Solar Integration

Voters 6

A
+ 1 anonymous

In progress
Subscribe

I would like Monta to be able to use the Solar CT's in my Rolec Zura (or any EV charger if they exist) to be able to limit the EV charger output to that of the solar production. This could use the already defined user "triangle of costs and energy production" selection by the user to decide to charge with paid electricity, or free solar electricity. As a charge point owner i would like to be able to set some charge points to unly only free solar - which i can then give out for free.

10-07-2023 -

Activity Newest / Oldest

Johan Nidelius

See support ticket Id #174715 about adding support for Ferroamp as both solar and Phase balancer and energy meter to use with the load balancer function

Tobias S

Hi solar people.

We are still improving on our solar charging feature and are currently working on a "true" solar feature that will use actual production data.
However, we would like to learn more about your needs and how you'd want solar charging to work in a 'perfect scenario'.

I'd like to invite you to a 30 min. talk next week if you are interested in sharing your experience with solar and ev charging in general (not solely related to Monta).

The talk can be in either Danish or English depending on your preference.
We will compensate everyone who attends with 200 DKK in credits for your Monta wallet as appreciation for your input.

Book your spot here if you are interested
calendar.app.google/Kmp4iKdKeejdAQXe6

Tobias S

Merged with: Solarpower

Søren Petersen

Allow the EVBox (Monta) to start charging my car when my solar system start selling to grid. I have a smart meter from KOSTAL (example).

Dennis Christiansen

I would like the app to have a way of monitoring my production of solar energy. If my solar panels are making power I would like the smart charging plan to start charging

Tobias S

Merged with: What about solar energy?

Integrate to Ferroamp, Solaredge etc. for solar ev charging. Solar only mode would be perfect! Roof kW = actual charging current assigned for car.

Tobias S

Merged with: Solar EV charging

Mikkel Kinnerup

I suggest you measure solar production and adjust charge power accordingly

Sune (Monta)

Merged with: Measure solar production and adjust charge power accordingly

Sune (Monta)

Status changed to: In progress

Sune (Monta)

Status changed to: Planned

AM

Same here. I have Rolec Zura (dual) with integrated Solar CT's and grid CT's. I'd like to be able to set the charger to use solar only (and then the users get the charge for free or at a reduced rate) - or for the user to select "fast charge" to be able to "buy-in" power from the grid at a higher cost. Ideally they could use the user based "triangle of supply" to set their charging preferences for either free or paid, or a combination of the three.

RasmusAnd

This is a very interesting feature.

Can you shed some light on if certain chargers would work better than others for these features when released?

We currently have an Easee Home charger and love it but we are taking over a new house with solar panels on the 1st of June, and we are not sure if we should leave the box installed in our current home for the new owners and install another one at the new house (also considering the uncertainty around Easee at the moment) .

It's a 6kwp setup on the new house so we are looking for a charger that can switch between 1-3 phases automatically depending on the surplus energy produced by the panels at any given time.

And one last question: Are you working on a solution that would allow you as a user to set the charger to ONLY charge with excess solar power for times where this makes sense? At other times it will of course also make sense to be able to use a mix between solar and grid, or grid only.
Or, even building on top of the current smart charge feature where I'm hoping to, when I e.g. plug in at 9.00 Day 1 and be able to say that I want 90% on the car at 7.00 on Day 2. In the ideal scenario, the car will use solar power only for the entire day until the sun goes down. Perhaps it is able to charge the car to the target 90% - perhaps it has only charged to 60%. If the latter is the case, Monta then goes into traditional smart charge and figures out when the remaining 30% should be charged from the grid to reach the target before the deadline.

Anders Pedersen

Hi,

For this feature to work, the charge point must support charging profiles. This is the same requirement for our current "Load Balancing" feature so you can find a list of supported charge points here:

monta.com/uk/supported-charge-points/?_features_dropdown=load_balancing

Anders Pedersen

Hi,

We are working on launching a new feature-set specifically to solve this charging behavior.
The biggest concern here is the many different smart meters out there. We will have to assess the KOSTAL, its not on our radar already.

Is it this one:
Kostal Smart Energy Meter G2?

Søren Petersen

Hi Anders.
I know a company who use this meter, but okay Monta can brand its own and I will buy it for sure.
www.evse.dk/product-page/smart-me

Kostal Smart Energy Meter G2 is the one I own, it’s fully compatible at home assistant. I think the API is easy to integrate in Monta.

Anders Pedersen

So you actually have a Kamstrup meter?

A solution for these, and a couple of others, are in the works.

Søren Petersen

Yes most People in Denmark have a Kamstrup meter provided by the grid company. (NRGi, Verdo, N1)
Model Omipower .
The KOSTAL meter is provided by the solar power company. (Privat)

Can I expect the solutions to be ready in 2023 :-)

Anders Pedersen

Yes, expected 2-3 months

Søren Petersen

Can I ask about enable schedule charging when the price is low.

Anders Pedersen

Its in the works as well.

We are working on an idea to have some "advanced" smart charge settings with two new fields:
1) Minimum charge level: Indicates a level on the battery that you ALWAYS want.
2) Max cost: The highest price you want to pay per kWh.

With these two, you could smart charge and always know that you would get up to your minimum charge level but outside this minimum charge level, you would only charge if prices are below your threshold.

Anders Pedersen

its not in implementation yet, so if you have input - here is the chance :)

Søren Petersen

Frist if it gets a little Danilsh I’m sorry.

I don’t know if it makes sense to have a minimum state of charge in the Monta app. I mean people with electric cars have already set the minimum state of charge in the infotainment system. If you are considering having the V2G option in the future, it might make sense, but for now it’s serves no purpose.

Having a maximum price tag on a 24 hours electric price forecast doesn’t make sense either. What if the price doesn’t adapt to the price that you have chosen. Will the car be charged overnight then? I think the best way would be to look at the 24 hours forecast and then the app decides when to charge the car, keeping in mind the state of charge the user wish to leave with in the morning.

Another thing is some apps doesn’t communicate with the car directly so every time you want to charge, you have to manually input the state of charge. I know that Volvo for example haven’t released the API ,but I know that it works with Tesla. maybe in the future android cars will be available.

Thanks :-)

Anders Pedersen

Hej Søren,

"I think the best way would be to look at the 24 hours forecast and then the app decides when to charge the car, keeping in mind the state of charge the user wish to leave with in the morning."

Det kan man allerede med SmartCharge
monta.com/uk/help-center/enable-and-set-up-smartcharge/

Du kan skrive til mig på ap@monta.com hvis jeg ikke har forstået det :)