Getting Started
If you are generating energy from solar (or wind), you can choose if you want to charge your vehicle with surplus energy rather than exporting it back to the grid. There are currently two modes for this in the Charging energy settings:
- Limited grid usage: will use energy from both the grid and solar/wind.
- Surplus only: will charge your car using only surplus energy.
Surplus charging is only available if Easee is listed as the site operator.
You must have an Equalizer on the site to activate this mode.
Our charger always requires a minimum of 6A to start a charging session.
Selecting the Limited grid usage option
The car will start charging with at least 6A (or a selected value between 1 - 6) when you plug it in, regardless of the surplus amount.
When there is available surplus energy, it will replace grid energy with the available amount. If the surplus amount exceeds 6 A, it will stop using grid energy. This option guarantees the car will charge at a minimum rate regardless of the solar/wind conditions.
Selecting the Surplus only option
Your car will charge only when surplus energy exceeds 6A (1.4KW) on at least one phase. This requires a minimum of 6A on either L1, L2 or L3 to initiate charging. To charge with 3 phases, the surplus energy must exceed 6A on all three phases simultaneously
Your car requires the same amount of current on all three phases.
Example: If your energy production is:
L1: 6A
L2: 8A
L3: 8A
Your car will charge with 6A on all three phases, as it is limited by the lowest available surplus.
Tips to optimize your charging experience:
- If you do not produce enough energy on all 3 phases for the required 10 minutes, you should lock the phase mode of your charger to 1-phase charging.
See How do I lock the phase mode of my charger? - If you have an active schedule, the surplus charging will only work inside that period. This might not be ideal unless your renewable energy comes from wind.
For more information on phases, see When using load balancing, can I decide what phases to use? and Can my car charge on 3-phase?
How to activate surplus charging in the Easee app
To enable surplus charging, navigate to the Equalizer card in the Easee app:
- Press the Surplus energy button.
- Select Limited grid usage to use grid energy when the generated solar/wind energy is less than 6 A. This means that the combined minimum of 6 A will come from a combination of power from the electrical grid and your solar.
- Select Surplus only to charge only when more than 6 A is supplied from solar/wind energy.
- Drag the popup card down to return to the Equalizer card.
Requirements
- Easee app at least version 1.5.9.
- Equalizer firmware at least version 117.
- Easee must be set as the operator.
- Works with TN 1- and 3-phase, and IT 1-phase (not IT 3-phase).
- Equalizer device mode can not be Static.
- The Equalizer must report historical export data (indicating that energy has been exported to the grid sometime in the past).
- The total cumulative active export data must be more than 25 kWh.