How to Charge your EV from Excess Solar

Jun 8
2 min read

You can use your existing EVSE and grid tied solar system to charge exclusively on pure sunshine

In order to charge your EV from excess solar power, you need to know when you have extra solar power from your grid tied solar system. This is usually done from a whole house power meter that is capable of sending the extra power data to your EVSE. Your EVSE would then read the power data and adjust it's power output to match the amout of extra power. This would mean your power meter would need to be smart enough to communicate to other devices and your EVSE has to be smart enough to communicate to the power meter and adjust accordingly.

2MuchSun has developed inexpensive kits that allow you to do this without changing any of your existing equipment. We have a power meter called PowerMC that connects to your main electrical panel and sends the extra power data to several types of EVSE kits that make your EVSE smart enough to charge only on the extra solar power.

The EVSE kits are available in 2 form factors either as an external adapter or internal PCB assembly kit. If you are not handy or do not want to open up your existing EVSE, then the external adapter is what you need. The external adapter called SolarAdapter is a modified J1772 to NACS (top photo) or NACS to J1772 (bottom photo) adapter.

They are actual 3 devices in one. Without power, they function as normal adapters, and with power, they function either as a smart WiFi controller for your EVSE or an EV power diverter for charging with excess solar power.

The less expensive form factor is the internal PCB assembly kit called SolarEVSE and requires you to mount a small PCB assembly inside your existing EVSE.

This PCB assembly will make your EVSE smart by allowing you to control your EVSE via WiFi or use it as a EV power diverter. For those with a JuiceBox EVSE either version 1 or 2, the SolarEVSE Juicebox kit has an additional feature of removing any charging limitations that was enabled when the company decided to leave the US market.