Easily Coordinate Your EV Charger With Your Home

As electric vehicle ownership gains momentum in Australia, new EV owners face the challenge of charging their vehicles as cheaply and conveniently as possible.

The cheapest way to charge an electric car in Australia is – if possible – to take advantage of the negative wholesale price of electricity through a service like Amber. You can get paid to fill up your car.

The next cheapest source of electricity for your EV is home solar followed by off-peak electricity.

Charging from solar panels can be achieved using a hardware solution – just look for a charger with ‘smart solar’ charging in our EV charger comparison table. Almost all electric cars will also allow you to charge from off-peak through simple timers.

But what if you want to combine solar charging and Amber? Or what if you need to coordinate a battery at home in the mix?

Depending on your hardware mix, that can be very difficult:

One solution to synchronizing your EV charging is through software that communicates with the individual hardware components and coordinates them.¹.

A new app in Australia, Charge HQ, aims to do this by analyzing factors in your home in real time, such as solar production, energy consumption and wholesale electricity tariffs, adjust your EV charging rate to match.

It’s early days now, as Charge HQ is still in beta. However, they already have more than 1,000 users, and it is currently free to use by anyone with compatible equipment. Just download it from your relevant app store. There is also a web app that can be used similarly to the mobile app.

Charge HQ adjusts your EV’s charge rate in real time to match excess solar production until full. Image: Charge HQ

I recently interviewed Andrew Rodgers, the co-founder of Charge HQ. Here’s what he had to say…

SolarQuotes: Can you tell me, Andrew, why an EV owner needs an app to charge their car, and what your app does that a smart charger doesn’t?

Payment to HQ: “The Charge HQ app allows users to charge their EVs from excess solar on the roof. Instead of sending your excess solar energy to the grid for a low feed-in tariff, you can download it app, set it up in ten minutes, and start using excess solar to reduce the amount of grid charging overnight.

SolarQuotes: Does a user need to install solar on their home to use your app? If not, what are the advantages of using the Charge HQ app?

Payment to HQ: “You don’t have to have solar to use the app, but many users have solar installed on their homes. For people who don’t have solar, there are some advanced controls in the app that you don’t get. on an EV charger.

“For example, you can define scheduled billing periods based on the day of the week, or to take advantage of off-peak tariffs. Powershop has very affordable prices between midnight and 4 in the morning, so the app can be turned on during these times. If you are an Amber customer you can use it to respond to low or negative electricity prices.

SolarQuotes: The FAQ section of your website states: “Many times when your EV is charging from grid energy, if you have a home battery system, the battery will discharge energy while the vehicle is charge, and there is a view that charges your EV battery from your The home battery is sub-optimal, for many reasons…” You go on to say that “there are solutions for this. “

Given that Charge HQ is still in beta stage, will solving this be a priority for you before bringing the product to market, or will the solutions you propose be sufficient?

Payment to HQ: “Most smart chargers monitor the flow of energy in and out of the home battery but not the state of charge. It comes with the use of an API to give us a little more information about battery, and as quickly as we can to become more aware of the battery.

“It’s still difficult to completely stop a home battery from discharging, but we have ideas on how we can solve it, and it’s near the top of our map list going forward.”

SolarQuotes: So, is the issue now that the home battery can’t tell the difference between an EV battery and other household loads?

Payment to HQ: “Yes, that’s right. A common scenario is that during the day the EV charges from solar and that’s fine, the home battery stays off the road. But then at night, the EV battery may need a top-up, and it’s just like any other battery load at home, so it discharges. We thought it was possible that the software could talk to the battery at home and say, for example, at midnight tell it to stop discharging.

“It varies depending on the battery as well. For example, I have a Powerwall at home, and I noticed recently that it has its own mechanism, so if I tell it to charge in response to my time of use tariff it tend not to discharge overnight while my EV is charging. So there is a little nuance, and the experience will vary depending on the battery model and configuration.

Charge flow chart in HQ app. Image: Charge HQ

SolarQuotes: Why does the app set a control limit of 90% charge during the day, and 60% overnight?

Payment to HQ: “The default setting is just a starting point, and is completely customizable. The idea of ​​having a low setting overnight is that you can maximize the use of excess solar the next day. Everyone has a different routine, and then adjust these settings to suit their own set of circumstances.”

SolarQuotes: Regarding a user with home consumption monitoring vs. no consumption monitoring, your website says: “If a consumption meter is present Charge HQ can transfer excess solar to EV charging. For example, when you turn on your oven, Charge HQ will reduce EV charging power to avoid importing from the grid.

I think this feature alone is enough to get me the app. What other features do you think will draw people in line and convince them to download the app?

Payment to HQ: “The fact that you can download this app and start using it immediately for free without buying any additional hardware is a no-brainer. The software approach gives us a huge -flexible in what we can do. We have, and will continue to add more features like this.”

SolarQuotes: I read Charge HQ is used for charging at home and prioritized back to the car for charging on the road. I can think of a function that would be useful when charging from the side of the road or on the road. Can the app notify the owner when the cable is removed and help prevent charger cable theft?

Payment to HQ: “We can even do better than that. The app has the ability to communicate with the charger and lock the cable in place to prevent theft. This is a new feature and therefore not currently updated on our website at this time.

Charge HQ app interface showing solar tracking and charging settings. Image: Charge HQ

SolarQuotes: Do you think Charge HQ will have a role in when, or if V2G (Vehicle to Grid) becomes the norm, and perhaps reduce or eliminate the need for a home battery? Maybe you have a feature called “Discharge HQ”?

Payment to HQ: “I like the name. If V2G becomes something we are very well positioned to deal with it. There are two schools of thought on that. In a world where we have more renewables in the future, an important first step is to soak up excess solar energy into things like EV batteries.

“Then unloading them to meet overnight demand becomes complicated. The more we discharge, the faster the battery will be damaged and the car will be affected. It’s early days to find out where that balance lies. As battery technology changes, so do variables such as battery degradation and worry, etc.

SolarQuotes: Are there any other apps that you know of that function similarly to Charge HQ?

Payment to HQ: “Nothing has come together with solar in the same way. I think that Australia is a unique market because we have a lot of rooftop solar installed and we also have an electricity tariff structure that encourages of people to use solar.

SolarQuotes: When do you think Charge HQ will be out of beta phase?

Payment to HQ: “We have a bunch of features that we’re working on that we feel need to be there to be out of beta, with our target being the first quarter of next year. One that we’re working on right now is the recording interface that will display statistics and data about your billing history.”

SolarQuotes: So, how does one download Charge HQ?

Payment to HQ: “Just search for Charge HQ in the Google Play Store (Android) or the App Store (iPhone), download, and install. Check the list of supported hardware and you can be up and running in ten minutes. There is also a comprehensive FAQ section on the website. “

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