Advantages of connecting EV charger to EG4 GridBoss?

[LucasMeyer]

I have a new solar system with a EG4 GridBoss and 2 EG4 FlexBoss. Before installing solar, I had already installed a Level 2 EV charging station inside the garage, connected to my panel. When the installers put the GridBoss + FlexBoss up, they left the EV charger where it was. I read that the GridBoss has four smart ports, one of which seems to be dedicated to EV charging.

Would it be better to move the connection from the inside panel to the GridBoss? What would the advantage be?

 

[timselectric]

Would it be better to move the connection from the inside panel to the GridBoss? What would the advantage be?

It's a personal choice.
The dedicated port allows dedicated control, as an option.

 

[CaySol]

I have a new solar system with a EG4 GridBoss and 2 EG4 FlexBoss. Before installing solar, I had already installed a Level 2 EV charging station inside the garage, connected to my panel. When the installers put the GridBoss + FlexBoss up, they left the EV charger where it was. I read that the GridBoss has four smart ports, one of which seems to be dedicated to EV charging.

Would it be better to move the connection from the inside panel to the GridBoss? What would the advantage be?

You could set the breaker to open on the ev charger if your battery was below a certain SOC. I intend to put my ev charger on a smart port. Drawback is you need the gridboss to be functioning correctly to be able to charge.

 

[Lawrence_SoCal]

What would the advantage be?

The question is when grid power is down, which circuits would you want to power off? or more sophisticated as mentioned above, maybe turn certain breakers off when battery hits a certain state.

So... depends on if you have other smart energy automation set up to turn off EVSE when grid goes down(, and solar not producing excess?)
if you don't have such automation, then you may want the EVSE controlled to prevent an grid-down outage in middle of evening, leading to an emptied house battery from EV charging?

or you may have other circuits you'd want such smarts applied to? well pump, etc. depends

 

[BarryAllen]

I have a new solar system with a EG4 GridBoss and 2 EG4 FlexBoss. Before installing solar, I had already installed a Level 2 EV charging station inside the garage, connected to my panel. When the installers put the GridBoss + FlexBoss up, they left the EV charger where it was. I read that the GridBoss has four smart ports, one of which seems to be dedicated to EV charging.

Would it be better to move the connection from the inside panel to the GridBoss? What would the advantage be?

The GridBoss can manage the charging process more efficiently by integrating with your solar system. It can prioritize charging the EV using excess solar energy, reducing reliance on grid power.

 

[green-river]

The GridBoss can manage the charging process more efficiently by integrating with your solar system. It can prioritize charging the EV using excess solar energy, reducing reliance on grid power.

Can it though? Which setting is this to set this up. Genuinely curious.
I didn't think it was aware of "excess solar" since that was connected to the hybrid inverter not the GridBoss.

 

[CaySol]

Can it though? Which setting is this to set this up. Genuinely curious.
I didn't think it was aware of "excess solar" since that was connected to the hybrid inverter not the GridBoss.

All the inverters are connected to the gridboss and the loads are connected to the gridboss as well.

 

[green-river]

I just mean I didn't see the setting in the manual/portal.
So I was wondering how the inverter knows there is "excess solar" and then turns on a smart port. This is something I've seen other systems do like the Emporia EV charger with a grid-tie system and CTs, but I haven't seen "charge on excess solar" mentioned in any EG4 documentation.

 

[CaySol]

I just mean I didn't see the setting in the manual/portal.
So I was wondering how the inverter knows there is "excess solar" and then turns on a smart port. This is something I've seen other systems do like the Emporia EV charger with a grid-tie system and CTs, but I haven't seen "charge on excess solar" mentioned in any EG4 documentation.

The gridboss opens and closes the smart port. Not the inverter. The option on the gridboss lets you set a min value of PV to turn on the smart port. From the gridboss manual.

 

[ksmithaz1]

Not a bad idea from a KISS perspective. I would say If you get a smart EVSE you can do a lot more. One of the things I ran into is the desire to dynamically allow car charging based on both SOC in the batteries and anticipated amount of power I will get based on TOD. For example if I'm going to need about 50% of my battery capacity for overnight, and the bats are at 80% at 10PM, and I plug my car in I start slowly bleeding power from the solar batteries adjusting the charge rate to pull them down at a maximum desired rate. Since I anticipate I can take my batteries from 15% to 100% tomorrow, I target a 25% charge at 0600 as I bleed off the power to the EV. I raise the EV charge rate if I'm over 3% above desired, and lower it if I fall below expectation. If it hits around 25% SOC I just shut it off. I could really care less about PV output, I just want to make sure my batteries are at 100% at 1600-1700.

You can see the red line for EV, I plugged in at 1730ish when I got home, turned on for a bit full blast then dropped off as the SOC dropped below 95%. Kicked back on at 1930, and the rate varied slightly here and there keeping the SOC on a linear downward slope. HVAC kicked on a little heavier at 0500, and the SOC fell to 25% so it turned it off. My daytime algorithm is more aggressive, but I have the luxury of generally predictable PV output. The problem with EV charging is I'm not home from 0900-1500 when the thing is shoving power down my throat, except on the weekends. I have the same rules in the daytime, tracking charging based on SOC. Right now with NO HVAC in the day, it's pretty much wide open after about 1000. This summer? Not so much. I need more batteries.

 

[DarkKaplah]

I think a lot have covered this already. It's a setup I'm looking to upgrade to. Hook your EV charger and other non critical large loads to the smart ports so that in an emergency you're not quickly using up all of your available battery power. It's more essential to run your fridge than your EV charger as a failsafe. You can modify the setting on your gridboss and reactivate that port if you're in a exceptional situation (EV's dead and you need just enough charge to get to a working quick charger). Personally I'd be putting my EV charger, Sunamp thermino i300, and my Drier on the smart ports.

Now what changes this is if EG4 or one of the other manufacturers finally put out the new standardized Bidirectional chargers where I can use my car as an additional battery. I'm really hoping EG4 comes out with a simple user installable device that hooks into the Gridboss.

 

[MattZN]

I have a new solar system with a EG4 GridBoss and 2 EG4 FlexBoss. Before installing solar, I had already installed a Level 2 EV charging station inside the garage, connected to my panel. When the installers put the GridBoss + FlexBoss up, they left the EV charger where it was. I read that the GridBoss has four smart ports, one of which seems to be dedicated to EV charging.

Would it be better to move the connection from the inside panel to the GridBoss? What would the advantage be?

I just DIY installed a similar combo and decided to put my primary EVSE on a smart port. I just put the smart port in normal smart port mode and I like the flexibility. It was also more convenient wiring-wise (the EVSE conduit hits the Grid Boss before it hits the breaker panel that it used to be routed to). If the Grid Boss fails then I can just use my slow 120V backup EVSE until its fixed so no big deal.

I don't actually use any smart features beyond ensuring the port is turned off if grid-down. I don't want the high-power EVSE running at all in a grid-down situation. If I want to optimize charging or charge grid-down I just use the "slow" 120V EVSE off the BACKUP panel (aka uses inverter and battery and looks like a regular load)... which charges slowly enough that the battery buffers it quite nicely without having to worry too much. In anycase, that means the smart port is set to "Smart Load", "Smart Load Grid Always On", and everything else is turned off.

I find this works really well. I don't like too much "smart" logic messing up my assumptions about when or how much charging the car gets.

I also threw my AC coupled solar onto a smart port configured for AC coupling. Theoretically I could connect it to FlexBoss21's load terminals but again, it was just easier wrire-routing to use a smart port and I don't need black-start.

But because the Grid Boss can potentially fail, I don't put the main house sub-panel on a smart port... instead that is wired into the 200A panel connected to the Grid Boss's BACKUP terminals, so the Grid Boss's manual bypass works with it.

--

Another thing I would say is that even though the smart relays can kill a link while a car is charging, it puts wear on them when they disconnect under load and honestly I don't think its good for the vehicle either to have uncommanded power loss. So I would never actually try to use a smart port to manage EV charging. If the charge rate is too high such that it would cycle excessively, just reprogram your EVSE to charge at a slower rate or have a secondary "slow" 120V EVSE for those times.

-Matt

 

[rcht148]

Another thing I would say is that even though the smart relays can kill a link while a car is charging, it puts wear on them when they disconnect under load and honestly I don't think its good for the vehicle either to have uncommanded power loss. So I would never actually try to use a smart port to manage EV charging. If the charge rate is too high such that it would cycle excessively, just reprogram your EVSE to charge at a slower rate or have a secondary "slow" 120V EVSE for those times.

-Matt

I was reading similar comments on reddit and seems like a smart EVSE with monitoring like Emporia would be the preferable route. However, the loss is not being able to account for battery status since emporia primarily is trying to capture the excess being sold back to the grid.