EV Charging Stations (CS)

Pib · August 4

26 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

Not all Rever chargers are in this scheme. Like @Pib said, there are Rever chargers at Shell stations that are almost always unoccupied as they don’t have free charging there. These are the black pins. Only red pinned stations are involved.

Actually the chargers at Shell stations can also be "seashell" Pins (not free)...along with the Rever Black Pins not being free. The ReverSharger app displays Rever Black, Rever Red and Shell seashell Pins. Three different Pins on the app...only the Red Pin chargers are free for some BYD owners.

mistral53 · August 4

8 hours ago, motdaeng said:

some interesting stats about charging stations:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-vehicle-charging

thailand has 64 public charging stations (2023) per electric vehicle. compared to other countries,

this number isn't very high. however, it seems that most ev owners charge at home, as wait

times at some popular charging stations usually only happen during holidays.

i'm not sure if the charging stations at mg, gwm, volvo, byd, tesla etc., are included in this statistic

because i wouldn't call them "real public" charging stations, because they are not open to all bev!

Interesting graph.

I think you got it backwards, though - Thailand has 64 LDV per charging point, which is pretty dam poor. It does not help that too many of the charging points are AC, either.

Just check where China is - by far in the lead, especially because China also has the highest power output per vehicle. (China bashers just move on, nothing to see her.........lol)

Pib · August 4

Well, the charging gods smiled upon me today. The wife and I went to the MIL's house in the Mueang Nakorn Pathom area...about 50Km outside Bangkok...the wife wanted to see a brand new addition (i.e., baby) to the immediate family. On the way back we came back a slightly different and longer way to our Bangkok home which allowed us to pass by a couple of ReverSharger Red Pin chargers...maybe they would have some available chargers...the app showed both locations had 1 of 2 DC chargers available each time I looked at the app.

Got to the first place which was BYD dealership with 1 of 2 DC charger cables still available. I plugged in the Atto with about 76% charge level with fingers crossed as to what would happen....would automatic Plug & Charge start?---and it did!!!!! I didn't have to scan any QR code on the charger or press anything in the app....it just started charging automatically after about 1 minutes of the charger and Atto communicating with each other....and 25 minutes later the Atto reached 100% charged and the charger stopped automatically....since the Atto was pretty full already the charging rate was only 32KW which is normal for the Atto charging curve....if it had been down around 50% the charging rate would have been around 88KW. The charger's display and the phone app displayed Bt122 worth of electrons being pumped into my car but also with a Bt122 credit for a net charge of "zero." And no charge hit my credit card. Success!!!! When I pulled out there were two Atto's in a queue waiting for my departure.

And as it turned out after we drove some more on the way back to Bangkok the app showed another Red Pin charging location with 1 of 2 DC chargers available. I'm only down to 97% charge at this point but decided if we would atttempt a charge at this location also...would only need to charge but a few minutes to get back up to 100% and rack up another successful "free" charge....I didn't consider such a short charging period to be hogging-in. HOWEVER, I drove by the location by mistake...thinking it was another BYD dealership when I should had been looking for a Bangchak station....a U-turn in the terrible traffic would have probably taken me at least 20 minutes to get back to the station and maybe that available charger would no longer be available. So we continued on home. Would have been nice just to give some free charging a second try today as that's the only reason I wanted to give the 2nd location a try.

Anyway, I got some free electrons today--finally!!! I now know for sure I can get free charging at a Red Pin charger with the charging process being super easy with automatic Plug & Charge...but the problem remains in finding a Red Pin charger that is not already being used.

motdaeng · August 4

2 hours ago, mistral53 said:

Interesting graph.

I think you got it backwards, though - Thailand has 64 LDV per charging point, which is pretty dam poor. It does not help that too many of the charging points are AC, either.

Just check where China is - by far in the lead, especially because China also has the highest power output per vehicle. (China bashers just move on, nothing to see her.........lol)

you are right, thank's for correcting it!!!

it seems it was not my best sunday morning 🌞

Pib · August 4

10 hours ago, motdaeng said:

some interesting stats about charging stations:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-vehicle-charging

thailand has 64 public charging stations (2023) per electric vehicle. compared to other countries,

this number isn't very high. however, it seems that most ev owners charge at home, as wait

times at some popular charging stations usually only happen during holidays.

i'm not sure if the charging stations at mg, gwm, volvo, byd, tesla etc., are included in this statistic

because i wouldn't call them "real public" charging stations, because they are not open to all bev!

1 hour ago, mistral53 said:

Interesting graph.

I think you got it backwards, though - Thailand has 64 LDV per charging point, which is pretty dam poor. It does not help that too many of the charging points are AC, either.

Just check where China is - by far in the lead, especially because China also has the highest power output per vehicle. (China bashers just move on, nothing to see her.........lol)

I also read the "2023" chart as 64 LDV per charging point. However, two years earlier the "2021" stats (chart below) showed Thailand with around 15 LDV per charging point. Wow....a healthy change for the worst from having 15 electric vehicles per charging point in 2021 to have 64 electric vehices per charging point in 2023.

However, I don't think it's because Thailand is not adding charging stations at a good clip but because in 2022 and 2023 there was an explosion of BEV car sales in Thailand. Although a lot of charging points have been added since 2021 the number of EVs sold has grown faster. And I'm not sure the number of home chargers has been adequately considered in these charts.

Now IMO there are plenty of charging stations along most major highways for long trips, but is there enough in the right places for "everyday" charging" in your local area "if you do not have a home charger?" I think the corect answer is No. But if you do have a home wallcharger which several EV brands provide for free in Thailand to include most to all of the installation costs then a person's need for public chargers for everyday, local driving is pretty low...maybe zero.

motdaeng · August 5

On 8/4/2024 at 8:44 AM, motdaeng said:

some interesting stats about charging stations:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024/trends-in-electric-vehicle-charging

thailand has per electric vehicle 64 public charging stations (2023) ~~per electric vehicle~~. compared to other countries,

this number isn't very high. however, it seems that most ev owners charge at home, as wait

times at some popular charging stations usually only happen during holidays.

i'm not sure if the charging stations at mg, gwm, volvo, byd, tesla etc., are included in this statistic

because i wouldn't call them "real public" charging stations, because they are not open to all bev!

according to the stats from the end of 2023, thailand had a total of 172,540 electric vehicles and 9,694 charging stations.

this means there are 17.8 electric vehicles per public charging point in thailand, not 64 as in the stats above!

my conclusion:

- there seems to be a discrepancy in these stats (with my post from 8/4/2024), but it's unclear where the issue lies.
- it looks to me like thailand ranks in the middle worldwide in terms of the proportion of bev to charging stations.

(normally, only non-ev users claim there aren't enough charging stations in thailand ...)
- the charging points from different car brands like mg, gwm, byd, etc. (estimated to be around 1,000?) are not included in these statistics.

KhunLA · August 5

So far there seems to be plenty if O&A. Not sure about local needs for those that can't charge at home, but I really can't see a problem, unless racking up a lot of kms every day. Which probably means your passing a DC charger while most are at school or work, so should be available.

Daughter had to wait a few weeks for her wall charger to be installed, and wasn't using the granny charger, but no problem topping up when needed.

Locally a few around, with a couple Altervim at Lotus's, that always seem to be available. A PEA Volta at one of the 7-11s. MG of course, with another MG charger at one of the hotels. Though no apartment or condo complexes around, so would think most locals are charging at home.

Within 1/2 kms away, there's another MG ZS owner, a Fomm One owner, and a couple Haval owners. Few Teslas owners a bit further away, along with Atto 3 owners. Actually surprising for being in Nakhon Nowhere, sort of. Only the MG dealer within 100 kms of town, I think.

Pib · August 6

On 8/4/2024 at 5:53 PM, Pib said:

Well, the charging gods smiled upon me today. The wife and I went to the MIL's house in the Mueang Nakorn Pathom area...about 50Km outside Bangkok...the wife wanted to see a brand new addition (i.e., baby) to the immediate family. On the way back we came back a slightly different and longer way to our Bangkok home which allowed us to pass by a couple of ReverSharger Red Pin chargers...maybe they would have some available chargers...the app showed both locations had 1 of 2 DC chargers available each time I looked at the app.

Got to the first place which was BYD dealership with 1 of 2 DC charger cables still available. I plugged in the Atto with about 76% charge level with fingers crossed as to what would happen....would automatic Plug & Charge start?---and it did!!!!! I didn't have to scan any QR code on the charger or press anything in the app....it just started charging automatically after about 1 minutes of the charger and Atto communicating with each other....and 25 minutes later the Atto reached 100% charged and the charger stopped automatically....since the Atto was pretty full already the charging rate was only 32KW which is normal for the Atto charging curve....if it had been down around 50% the charging rate would have been around 88KW. The charger's display and the phone app displayed Bt122 worth of electrons being pumped into my car but also with a Bt122 credit for a net charge of "zero." And no charge hit my credit card. Success!!!! When I pulled out there were two Atto's in a queue waiting for my departure.

And as it turned out after we drove some more on the way back to Bangkok the app showed another Red Pin charging location with 1 of 2 DC chargers available. I'm only down to 97% charge at this point but decided if we would atttempt a charge at this location also...would only need to charge but a few minutes to get back up to 100% and rack up another successful "free" charge....I didn't consider such a short charging period to be hogging-in. HOWEVER, I drove by the location by mistake...thinking it was another BYD dealership when I should had been looking for a Bangchak station....a U-turn in the terrible traffic would have probably taken me at least 20 minutes to get back to the station and maybe that available charger would no longer be available. So we continued on home. Would have been nice just to give some free charging a second try today as that's the only reason I wanted to give the 2nd location a try.

Anyway, I got some free electrons today--finally!!! I now know for sure I can get free charging at a Red Pin charger with the charging process being super easy with automatic Plug & Charge...but the problem remains in finding a Red Pin charger that is not already being used.

And I got more free electrons today. Coming back today from a Foodland groceries run here in western Bangkok I passed that Bangchak station again which has a Red Pin ReverSharger DC charger. I checked the ReverSharger app just before leaving Foodland and it showed 1 of 2 DC chargers available...but by the time I got to the station about 10 minutes later both DC chargers were in use.

However, one of the charging Atto's was already at 92%...so, after about 10 minutes that Atto finished charging and I then plugged in with a 60% charge level. The charger started charging automatically, about 25 minutes later I was charged up to 100%, and got charged zero baht....well, actually the cost would have been Bt222 but a Bt222 discount was applied at the same time--net cost zero. Everythng was simply automatically.

Just wish there were more Red Pin locations...a Red Pin location I could get to within say in less than 15 minutes driving time "whenever I wanted" versus what I'm doing now in just checking for any available Red Pin chargers while I'm out & about on a visit to the MIL, a periodic groceries run, etc.

Gweiloman · August 7

10 hours ago, Pib said:

And I got more free electrons today. Coming back today from a Foodland groceries run here in western Bangkok I passed that Bangchak station again which has a Red Pin ReverSharger DC charger. I checked the ReverSharger app just before leaving Foodland and it showed 1 of 2 DC chargers available...but by the time I got to the station about 10 minutes later both DC chargers were in use.

However, one of the charging Atto's was already at 92%...so, after about 10 minutes that Atto finished charging and I then plugged in with a 60% charge level. The charger started charging automatically, about 25 minutes later I was charged up to 100%, and got charged zero baht....well, actually the cost would have been Bt222 but a Bt222 discount was applied at the same time--net cost zero. Everythng was simply automatically.

Just wish there were more Red Pin locations...a Red Pin location I could get to within say in less than 15 minutes driving time "whenever I wanted" versus what I'm doing now in just checking for any available Red Pin chargers while I'm out & about on a visit to the MIL, a periodic groceries run, etc.

You are lucky in Bangkok. Here in CM, there is only one 24 hr CS with 2 chargers.There are 2 other CS with 4 chargers that are only operational off peak but one of these has been offline since last weekend. As a result, there is a constant queue at all of them at all hours of the day.

Are there any other BYD owners on this forum charging for free under this promotion?

JBChiangRai · August 7

5 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

You are lucky in Bangkok. Here in CM, there is only one 24 hr CS with 2 chargers.There are 2 other CS with 4 chargers that are only operational off peak but one of these has been offline since last weekend. As a result, there is a constant queue at all of them at all hours of the day.

Are there any other BYD owners on this forum charging for free under this promotion?

I charged for free on Friday. In Chiang Rai we have 2 chargers both with 2 ports at the 2 dealer locations. Only the town center dealership is available during peak hours.

I check the app regularly, and drive past if I'm out & about (O&A as some would say 😉 I drove past yesterday after lunch with my friends, 2 charging and 2 queued. About a third of the time I check, there is one port free.

As I said to my sales person, Rever continue to disappoint me, every interaction I have had with them has been a disaster. I now have 30,000 baht free charging credit for the next 30 months with very little opportunity to find an available charger.

Pib · August 7

35 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

You are lucky in Bangkok. Here in CM, there is only one 24 hr CS with 2 chargers.There are 2 other CS with 4 chargers that are only operational off peak but one of these has been offline since last weekend. As a result, there is a constant queue at all of them at all hours of the day.

Are there any other BYD owners on this forum charging for free under this promotion?

Not lucky at all considering the population size of Bangkok is around 10M. And just reposting below image of the "central, highrise" part of Bangkok (image #1 below)...millions of peope live in this area along with thousands of BYD vehicle owners. For this entire area there are only 4 Red Pin chargers. Just driving across the area below would take around an hour in many cases; BUT would take around 2 hours during peak traffic hours in the morning and afternoon. Traffic in this area is always heavy and often horendous.

Now when using the RiverSharger app to zoom out a little (image #2 below) to see the majority of the Bangkok metro core area (probably 10M people or more live in this area) you'll see around two dozen Red Pin chargers. When I charged for free yesterday I used a Red Pin charger down in the left hand bottom corner of the image....I was just going back home from a Foodland groceries run....I got lucky one DC charger freed-up after waiting in queue for about 10 minutes.

See images below..and some more words I added at the top of each. The wife and I are now off to visit the MIL in the Mueang Nakorn Pathom area...only one ReverSharger in that area to service hundreds of thousands of people....that's where I got my 1st batch of free electrons. I'm still surprised I just happenned to drive by it at the right time when 1 of 2 charger connectors was available. I've watched that's charger's availability since then and both connectors are pretty much in use all the time---like time of this post. Off to the MIL's house I go now.

Central, highrise Bangkok... Only 4 Red Pin chargers.

Now zooming out a little to see the core of the Bangkok metro area...part encircled by the #9 highway. Around two dozen Red Pin chargers to serve thousands of BYD vehicles owners. And although the chargers may appear close if you could fly like a bird in a straight line between the Red Pin chargers when it comes to driving to one in Bangkok traffic they do not feel close. And notice the sea of Black Pin chargers (not free) in the central, highrise Bangkok area like shown in above image....and also notice the number of Gray Pin chargers which means they are non-operationable.

mistral53 · August 7

7 hours ago, Pib said:

Not lucky at all considering the population size of Bangkok is around 10M. And just reposting below image of the "central, highrise" part of Bangkok (image #1 below)...millions of peope live in this area along with thousands of BYD vehicle owners. For this entire area there are only 4 Red Pin chargers. Just driving across the area below would take around an hour in many cases; BUT would take around 2 hours during peak traffic hours in the morning and afternoon. Traffic in this area is always heavy and often horendous.

Now when using the RiverSharger app to zoom out a little (image #2 below) to see the majority of the Bangkok metro core area (probably 10M people or more live in this area) you'll see around two dozen Red Pin chargers. When I charged for free yesterday I used a Red Pin charger down in the left hand bottom corner of the image....I was just going back home from a Foodland groceries run....I got lucky one DC charger freed-up after waiting in queue for about 10 minutes.

See images below..and some more words I added at the top of each. The wife and I are now off to visit the MIL in the Mueang Nakorn Pathom area...only one ReverSharger in that area to service hundreds of thousands of people....that's where I got my 1st batch of free electrons. I'm still surprised I just happenned to drive by it at the right time when 1 of 2 charger connectors was available. I've watched that's charger's availability since then and both connectors are pretty much in use all the time---like time of this post. Off to the MIL's house I go now.

Central, highrise Bangkok... Only 4 Red Pin chargers.

Now zooming out a little to see the core of the Bangkok metro area...part encircled by the #9 highway. Around two dozen Red Pin chargers to serve thousands of BYD vehicles owners. And although the chargers may appear close if you could fly like a bird in a straight line between the Red Pin chargers when it comes to driving to one in Bangkok traffic they do not feel close. And notice the sea of Black Pin chargers (not free) in the central, highrise Bangkok area like shown in above image....and also notice the number of Gray Pin chargers which means they are non-operationable.

Stands to reason that this BYD goodwill action is on track to just aggravating a situation they tried to ameliorate with this freebee. It took me 3 attempts to finally get a full charge and I did it around 21:00. I reasoned with myself that if I cant get free charging, over the next 5 month, this means I forgo between 5 and 10,000 THB, that is a couple dinners at best......so why get all stressed out?

Moreover - as we get into October, I have more than enough solar output to cover the electricity consumption of this car, so my savings calculated above are even less optimistic.

Just relax and chill out - the stress is not worth it!

Pib · August 7

8 hours ago, Pib said:

..... The wife and I are now off to visit the MIL in the Mueang Nakorn Pathom area...only one ReverSharger in that area to service hundreds of thousands of people....that's where I got my 1st batch of free electrons. I'm still surprised I just happenned to drive by it at the right time when 1 of 2 charger connectors was available. I've watched that's charger's availability since then and both connectors are pretty much in use all the time---like time of this post. Off to the MIL's house I go now.

Well, back home in Bangkok now after a half day visit to the MIL today. That one Red Pin charger in the Muang Nakorn Pathom area was in use everytme I checked it using the app. And I drove by going to and from the MIL house and EVs were queued-up waiting to use the charger.

But on the way back to my Bangkok home I came back an alternate way where I would pass two other Red Pin chargers.....and I got lucky one was available....I charged from 69% to 100%... Bt175 worth of free elecrons. And when I left two EVs were queued-up ready to take my spot.

I now have three free chargings under my belts. If I can do this about 1,375 more times before the free charging campaign ends 3 Jan 2025 I will have recouped all the price-cuts since Oct 2023 when I bought my Atto. 😁

Pib · August 8

21 hours ago, mistral53 said:

Stands to reason that this BYD goodwill action is on track to just aggravating a situation they tried to ameliorate with this freebee. It took me 3 attempts to finally get a full charge and I did it around 21:00. I reasoned with myself that if I cant get free charging, over the next 5 month, this means I forgo between 5 and 10,000 THB, that is a couple dinners at best......so why get all stressed out?

Yeap....definitely some unhappy BYD customers out there with this free/reduced rate charging campaign/promotion like the guy I talk about below

Got my 4th freebie charging today worth Bt90. I only charged from 89% to 100% because the wife and I just happenned to drive by the same charger we got a 2 other free charges at....a charger about 20Km outside western Bangkok. The wife and I were coming back from a run to a market we visit around once a week....the charging app showed 1 or 2 chargers being available probably for 30 minutes but about 10 minutes before actually getting to the charger none were available. When we got to the charger at a BYD dealership I decided to turn into the dealership to see if there was a charging queue....maybe even get out and check how much longer each charging car would be.

When pulling in a saw one car in a queue and then decided to not get out and check the charger...just leave. As I was turning around to leave the dealership the security gaurd came over and said wait "just a little bit" as both charging cars were close to being done. So, we decided to wait. Within a minute or two one car finished charging and the guy 1st in the queue pulled into the charging spot and "tried" to start charging. A few minuteslater the other charging spot opened up and I pulled in, plugged in, and started charging automatically.

Now back to the "guy who tried to start charging" who also had an Atto. He couldn't get the charger to start charging. He tried for several minutes while standing next to his car, with the guard's assitance, and calling the ReverSharger Call Center. Then, with his Atto still plugged in he walked away to call the Call Center again from within the air conditioned dealership and also complain at the BYD dealership folks. Just before my 20 minute charging siession was ending (i.e., I'm almost at 100%) he finally comes out of the dealership unplugs his car and leaves. Never got his Atto to start charging but left his car plugged in the whole time....around 22 minutes.

So, for around 22 minutes he hogged a charging slot without charging as he called ReverSharger and also complained to the BYD dealership folks. Another "unhappy" customer with the BYD free/reduced rate charging campaign, but he shouldn't have hogged that charging slot the whole time he was complaining to the ReverSharger Call Center and the BYD dealership.

UWEB · August 8

Seems to be a lot of people get stressed about this free charging. Have not even registered for and charge my Seal once a week from my Solar, makes for me no sense to make a round trip of 50 km to the next charger and waste my time.

JBChiangRai · August 8

I waited almost an hour to get my free charge today and at the end of the charging process the only payment offered was my debit card, despite me having 3 free options in my wallet.

I wrote to the support email as asked, I will be very surprised if they bother to respond.

Pib · August 8

Under this free/reduced rate promotion unless I happen to be driving by the charger during my routine driving (i.e., groceries/shopping runs, visiting the MIL, just out & about, etc.) and the charger is immediately or almost immeidately available I will not wait around long to use the charger. For something like this I will not set in a queue for much more that 10 minutes and only if I checked the charger display where it shows the car currently being charged will be done within about 10 minutes. Us retirees have time to spare.

And generally I would only stop to charge if I was around 60% or less OR the charger was immediately available. Yea, I'm not a queuing type of person for anything unless I got no choice OR I'm very curious about doing something at least once or twice which requires some queue time.

Now that I have my curiousity satisfied with 4 free Red Pin chargings under my belt I only plan to attempt the free charging when a charger is available when I happen to be driving by a Red Pin charger during my normal day-to-day driving. And that normal day-to-day driving really only has 2 or 3 Red Pin chargers....1 of them on a grocery run to a Foodland I usualy go to around twice a week....and 2 on the route to the MIL's house I generally got to once a week.

My home wall charger will remain the car's primary source of electrons except on those lucky days I can use a Red Pin charger. 😄

Pib · August 8

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

I waited almost an hour to get my free charge today and at the end of the charging process the only payment offered was my debit card, despite me having 3 free options in my wallet.

I wrote to the support email as asked, I will be very surprised if they bother to respond.

When my credit card got charged on my first three tries at a ReverSharger "when I thought I was suppose to be getting it free" I emailed ReverSharger once with receipts basically saying I was mischarged...please give me a refund. That was 6 days ago....I never got a response and not refund.

Now as I talked earlier in the thread it turns out I was not using a Red Pin charger....it was just a ReverSharger Shell (seashell) charger. That was before I realized the free charging was only available at a ReverSharger Pin charger and not at a ReverSharge Black Pin or Reversharger Shell (seashell) charger.

But it was at a ReverSharger Shell charger where I got the Plug & Charge and free charging privilege activated/setup. Although the free charging privilege can be activated at any ReverSharger charger (Black Pin, Shell Pin, or Red Pin) it's only the Red Pin chargers that will provide free charging.

I've been wanting to try two Red Pin charging sessions "in the same day" to satisfy my couristy of whether there is any fine print like maybe only one free charging per day. If I ever get the chance at a "not busy" Red Pin charger I'm going to stop the charging before I reach 100% and totally close that charging session.....THEN I'm going to plug in again to finish up to 100% to see if that 2nd charging session is also free. Just another little bit of curiousity I want to satisfy.

JBChiangRai · August 8

I normally have a surplus from my solar power, my daughters came home and charged up and we've had such bad weather that put me about 100 units behind. I think I've clawed back about half of that but I could do with either another charge or a few sunny days.

I'm driving to Chiang Mai next week and will probably have to charge at my daughters house which has no solar power. I can't see it being worth even trying to drive to a red pin charger there.

Bandersnatch · August 9

I am powering my house every night from my BYD Seal. I use about 10% of the battery to do it and I need to be able to charge from Solar for an hour the next day to cover that, plus whatever driving I’ve been doing.

It means that my house LFP batteries are never dropping below 50% and so reduces their cycles from about once a day to once every 2 days. My Seal cycles are about every 5 days.

We have had 2 weeks of very heavy rain, but the odd breaks in the rain have been enough to keep my house and 2 EVs plus an electric bike sufficiently charged and me off-grid.

It’s not unusual for me to have 3 chargers going at the same time

I could add a few kWh to the Seal when my local chargers are on off-peak rate but so far I haven’t had to.

One day of no rain and all vehicles and the house back to 100%

JBChiangRai · August 9

I checked at 6am, I’m in a better position now than I thought, I’m only 25 units behind, and it looks like sun today, I might be back to normal tomorrow morning.

motdaeng · August 9

30 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

I am powering my house every night from my BYD Seal. I use about 10% of the battery to do it and I need to be able to charge from Solar for an hour the next day to cover that, plus whatever driving I’ve been doing.

It means that my house LFP batteries are never dropping below 50% and so reduces their cycles from about once a day to once every 2 days. My Seal cycles are about every 5 days.

We have had 2 weeks of very heavy rain, but the odd breaks in the rain have been enough to keep my house and 2 EVs plus an electric bike sufficiently charged and me off-grid.

It’s not unusual for me to have 3 chargers going at the same time

I could add a few kWh to the Seal when my local chargers are on off-peak rate but so far I haven’t had to.

One day of no rain and all vehicles and the house back to 100%

sorry if you've already answered these questions before:
- what is the minimum kw power the seal accepts when charging only from solar?
- can the ABB wallbox regulate so that only solar power is used for charging, without drawing anything

from the home's energy storage system or from PEA?
- given the varying solar surplus, are these fluctuations problematic for charging the seal’s FLP?

it would be great if there were a wall charger that could automatically regulate charging based on solar surplus and also have

a V2H function! if i remember correctly, some innovative products, like intelligent wall chargers, are already on the market,

but they haven’t made it to thailand yet...

Bandersnatch · August 9

48 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

what is the minimum kw power the seal accepts when charging only from solar?

My charger is 7kW so you would need 10kW of PV. If you used the 3.5kW “Granny Charger” /mobile charger then 5kW would be ok.

As I have batteries with my solar system I can “borrow” power from my home batteries and pay it back later in the day. The picture on the left before my latest upgrade shows that happening.

59 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

can the ABB wallbox regulate so that only solar power is used for charging, without drawing anything

from the home's energy storage system or from PEA?

No it can’t.

I contact Myenergi in the UK about their Zappi charger that does this, only to discover that it simply monitors power being exported to the grid and sends the exact same amount into the charger - no use for me being off-grid.

1 hour ago, motdaeng said:

given the varying solar surplus, are these fluctuations problematic for charging the seal’s FLP?

It’s not a completely passive thing as you have to monitor the state of charge of the house batteries, but I have being doing it for 4 years now without any drama. The car is getting a steady 6.8kW from either my PV or home batteries so no problem there.

1 hour ago, motdaeng said:

it would be great if there were a wall charger that could automatically regulate charging based on solar surplus and also have

a V2H function! if i remember correctly, some innovative products, like intelligent wall chargers, are already on the market,

but they haven’t made it to thailand yet...

I would be interested in this dc-to-dc solar-powered ev charger

Currently V2H is complicated as most people don’t want to power their whole house in an emergency but just some circuits, making the installation much more expensive and complicated than my V2L setup.

JBChiangRai · August 9

5 hours ago, motdaeng said:

sorry if you've already answered these questions before:
- what is the minimum kw power the seal accepts when charging only from solar?
- can the ABB wallbox regulate so that only solar power is used for charging, without drawing anything

from the home's energy storage system or from PEA?
- given the varying solar surplus, are these fluctuations problematic for charging the seal’s FLP?

it would be great if there were a wall charger that could automatically regulate charging based on solar surplus and also have

a V2H function! if i remember correctly, some innovative products, like intelligent wall chargers, are already on the market,

but they haven’t made it to thailand yet...

The lowest setting on the Seal ABB charger is 6amps which is about 1.4Kw, but it's dumb when it comes to knowing about solar.

However, it is an intelligent charger with all the interfaces available to enable it to have the add-on to hook up with some solar systems.

I found one of the add-on boards whilst searching the internet one day but I couldn't find a price for it.

I think you could knock something up with a Raspberry Pi if you were so inclined and could work out how to monitor your solar.

Probably the most economical solar installation would be a Grid-Tied 6Kw system (export or no-export) and set your ABB charger to 24 amps and just charge when the sun is out, this is what I do, though my solar installation is a lot bigger.

motdaeng · August 9

thank you very much @Bandersnatch and @JBChiangRai for your detailed and valuable responses.

i really appreciate you sharing your thoughts and knowledge ... :jap:

mistral53 · August 17

Am I the only one who cant use the BYD ReverSharge app with direct discount? Does anybody else have this problem?

I have been advised to simply email my charge events, and Rever will refund back to my cc within 30 days - does not seem to be a very efficient method.

JBChiangRai · August 17

22 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

Am I the only one who cant use the BYD ReverSharge app with direct discount? Does anybody else have this problem?

I have been advised to simply email my charge events, and Rever will refund back to my cc within 30 days - does not seem to be a very efficient method.

Me too. We're on 8 days from emailing Reversharger, I have zero confidence in getting any reply. My friend at the dealership when I charged my car had the same problem.

mistral53 · August 17

There might not be an email reply - just a credit........

Pib · August 17

Knock on wood (my head)....but I got my 8th free charge today. I've been using four different Red Pin chargers that I happen to pass in my weekly MIL visit and my daily grocery runs here in the Bangkok and Nakorn Pathom areas. I just plug-in and in about 30 to 60 seconds the charging automatically starts with zero need to use the ReverSharger app. After getting the Plug & Charge setup it's been smooth sailing.

JBChiangRai · August 17

16 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

There might not be an email reply - just a credit........

I probably won’t notice it, my daughters have foodpanda, shopper,Lazada, too too and god knows what else directly linked to my bank account

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