Charger

[Bobzilla]

I know this one has been done a little to death, but I've not quite seen the answer to this one yet, so asking the specific question.

I have single phase electrics at home so think I am maxed out at 7.4kw anyway. Why would I get a wall box rather than use the plug in freebie option?

I have solar panels and battery storage, am on a standard leccy tariff and am daily exporting to the grid during summer (but not during winter).

I think I know, but think I only get the benefit if I go really smart and get a full smart system that monitors my solar array and will charge up the car instead of exporting, but wanted to check of there were any other reasons to get a wall box.

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[W1NGE]

I know this one has been done a little to death, but I've not quite seen the answer to this one yet, so asking the specific question.

I have single phase electrics at home so think I am maxed out at 7.4kw anyway. Why would I get a wall box rather than use the plug in freebie option?

I have solar panels and battery storage, am on a standard leccy tariff and am daily exporting to the grid during summer (but not during winter).

I think I know, but think I only get the benefit if I go really smart and get a full smart system that monitors my solar array and will charge up the car instead of exporting, but wanted to check of there were any other reasons to get a wall box.

With a single phase supply you can run a separate 32A fused supply from your mainboard specifically for your EVSE. This will provide up to 7.4kW.

The standard EVSE you get with the car is ideally suited to this scenario meaning you do not need to source a separate wallbox - your EVSE fulfills that role.

EVSE will come with two electrical supply cables - 13A 3 pin plug and a 32A industrial connector. The latter is the one to use.

I'm time you can add the Porsche Home Energy Manager (HEM) to manage both mains and solar.

For now keep it simple and save the pennies.

 

[kurand]

By the way, make sure your house fuse is big enough to run 32A into your EVSE at the same time as the max load from the rest of the house. Some older house fuses are only 60A…

 

[kempez]

I got a PodPoint for our house as we have a PHEV. Personally for the convenience and ease of use, we have a tethered install at a convenient place. It also means our smart meter knows about it and can interact appropriately with it. Have had a good experience with this so far.

 

[Edinburger]

The elegant answer is this:

https://simpson-partners.com/home-ev-charger/#our-home-ev-chargers

Mine is being installed next week. They are the same people that designed the first Andersen one and their mid-level offering allows solar integration.

 

[Trw144]

Hi All, sorry to hijack the thread but its kind of on point. I picked up my Tayan CT yesterday (loving it), and am currently waiting for my home charger to be installed. So, in the meantime, I am using the freebie one with the car, and the 13 amp pluyg socket that comes with it. However, overnight and again today I am only seeing it charge at 1.3kW - which is obviously very very slow. The charger shows "50%" on its display, which I assume means its charging at 50% output. Any one have any ideas why is ramped itself down? 230v 13amp should give me close to 3kW?

 

[W1NGE]

Hi All, sorry to hijack the thread but its kind of on point. I picked up my Tayan CT yesterday (loving it), and am currently waiting for my home charger to be installed. So, in the meantime, I am using the freebie one with the car, and the 13 amp pluyg socket that comes with it. However, overnight and again today I am only seeing it charge at 1.3kW - which is obviously very very slow. The charger shows "50%" on its display, which I assume means its charging at 50% output. Any one have any ideas why is ramped itself down? 230v 13amp should give me close to 3kW?

It is almost pointless using the 13A plug given the glacial charging speed it provides. To be honest this should only be used as a 'get out of jail free' / off grid option.

Have you tried pressing the button to switch to 100% or does it insist on staying at 50%?

Perfectly fine for home charging when connected to a dedicated 32A supply which would provide you with 7.4kW from the same EVSE.

Try it out using your 32A industrial receptacle that will be installed for your wallbox.

 

[Trw144]

It is almost pointless using the 13A plug given the glacial charging speed it provides. To be honest this should only be used as a 'get out of jail free' / off grid option.

Have you tried pressing the button to switch to 100% or does it insist on staying at 50%?

Perfectly fine for home charging when connected to a dedicated 32A supply which would provide you with 7.4kW from the same EVSE.

Try it out using your 32A industrial receptacle that will be installed for your wallbox.

To be honest, it was late when I arrived back last night, and early out this morning so haven't had chance to play around with the charger. Will try this afternoon. In reality, I'm unlikely to deplete much more than 30kW in a day so if I could get clse to 3kw, I would actually be fine for now with the standard charger. Is there a button on the charger or do you mean the one on the car?

 

[W1NGE]

To be honest, it was late when I arrived back last night, and early out this morning so haven't had chance to play around with the charger. Will try this afternoon. In reality, I'm unlikely to deplete much more than 30kW in a day so if I could get clse to 3kw, I would actually be fine for now with the standard charger. Is there a button on the charger or do you mean the one on the car?

Sorry to be pedantic but the Porsche Mobile Charger Plus (PMC+) is not actually a 'charger' despite the name. All of these types of devices, wallboxes, charging stations are actually EVSE (Electric Vehicle Structure Equipment). They don't charge but do supply a safe supply of electricity to your car. The actual charger for AC and DC charging is physically in the car (same for all EVs).

On your PMC+ press the Charge Status button (A) to switch:

 

[Matt W]

I’ve been going through exactly the same thoughts on the best way to deal with the charging. We have a 4kw pv system (no battery) so originally I wanted an evse that could deal with any surplus electric to charge the car ‘for free’.. but when I thought about it logically for me, it’s just not worth it. Essentially Monday to Friday I’m out (with the car all day) so no benefit during the week. So that leaves the weekends.. generally weekends are busy with wash loads and all sorts of other higher use electric so even assuming a clear sunny day, I won’t have loads of surplus electric. Equally the evse won’t kick in until there is about 1.2kw spare generation (and anything below this trigger is a decent amount of electric to not use). We currently use a divertor to heat the hot water from the excess electric and this works well enough and keeps me happy in that I’m not just throwing all excess electric back to the grid for nothing (albeit in theory getting free hot water is not as cost effective as getting free electric to charge the car). I can see the benefit of an solar / battery evse if you have a battery though, or if the car is around more during the day. My CT4S is on order now and subject to when I get my build slot I’ll decide between a commando socket or just a fairly basic evse from one of the mainstream suppliers. Everyone’s circumstances are different of course, but I’m happy I’ve done the research now and have a plan.. until I change it of course….

 

[McgR]

I’ve been going through exactly the same thoughts on the best way to deal with the charging. We have a 4kw pv system (no battery) so originally I wanted an evse that could deal with any surplus electric to charge the car ‘for free’.. but when I thought about it logically for me, it’s just not worth it. Essentially Monday to Friday I’m out (with the car all day) so no benefit during the week. So that leaves the weekends.. generally weekends are busy with wash loads and all sorts of other higher use electric so even assuming a clear sunny day, I won’t have loads of surplus electric. Equally the evse won’t kick in until there is about 1.2kw spare generation (and anything below this trigger is a decent amount of electric to not use). We currently use a divertor to heat the hot water from the excess electric and this works well enough and keeps me happy in that I’m not just throwing all excess electric back to the grid for nothing (albeit in theory getting free hot water is not as cost effective as getting free electric to charge the car). I can see the benefit of an solar / battery evse if you have a battery though, or if the car is around more during the day. My CT4S is on order now and subject to when I get my build slot I’ll decide between a commando socket or just a fairly basic evse from one of the mainstream suppliers. Everyone’s circumstances are different of course, but I’m happy I’ve done the research now and have a plan.. until I change it of course….

We have a 10 Kw PV system and a 14 KwH home battery.
I have a wall box pulsar plus. It can be set to only charge the car with excess electricity.

Some thing to consider.
I also want my home battery to be charged. That can be charged at 5 Kw. So I have set my Wallbox to 5 kw maximum. That is is still ok and I want it low anyway because ik Belgium we will be billed on generated peaks from next year.

However I still want my car to be charged to 85% at a certain point. In september an oktober it didn’t provide enough electricity on reliable base to charge my car with this setting. Like you I can only charge during weekends.

Maybe it is possible during summer. I will see.

Or I can install another 3,2 kWh module on my home battery. If I charge on daily base my home battery is empty after charging the Taycan at 6am. But I need it until 9-10 until the PV start producing electricity.

Do you have an app that shows how much energy goes to the grid on a sunny day?

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Getting back to the point here… The current which the supplied EVSE will draw depends on the socket into which it is plugged. Mine came with 2 different tails, one with a standard 13A plug and one with a blue plug which I think will draw 16A. If you want to draw 32A then I think you need a different plug for an industrial socket (as per @W1NGE above) but I think you need to spec this unless they have changed the default that is supplied.
The 13A plug will draw about 2.3 kW (2.1 going into the car) but you need to take it off the 50% setting

 

[Dabz]

I’m in exactly the same situation as the OP. Current thoughts have moved from ESVE decisions to energy tariff - it’ll be better to change the mindset from trying to use solar excess to charge the car to getting an Eco7 tariff and schedule charging overnight at 14p/kWh (ish..prices keep rising). That way my vehicle costs are very separate and still much lower than petrol.

having said that, the feed in tariff rates are ridiculous and I WFH at least 2 days a week, so in the summer it would be good to make use of excess solar.

We have a GivEnergy solar system so if the GivEnergy EV charger ever comes to market my preference is to get that installed with a 32A feed so we have plenty of choice.

While typing it’s also just occurred to me that planning for one car is very different to when/if we suddenly had 2 EVs to charge. Suddenly we move from using excess to needing to share..so faster charging may become more necessary

 

[W1NGE]

Getting back to the point here… The current which the supplied EVSE will draw depends on the socket into which it is plugged. Mine came with 2 different tails, one with a standard 13A plug and one with a blue plug which I think will draw 16A. If you want to draw 32A then I think you need a different plug for an industrial socket (as per @W1NGE above) but I think you need to spec this unless they have changed the default that is supplied.
The 13A plug will draw about 2.3 kW (2.1 going into the car) but you need to take it off the 50% setting

New cars come with the 32A tail.

 

[Midlifecrisis]

Mine has so far come with no EVSE at all. I kept the one from the old car as it would have gone back to be destroyed (not sure why) and expect they will supply one at some point. It has to go in for some sort of update, possibly relating to supplying an EVSE. Not quite sure

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