SolarEdge is making a home DCFC

[Zprime29]

If I read this correctly, it will be a 24kW DCFC that can pull straight from solar/battery/grid and also allow V2H and V2G. I don't really need to charge that fast but wow.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...rectional-DC-Coupled-Electric-Vehicle-Charger

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[lancersrock]

Wonder what the ramifications long term would be?

 

[meow]

If you can control whether it’s AC or DC charging that’d be neat, but purely from a charging perspective 24kW seems a little on the low side to justify considering 19kW AC exists.

…unless low-kW DCFC is no more stressful on the vehicle than high AC, I don’t see the draw. (pun intended)

Maybe it’ll be a packaging improvement for those without the extra 200sqft of wall space the Ford/SunRun HIS seems to require.

 

[Garyl]

Probably has more to do with keeping things DC from an efficiency stand point. Solar Edge seems to build stuff with that in mind.

 

[Tony Burgh]

I’m not concerned with 24 kw DC versus 19.6 kw AC that’s converted to DC in the truck. I see no benefit at this point.

 

[MickeyWNC]

I suspect they will be giving SunRun a run for their money.

 

[SmoothJ]

Its nice on paper, but you would need at least a 150A circuit to accomidate that technology. Many homes in the US are still on 100A, while the "newer" homes (1980+) are on 200A or more. So you may need to upgrade your SE for this to work safely.

 

[chl]

Probably has more to do with keeping things DC from an efficiency stand point. Solar Edge seems to build stuff with that in mind.

Yes, apparently there is about an 8% loss with the Charge Station Pro from what other posters have measured, some is due to the AC-DC conversion losses, some the wiring (charge cable resistance), some due to the chemical reactions in the battery while charging.

The advertised item: "Charging the EV directly from PV with no unnecessary AC-to-DC power conversions" so it would be interesting to know how much more efficient that is by comparison to the CSP.

I didn't notice a price in the ad though.

With the CSP, your effective charge rate is around 17kW.

The faster you charge, the more stress on the battery, but quantifying it is hard to do.
Battery life is dependent on several additional factors, like number of charge/discharge cycles.

The CSP can be adjusted to lower the charge power internally by adjusting the amperage from 80 down to 12.
Can one control the charging rate with the Lightning as well?
I didn't see where the advertised item is adjustable for a slower charge rate.

One should balance charge rate with what is needed for one's usage and how much time you can spare for charging to find an optimum point so as to get the maximum life out of the Lightning battery, assuming one plans on keeping the Lightning past the warranty expiration period.

 

[Zprime29]

24kW / 240v = 100 amps, so a 125 circuit minimum. BUT....what if it only pulls 80 amps from the grid and combines that with solar/additional battery storage for a max supply of 24kW? If it pulls 19kW from the grid then it only needs 5kW of solar to supply the stated amount. Then it would easily work on a 100amp circuit like the current FCSP.

Given that it isn't slated for another year, I'm not surprised that the details are limited. I couldn't find anything else on their website when I glanced. The article is confusing here:

" In addition, the EV battery can function as a large home battery storage solution of up to 50kWh, both on and off grid, enabling homeowners to use their EV to back up their homes for extended periods during an outage (V2H). "

It seems odd that there would be a limit on the amount of stored energy that could be supplied. Most EV's on the market are larger than that. Additionally, if that's the case (which I doubt), what is the rate that it can supply it?

I'm intrigued enough to keep an eye out for more news.

 

[MickeyAO]

The faster you charge, the more stress on the battery, but quantifying it is hard to do.
Battery life is dependent on several additional factors, like number of charge/discharge cycles.

We are getting close to testing the cells, so I will be able to quantify it...but I won't be able to share the results. I think the timeline is to dismantle a couple of modules is late July or early August. If you see me suddenly selling my truck, you will know.

 

[tls]

If I read this correctly, it will be a 24kW DCFC that can pull straight from solar/battery/grid and also allow V2H and V2G. I don't really need to charge that fast but wow.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...rectional-DC-Coupled-Electric-Vehicle-Charger

This has been in the works for a long time. I talked to an engineer at SolarEdge about it briefly about 2 years ago, and it was supposed to be about a year from market then. I guess the usual supply chain issues likely held it up.

There are some interesting issues that would tend to cut into any efficiency gains over AC charging. 1) If your array is producing less than 24kW output at any given time, they're still rectifying AC with all the consequent losses you would have from your truck's onboard charger, you're just paying them at the rectifier in the SolarEdge box instead. 2) If the voltage coming off your panels does not match what's needed for your batteries' charge state, they're going to have to be doing DC-DC conversion anyway - with losses comparable to the AC-DC conversion you were hoping to avoid...

To me, the V2H/V2G part of this is the good part. I am skeptical of the "DC charging directly from your solar!" value proposition.

 

[Zprime29]

My primary goal is simply to be able to use the truck as a battery back up and enable use of solar in the event of an outage. I've got my eye on Emporia's offering as well.

 

[GarageMahal]

My primary goal is simply to be able to use the truck as a battery back up and enable use of solar in the event of an outage. I've got my eye on Emporia's offering as well.

Same for me. I already have Solaredge inverters and an Emporia charger...

 

[Lightning Rod]

I thought relying on DC fast charging was not exactly healthy for the batteries. I thought DC fast charging was only when you need quick charges like on long road trips.

 

[COrocket]

The faster you charge, the more stress on the battery, but quantifying it is hard to do.
Battery life is dependent on several additional factors, like number of charge/discharge cycles.

The CSP can be adjusted to lower the charge power internally by adjusting the amperage from 80 down to 12.
Can one control the charging rate with the Lightning as well?
I didn't see where the advertised item is adjustable for a slower charge rate.

One should balance charge rate with what is needed for one's usage and how much time you can spare for charging to find an optimum point so as to get the maximum life out of the Lightning battery, assuming one plans on keeping the Lightning past the warranty expiration period.

I personally wouldn't worry about charging at 80 amps vs 30 or less. The Lightning battery is so big that you are picking between slow and slower charging.

Consider most consumer lithium packs that are in cell phones, laptops, power tools etc. are designed to be charged 0-100% in about 1 hour. Despite having no thermal regulation, being charged to 100% regularly, and being designed for maximum energy density over longevity, you can still get around 1000 cycles out of these batteries before they are done.

Even at a full 80 amps it would take 8 hours to charge a Lightning, so you are essentially charging your lightning cells 8x slower than the scenario above, without all the aforementioned drawbacks that consumer lithium batteries encounter. You'd have to exclusively DC Fast Charge in hour long sessions to emulate the stress that is put on lithium batteries in other applications.

Tesla seems to predict that their batteries will last 500,000-600,000 miles, which would be about 1700-2000 cycles on a 300 mile battery. Seems achievable if the thermal and BMS systems do their job, charge to less than 100%, and excessive DCFC isn't used. I'd be pretty happy with a 500,000 mile battery cause it would probably last the life of the truck. So if I ever have an electrical panel with 100 amps of spare capacity, I'll happily install my Charge Station Pro and charge at 80 amps.

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