Introduction

Charging your vehicle at home can be quite taxing on the electrical installation. With Smappee smart charging - surplus only you can ensure that only the surplus export of solar production is used to charge your vehicle. 

Minimum export required to start charging

An electrical vehicle will always require a minimum of 6A per phase to start charging. This is not determined by Smappee or by the charging station. This is a technical limitation of an EV (IEC 61851-1 standard). Lets look at some of the numbers to better understand this: 

• Single phase charging requires at least 6A or 1.4 kW. 
• Three phase charging requires at least 18A (3x6A) or 4.2 kW (3x1.4kW).

In order for your EV to start charging on surplus solar production as soon as possible we have introduced  2 features:

• Automated switching between single phase and three phase charging
• Minimum percentage surplus slider

Dynamic phase switching between single phase and three phase charging

We've built a new feature to maximize the use of surplus of self-generated solar power for homes and businesses. Now the Smappee EV chargers will automatically switch from 3-phase to 1-phase charging when the solar power generated drops to 6 A or less per phase.

It is activated in Smart charging modes "solar only" and "schedules and surplus".

Example

You connect your electric vehicle which can charge on a single phase and on three phases. When there is room in the vehicle battery, dynamic phase switching can automatically between 1-phase and 3-phase charging related to the surplus of solar power generated.

Requirements for Phase switching

Only the following products support this (this is not supported by older generations nor EV Dual / EV Base)

EV Wall Home (V3) (manuals) (wiring)
(6220xxxxxx) (Cable version)
(6221xxxxxx) (Socket version)

EV Wall Latest version (manuals) (wiring)
(6230xxxxxx) (Cable version)
(6231xxxxxx) (Socket version)

EV One Latest version (manuals) (wiring)
(6531xxxxxx) (Socket version)

EV One Business (V3) (manuals) (wiring)
(6522xxxxxx) (Socket version)

EV One Home (V3) (manuals) (wiring)
(6521xxxxxx) (Socket version)

• This is only available if you have a three-phase – star (3 x 400 V) charging station installation. This is not available for any other electrical network such as three-phase – delta (3 x 230 V) or any foreign networks.
  • Having doubts? Please refer to your installer who will be able to determine if your installation is compatible.
• This function is only available during surplus charging:
  •  
    • The Solar only mode
    • The Schedules and surplus as part of the Smart charging mode 

Minimum percentage surplus slider

To start charging an electric vehicle, a minimum current of 6A is required. When charging based on solar energy, it’s possible that your solar panels do not generate enough power to meet this threshold, especially during cloudy weather or low sunlight conditions. In such cases, charging will not begin.

To ensure continuous charging, even when solar production is insufficient, you can enable the option to supplement solar energy with power from the grid. This allows the system to combine solar and grid energy to reach the minimum required current and start charging your vehicle.

This is where you can set how much of the minimum required current (6A or 3x6A) must be provided by surplus export of solar production. With this, you can reduce the minimum percentage of surplus necessary to start charging.