We recently had a Hybrid solar cell system installed at our house last week, the installer had promised to also install an EV home charger sab panel near where we will park an EV we are having delivered in the next couple of weeks. We had told him that we will buy all the material nessacery and would provide the home charger. (it came free with the EV from the manufacturer). Anyway after finishing the solar cell installation (works great) we noticed that he had not installed a home charger subpanel. We talked with the solar cell company and they said that they will come back and do it , but they will also need 30 m of cable because they will need to go to the power pole in the street where the meter is. (at least this is what my wife told me they said) .

This does not sound right to me, Why go to the power pole in the street? The electric wires come inside the property to the house and consumer unit. Why not tap there. Also I have been told by others that the inverter (solis S6-EH1P6K-L-PLUS) has a "smart port that could be used to hook up a home charger, " Yes, you can hook up an EV home charger to a Solis inverter, but not directly to the generator port for continuous use. Instead, the best practice is to connect it to your home load panel to utilize excess solar power, or, as recommended by Solis North America, use the "Smart Port" for specific, supported, non-bidirectional loads, but not for direct bidirectional EV charging" I know little about these things and I am new to solar cell and EVs and as such I would appreciate any advice.

Wall charger for EV will probably draw more than your solar system can provide. Hence simply connecting to your main at the source.

Same was done with our wall charging cable from MG, as draws ~7kW, (7.4kW spec'd) and our inverter is only 8kW. Wouldn't leave much if anything for the home or recharge ESS/home batteries.

We rarely use the MG wall charging cable, and simply use the emergency/granny charger to charge the car. Drawing ~2.3kW (spec'd at), and solar provides more than enough on most days to power house, recharge home battery back up & charge the car. Peak hours 0900-1500 hrs

First month of use, just pay attention, and you'll figure it out. It will become 2nd nature. Just pay attention to overcast skies & AC use, when charging the car, so not to drain your home batteries before sunset.

Edited May 7May 7 by KhunLA

7 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Wall charger for EV will probably draw more than your solar system can provide. Hence simply connecting to your main at the source.

Same was done with our wall charging cable from MG, as draws ~7kW, (7.4kW spec'd) and our inverter is only 8kW. Wouldn't leave much if anything for the home or recharge ESS/home batteries.

We rarely use the MG wall charging cable, and simply use the emergency/granny charger to charge the car. Drawing ~2.3kW (spec'd at), and solar provides more than enough on most days to power house, recharge home battery back up & charge the car. Peak hours 0900-1500 hrs

Lots of good info here ! Thank you . I seem to hear the emergency charger usage more and mor from many people . The EV manufacturer provides the choice of a free wall charger or emergency/granny charger . Do you think I should chose the emergency charger instead of a home charger I was told that the home charger the manufacturer provides is not the best anyway, and that if I wanted a home charger that I should buy an independent brand with smart charging. What do you think?

4 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Lots of good info here ! Thank you . I seem to hear the emergency charger usage more and mor from many people . The EV manufacturer provides the choice of a free wall charger or emergency/granny charger . Do you think I should chose the emergency charger instead of a home charger I was told that the home charger the manufacturer provides is not the best anyway, and that if I wanted a home charger that I should buy an independent brand with smart charging. What do you think?

I use the granny charger, simply because the excess solar is free. Our MG wall charging cable works fine. Use when necessary, if need a quick top up for whatever reason.

When O&A, like returning with 20+% on the car. And if needed, will sometimes use wall charger to up it to 50%, as trauma hosp is 100 km away, to be on the safe side. 4-5 THB per kWh beats 8ish THB at charging stations. If we leave @ 100%, return @ 20%, that about 500+ kms on solar, when O&A. Very rare, to use wall charger. Try not to anyway.

I like free electric, so use solar as much as possible. The EVs are a larger part of our ROI for solar, not that we don't abuse the AC.

More so now, that petrol is at 40 THB / liter.

Rainy season, you need to pay attention more when charging the car.

Dry, sunny season, and as soon as the solar is providing 1 - 2 kWh more than house is drawing, we plug in the car. Might draw a bit from battery (as long as you have extra), but within the hour, there will be plenty of sun for everything.

For us, 0800 - 0430, and more than enough solar for house, ESS & EV on sunny days.

Without the EV plugged in, batteries are usually topped up by 1100-1200 noon, with house running ACs if needed. That's recharging 8kWh from overnight use, with 8kW inverter.

As I said, after a month or 2 of each season, it will be 2nd nature to you. Rainy season only time you need to pay attention, as clouds can roll in at anytime. And yea, I've mismanaged more than a few times, and didn't get back to 100% before sunset. At 5 THB a unit/kWh, you won't be breaking the bank, if using a few overnight.

Thread of our learning experience with solar, and we started at heavy rainy season (August), just before getting the EV (Oct) so may be an interesting read ...

https://aseannow.com/topic/1268214-solar-8kw-hybrid-inverter-w10kwh-upgraded-to-20kwh-in-sept-2022-essbattery-not-diy/

Edited May 7May 7 by KhunLA

@sirineou Today is a fine example of worse case scenario. Woke up @ 41%, and still 41%, with just 1 AC (13k BTU) on, and washing machine going, 2 frigs, laptop & 55" TV.

Complete overcast and ight drizzle since sunrise. Doesn't get any worse. Even plugged the car into wall charging cord (on grid), since hopefully O&A tomorrow, and came back from Hua Hin yesterday at about 35%. So that needs to be topped up.

Producing 606w, house load, 534w

Edited May 12May 12 by KhunLA

Am I right in thinking that if you connect to the meter, you're excess solar won't be charging the car, unless you're doing some cheeky export?