On overcast days or in the late afternoons as solar depletes, I have to use Charge Now or a schedule to ensure continued charging to the target charge. However Charge Now is a fixed current and this means ChargeHQ can’t take advantage of available excess solar.
My suggestion is to allow both a fixed current and a range of currents in Charge Now and the schedule. If a range of currents (i.e. both a minimum and a maximum current) could be specified, ChargeHQ could use solar tracking within that range thereby using more excess solar when available.
Hi @scott . Thanks for your post. Can you describe how you would ideally like the solar charging to work on a day when there isn’t enough solar to reach a target charge level in the vehicle?
How would you decide what power to charge the car at at any given moment?
The answer may depend on your electricity plan, of course.
I have a three phase charger with minimum 4A output. I have Auto setup for daytime charging using only excess solar and a schedule to top up to the vehicle limit in the evening. The challenge is in the afternoon or when partly cloudy meaning solar output reduces, often stopping Auto charging.
When I use Charge Now or the schedule, I can only specify a fixed charge rate. I would ideally like to also take advantage of any excess solar at the same time. Currently I have to monitor any excess solar manually and switch to Auto if there is excess solar or to Charge Now if there is insufficient solar to ensure continuous charging.
If you would allow me to specify a minimum rather than a fixed charge rate in Charge Now and the schedule, and an option (toggle or a setting) to increase beyond the fixed the charge rate to use excess solar, this would be ideal.
@scott have you tried setting Solar Tracking Mode to Solar + Grid? That means that charging will continue at the minimum rate even if there is not enough solar. See Configuration of Solar Tracking for EV Charging
