Can I charge on type 2 with 5kW Solar Inverter?

[peter le grand]

I hope to get an ZS EV (waiting list and that kind of things). I understood it can charge from a home charger up to 7Kw. I want to charge it though from solar and the only solar solutions I can find are inverters up to 5Kw. Anything above that is 3 phase inverters.

Also I believe 3 phase doesn't work with the ZS EV. So, if I would go for the 5Kw inverter and connect to that a single phase home charger, will it indeed charge with 5Kw?

Any other suggestions on a solar setup?

Thanks,

Peter

 

[BugEyed]

Yes and No. The car will take the maximum current "advertised" as being available by the charge point up to 32 Amps maximum (or a lower limit when at very high states of charge and balancing). Some charge points have a "solar" mode where they measure the current available by use of a CT clamp and dynamically change their "advertised" current such that the car draws more or less to get to zero net import/export through the CT clamp.
So if your microgeneration (solar) is producing 5kW at 230volts (5000/230~=22A) and your house is consuming say 1A the charge point advertises the remaining ~21A which the car takes.
Hence whatever your net generation (subject to the minimum of 6A and maximum of 32A) can be used. Subject to DNO approval you can run two or more inverters in parallel to produce more than 5kW single phase so that's not an absolute limit.

 

[peter le grand]

Thanks for the great explanation. All is a lot more clear. Currently I have a solar setup with battery. The inverter of this is 3500 W.

Next to that I have government electric, but this is totally separate.

The solution for charging the electric car will be next to all of this. With my driving a 5kw should be fine.

At the same time with the ZS EV I plan to connect it in parallel with an Automatic Transfer Switch as a backup of the current solar to the house.

 

[N2STY]

Easy answer is get a charger that work with solar it will match your spare solar output

 

[AnMgZsUser]

The Zappi is a great charger. It monitors your production and house usage, gives you the ability to control charge and look at stats through an app on your phone:

Fast = 7kW all the time, even if you need to import
Eco = Off solar, but 1.3kW minimum, even if you need to import. This is important - see below*
Eco+ = Just solar. It gives 30 seconds or so between charging/not charging, to make sure the increase/decrease in sunlight is not due to a cloud.

*Why is this important: Minimum EV charge rate is 1.3kW (this is part of the standard). If generation drops below this and you're in eco+ mode the charger will shut off. Now, with the MG ZS that means it'll mark the charge as complete and also tell the charger it's complete, and thus will not restart even when solar goes back above 1.3kW. You then have to tell both the charger and the car that yes, you really do want to restart and it's a race hazard to do that via the apps without one or the other flipping back to complete - the only consistent way to do it is pull the cable and plug back in. Crazy.

Upshot - I leave mine in Eco when I want to make sure the car carries on charging. I only use Eco+ on sunny days when I want the car to stop charging when the sun goes down.

 

[peter le grand]

Actually, I would like to have the solar setup only for the EV. I already have a full setup for the house with battery. Prefer to keep this separate and then use the V2L as a backup for the house.

I prefer not to integrate the government electric to any of these solar systems. I had that in the past and had trouble with that. I was running before lead accid batteries. At some stage they had to be replaced. Before replacing them, the solar tried to charge them but as they were old they didn't get fully charged anymore, thus at night the charger switched to charging from the government and thus we got high electric bills.

Eventually, I replaced the batteries for LifePo4 and as the original charger didn't work with that replaced that as well. Since then I have a total separate setup with everywhere dual plugs. One of the government and one of the solar.

Thus, want to keep the EV charging separate as well and use the V2L with a Manual Transfer Switch as a backup.

 

[hmadsen]

I bought a charger that supports selecting output charge.

It can be set to 6A, 10A, 13A, 16A

If set to 10A for example, then it will tell the car that it can only deliver 10A.

I know there is a variant that does 10A, 16A, 20A, 24A, 32A as well.

Only caveat is...Do you have a battery for the inverter....If not it is not ideal to do it like this, because then you risk, setting it to charge at 20A, and then a cloud covers the sun and your setup suddenly only does 2300Watts (10A)

 

[peter le grand]

Thanks for the message. I might indeed need a battery to be included in the setup. Just for covering this issue. I can imagine that in that case, the battery doesn't need to be of a huge capacity. But it need to supply a rather high amp for shorter times. That is a very different type of battery I think that I currently have in my house setup.

Are there chargers available where this Amp selection goes automatic?

 

[peter le grand]

I never expected that it would be that complicated. And in addition to that, the options available here in Thailand are rather limited. Not many people drive EV and not many people have solar. And the combi looks like people just don't have over here.
Probably the people here with EV just go to shopping centers where they have chargers. ;-)

 

[Jomarkh]

Hi, have a look at this thread then maybe contact Paul from Thailand?

V2L Cars to be in demand?

With the current energy problem getting worse I am so glad I have ordered a MG4, when I initially explored upgrading from my MG5 V2L was just a nice thing to have, now I think it’s a very important feature. When discussing the MG4 V2L is undoubtedly one of the main talking points with the...

www.mgevs.com

 

[peter le grand]

Hi @Jomarkh,

Thanks, I sent him a message. Indeed that could be very interesting.

Peter

 

[PAULinTHAILAND]

Hi Peter - Buying an MG in Thailand it comes with an MG branded wall box and free installation. I ordered a ZSEV when they were first released here in 2019 but ending up losing my deposit as the wall box install company refused to connect it to my solar powered house electrics.

When the MG HS PHEV came out here I ordered one but had the same problem. I contacted the President of MG Thailand and with his help I was successful.

Will chat with you via DM

 

[Zoomy]

Thanks mguser, I came here to ask if the Zappi would behave so after finishing a charge (the ZS hardware being the limiting factor). It’s an awful lot of money to waste when you have this flaw and if you’re upgrading to panels like us with a charger already.