home battery to pause, anyone else can help to fix it.
Does 7.5 mean 7.5p/kWh which implies Octopus Intelligent Go tariff ?
If you don't pause your battery (or also charge battery at the same time as the car), the battery will tend to discharge to the car, preventing grid import. But that shouldn't prevent car charging.
Second what is best way in day to keep my home battery charged and I can use solar powered to charge my car.
"best" varies from person to person. The system will usually charge the battery from solar, and you can charge from grid if/when you want.
Yes, you can use solar to charge the car, but with a 3-pin charger I found it frustrating, since it runs at a fixed rate and is unaware of clouds obscuring the sun, for example.
If you have a cheap overnight rate, and export price is not significantly lower than overnight import price, probably simpler to charge the car from the grid, and export solar instead. (Even on Octopus Go, which is import 9.5p, export 8p, I decided it wasn't worth the hassle to save 1.5p/kWh.)