Emporia vue/eves and excess solar

[sjordan0228]

I recently bought my first ev and purchased an emporia ev charger. I also have a eg4 18kpv with 4 eg4 indoor batteries. I do not export to the grid. I do pull from the grid when batteries are below 15%.

I see that emporia offers the vue which can monitor energy usage and I also see you can set your evse to charge when there is excess solar. However looking at the manuals it looks like this setup is made for systems that export. Or am I understanding this wrong? Is it possible to hook up the emporia vue to monitor grid usage and only run the evse when grid is not being used?

In a perfect scenario I would like to setup my ev charger to turn on when batteries are 100% and pull the proper amount so it won’t pull from the battery (or do its best to minimize pulling from the battery) and to stop charging when there is no excess.

 

[1201]

i think the way the emporia is set up is it sees export to the grid and tries to divert that to your specified loads, so no export no diversion

 

[sjordan0228]

i think the way the emporia is set up is it sees export to the grid and tries to divert that to your specified loads, so no export no diversion

That’s a shame. I think I may go another route by using home assistant. As long as I can control the charging rate I maybe able to put something together.

 

[summit]

I recently bought my first ev and purchased an emporia ev charger. I also have a eg4 18kpv with 4 eg4 indoor batteries. I do not export to the grid. I do pull from the grid when batteries are below 15%.

I see that emporia offers the vue which can monitor energy usage and I also see you can set your evse to charge when there is excess solar. However looking at the manuals it looks like this setup is made for systems that export. Or am I understanding this wrong? Is it possible to hook up the emporia vue to monitor grid usage and only run the evse when grid is not being used?

In a perfect scenario I would like to setup my ev charger to turn on when batteries are 100% and pull the proper amount so it won’t pull from the battery (or do its best to minimize pulling from the battery) and to stop charging when there is no excess.

may be a separately battery voltage monitor to turn on charger at set Vbatt-hi and off at Vbatt-lo ? but charging would be on/off.

My reading of the Emporia & Vue set up is that it monitors power flow using 2x CT coils, incoming solar and outgoing to grid, and tries to keep outgoing current at zero. I would email Emporia support, they are quite responsive.

 

[sjordan0228]

I got this working by utilizing solar assistant and home assistant. Took me a bit to code it right but my automation seems to be working well. I have it check the SOC of the battery and also that the EVSE is plugged in. If the two meet my threshold it begins charging at 6amps. From there it checks the battery power. If it is 0 or higher I ramp up the charging rate by 2 until I see a discharge from the battery. It’s not perfect but seems to work well. If it gets back down to 6 amps it will continue to charge until the battery SOC hits my low threshold then stops the charger.

 

[summit]

I got this working by utilizing solar assistant and home assistant. Took me a bit to code it right but my automation seems to be working well. I have it check the SOC of the battery and also that the EVSE is plugged in. If the two meet my threshold it begins charging at 6amps. From there it checks the battery power. If it is 0 or higher I ramp up the charging rate by 2 until I see a discharge from the battery. It’s not perfect but seems to work well. If it gets back down to 6 amps it will continue to charge until the battery SOC hits my low threshold then stops the charger.

what is your EVSE and EV ?

 

[sjordan0228]

what is your EVSE and EV ?

Ford f150 lightning. Emporia evse

 

[ChrisG]

That’s great where emporia evse lets you control through HA. Wish the Tesla UWA charger had that integration.

 

[summit]

Are the solar-assistant and home-assistant both local ? without needing to access external server ? can they operate without the internet ?

 

[sjordan0228]

Are the solar-assistant and home-assistant both local ? without needing to access external server ? can they operate without the internet ?

Yes to both.

 

[wolfery]

what is your EVSE and EV ?

Hey I was reading thru this form and just bought the EVSE and the Vue3. Is there a chance you can share your code for Home Assistant. I have very similar installation. 13KW Full Off-Grid - 15K Sol-Ark - 37Kwh Lithium Storage. Also running HA and SA.

 

[sjordan0228]

Here is a modified version that should be fairly easy to understand. Yes I know the conditions and states are weird but honestly I tried so many iterations to get this going and this is the only way I could get it working consistently. It starts charging 6 amps at 100% SOC (easy to change) and goes up and down by 4 amps depending on battery power. This should be a good start for you.

alias: Debugging EV Charger Automation - Working
description: >-
  Enable the EV charger when the car is connected and Battery SOC is 100%;
  adjust charger current to keep Battery Power between -1000 and 1000
triggers:
  - entity_id: binary_sensor.car_connected
    to: "on"
    trigger: state
  - minutes: /2
    trigger: time_pattern
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.car_connected
    state: "on"
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_state_of_charge
    above: 99
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: switch.evse
            state: "off"
        sequence:
          - data:
              message: Starting charger and setting initial charge current to 6
            action: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
          - entity_id: switch.evse
            action: switch.turn_on
          - delay: "00:00:10"
          - data:
              current: 6
            target:
              entity_id: switch.evse
            action: emporia_vue.set_charger_current
          - data:
              entity_id: input_number.ev_charger_current
              value: 6
            action: input_number.set_value
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: state
            entity_id: switch.evse
            state: "on"
        sequence:
          - choose:
              - conditions:
                  - condition: numeric_state
                    entity_id: sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_power
                    above: 1000
                sequence:
                  - delay: "00:00:05"
                  - data:
                      message: >
                        Increasing charge current by 4. Current Battery SOC: {{
                        states('sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_state_of_charge')
                        }}%
                    action: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
                  - data_template:
                      current: >
                        {% set current_current_state =
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') | int %}  {{
                        [current_current_state + 4, 48] | min }}
                    target:
                      entity_id: switch.evse
                    action: emporia_vue.set_charger_current
                  - data_template:
                      entity_id: input_number.ev_charger_current
                      value: >
                        {% set current_current_state =
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') | int %}  {{
                        [current_current_state + 4, 48] | min }}
                    action: input_number.set_value
                  - data_template:
                      message: >
                        New charging current: {{
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') }}. Battery
                        SOC: {{
                        states('sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_state_of_charge')
                        }}%
                    action: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
              - conditions:
                  - condition: numeric_state
                    entity_id: sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_power
                    below: -1000
                sequence:
                  - delay: "00:00:05"
                  - data:
                      message: >
                        Decreasing charge current by 4. Current Battery SOC: {{
                        states('sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_state_of_charge')
                        }}%
                    action: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
                  - data_template:
                      current: >
                        {% set current_current_state =
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') | int %}  {{
                        [current_current_state - 4, 6] | max }}
                    target:
                      entity_id: switch.evse
                    action: emporia_vue.set_charger_current
                  - data_template:
                      entity_id: input_number.ev_charger_current
                      value: >
                        {% set current_current_state =
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') | int %}  {{
                        [current_current_state - 4, 6] | max }}
                    action: input_number.set_value
                  - data_template:
                      message: >
                        New charging current: {{
                        states('input_number.ev_charger_current') }}. Battery
                        SOC: {{
                        states('sensor.luxpower_lxp_battery_state_of_charge')
                        }}%
                    action: notify.mobile_app_yourphone
mode: single

 

[wolfery]

This is a great start, I really appreciate it. I will work with this to start and change the values and needed. Will also see what I can come up with that will work better for us both as well. The new Lightning I bought is going to be a swift and steep learning curve, especially charging it off-grid.

Thanks again, will let you know how it goes.

 

[sjordan0228]

This is a great start, I really appreciate it. I will work with this to start and change the values and needed. Will also see what I can come up with that will work better for us both as well. The new Lightning I bought is going to be a swift and steep learning curve, especially charging it off-grid.

Thanks again, will let you know how it goes.

Hah thats awesome. I just got my first ev back in december and it is also a Lightning (used).

 

[wolfery]

Hah thats awesome. I just got my first ev back in december and it is also a Lightning (used).

So I had errors trying to implement that script. Still gotta mess with it, I am curious what are you running for an inverter. I tried connecting the emporia to the truck now that I got it home ! Yay. It went to 48A and then the Sol-Ark 15k I had, tripped the main breaker. Turning off the inverter.

I was super stoked when it seemed plug and play. Then did it a second time, with the emporia at 6amp. It again ramped to 48 and tripped.

 

[wolfery]

Also that year, color and version of the lightning you playing with ?. I want to see if the onboard power can run my 19ft trailer

 

[daklein]

I use PyEmVue modified code to control the Emporia EVSE, for a couple years now. I don't use home assistant, but I think PyEmVue library is what homeassistant uses underneath. It does still require the EVSE to see the cloud, and my RaspberryPi is basically pretending to be the app telling the cloud what to do. I would rather it be direct from my RPi to the EVSE. Correct me if I'm wrong if that has been figured out, like ESPhome f/w on the Vue power monitor.

GitHub - magico13/PyEmVue: Python Library for the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor

Python Library for the Emporia Vue Energy Monitor. Contribute to magico13/PyEmVue development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

 

[daklein]

It would be possible to put ESPhome or other alternate firmware on it. But it would require figuring out enough of the OEM firmware to duplicate the basic EVSE functionality.

Exploiting the Emporia EV Charger: A Hacker’s Point of View

Exposed serial interfaces in electric vehicle (EV) chargers present a significant vulnerability, enabling attackers to tamper with hardware and firmware. This creates opportunities for malicious activities, highlighting the need for strong security measures to prevent such exploits.

vicone.com

There are a couple discussions, or asking if someone will please do it...

Esphome on Emporia EV charger

Anyone working on getting esphome on emporia Ev chargers. I saw they have beeen succesful with energy management device but that are not same The Ev charger has esp32

community.home-assistant.io

https://www.reddit.com/r/Esphome/comments/1g1o3zv/anyone_installed_esphome_on_this_emporia_ev

 

[josh0]

Has anyone on here actually paired the Emporia EVSE with the Vue 3? My read on it's functionality was that it simply monitors your overall power consumption, and lowers the max draw of the EVSE to ensure you don't overload your main breaker, allowing you to install a 50/60A EVSE without upgrading your panel. It can't force more power into your EV than the battery will hold (or the vehicle's charge limit will allow), so if your EV is charged to it's max set point, the EVSE will draw (essentially) zero, regardless of how much excess capacity you have, and you'll continue selling back to the grid. While your EV is still charging, it still won't ever draw more than the 40/48A max that the EVSE is capable of, but presumably your solar setup would more or less ensure that you're always able to charge at the max 40/48A, at least when the sun is shining (and depending on your solar system, obviously).