This is the English version of the initial one I wrote in Swedish. I wanted to share this with the non Swedish audience as well.
After installing my solar panels, an electric car was the next step. The car is a separate discussion but in my case it is a Renault Zoe Life. You will need a charging box for your car. There are a number of different brands and when I started to look at this it became clearly confused. There are no good tests, it is controlled from the electricity suppliers who probably have a pretty good kick-back on each sold unit and it is difficult to see what makes each box unique. Some also have subscriptions and different discounts for public charging, which makes it difficult to understand the final price. I would have liked to see someone testing all these chargers with different cars and hope to see this soon.
There are 128 manufacturers of charging boxes in the world now. And Europe is doing quite fine.
This is not an exact scientific test, but I have compared what is relevant to the one who wants to control as much you can yourself. There are plenty of reasons for other boxes. It also differs very much between different countries. In the United States, other brands seem to dominate compared to Sweden. I’m not adding the Tesla box here either. There is so much other good written about this and if you have a Tesla you probably have their charging box. There are also many different models from each manufacturer. I have chosen one I peeked at for every manufacturer where it is the one I felt most sensible for the purpose. And has the best adaptation for smart automation. See it as a collection of the charging boxes that are available to buy today. I can also mention that I emailed around to everyone here to be able to provide supplementary information about eg. api but has not received any great response. The exception applies to Juicebox where they said that you can get their api if you sign a nda. But we start with some basic info
Smart or Stupid?
A smart probably has both an app, wifi and maybe even an API. You may also have the opportunity to control many things from your car. A stupid perhaps has some other smart built-in things, but it becomes more difficult to control and automate this.
What does a charging box cost?
How long is a string? You can probably pay between SEK 7,000-15,000 for the box itself. The installation fee comes to and usually be around 5000 SEK with. Request quotes from several different.
What effect do I need?
The effect depends on your main fuse. A 3.7kW charging box uses 16A in single phase. Most have 20A / 25A fuses. An 11kW charging box uses 16A in three phases simultaneously. If you have solar cells then maybe it makes sense to be able to load it slowly on the weekends when you are not working. Then maybe it doesn’t have to go so fast.
Single-phase or three-phase charging?
Some cars cannot handle 3 phase and then you do not need such a charger. It also depends on how the electricity in your house is set up. Do you have the opportunity so future-proof with a larger charger. The greater the effect on your charger, the faster you can load the image.
Fashion / Type
There are different types of connectors and this can determine if you should have a fixed cord or not. You should of course also check that it fits your car This is very well described on electric cars
What is dynamic load shift?
It is to feel when the load on your electrical system is high or low and then control the charge. You may be able to solve this yourself in part if you automate your charging box.
Photovoltaics
Is there a charger that works particularly well with solar cells? Yes and no. For what do you want to achieve? Most likely to charge your car when the sun is shining and you have an overproduction. Just Zappi supports this by putting meters on the cables and seeing how your production is. But if you read here you may already have figured out that this can be done in many other ways. In my case, I have current solar cell production as a sensor in the Home Assistant. Let’s say this drive is over 20% so I can start or stop the charging box via API. Or do I have any other form of energy measurement I can only choose to start this way. Maybe there’s an app for my car. Then I can choose to start the charge here instead if it is so that my solar cells produce. Perhaps Zappi or similar solutions will suit those who want it fully automated with something that works out of the box.
RCD
In May, new rules came into force that require type B or A type earth leakage circuit breakers with DC monitoring.
Can I charge the electric car in the ordinary electrical outlet?
Yes it is quite possible to charge many electric cars directly into a regular wall outlet but you should not. Due to electrical safety and charging time. Many will say that it worked great. And maybe that does, but there are a number of advantages with the charging box. For example, you have your own fuse. It also transmits power at a higher speed than the usual one.
There were a few things. Please check out the respective suppliers’ respective websites to get full control of each product. Many have several models with different effects.
JuiceBox Pro 32
This is my personal favorite and maybe the one I will buy. The charger is manufactured in the United States. It can charge up to 11kW with 3 phase 16A. You can load it with many others. You have 24 months warranty. It has its own app where you can control power management. It supports Amazon Alexa and Google Home. You can also connect a Juice meter to it and then be able to control more things and also be able to load electricity from your solar cells. however, it is a little uncertain whether the juice meter is still sold. As if this were not enough, it has its own component in Home Assistant and an API that you can probably access.
Manufacturer: eMotorWerks
Price: 8 995: –
+ 3 phase if desired, App, Google and Amazon Alexa support
– Not the biggest brand in Sweden
Easee (Tibber)
Available in black or white and has some resemblance to Darth Vader. The charger is the one that Tibber markets as it will be able to utilize their smart electric goods where the operators change several times a day. They guarantee you a 50% lower electricity price compared to what you pay per kilowatt hour for your other electricity. The charging box can charge 1 and 3 phase with speeds between 1.4-22 kW. It comes with a type 2 connector that you can connect a regular charging cable to.
You can also buy Watty box for load balancing. It should also monitor your main fuse and be able to measure some other smart things about your electricity consumption.
Manufacturer: EFUEL / Tibber
Price: 7,995: –
+ Guaranteed good electricity price according to Tibber, smart features with the app
– Have heard some say that the product does not really feel ready
Zappi V1
This was the first model I looked at. This is because it should have good support for solar cells and have some other really smart functions. There would also be a V2 version last year, but it looks like it will come a long time later. Right now June 2019. This new model will be ready for 3 phase. V1 can handle 32A (7kW).
Zappin has a clamp on the cable on each phase where it feels the load on and in from eg solar cells or wind power. It can then adjust how much electricity it should provide.
There is currently no app or api for it but it is said that there will come an app in late April 2019. We’ll see.
Manufacturer: Myenergy
Price: 6,700: –
+ Many smart accessories like Eddi. Works with solar cells.
– No app now. Will come in April. No 3 phase now either
Garo
Garo is a company from Gnosjö that deals with quite a lot. Among other things KNX which is known to the home automator. I actually had quite a hard time understanding what this charger really can do. It can be supplemented with a wifi module that can provide RFID support but unsure what exactly more it does. The chargers are prepared for dynamic load balancing with Modbus 1-phase / 3-phase. You then need an energy meter in the power station for activation of the function. This will make it more expensive. All charging boxes have locks.
Manufacturer: Garo
Price: 7995: – to 10995: –
+ Stable company with experience.
– No app, complicated
Eva Connected
This is the charging box that Vattenfall wants to sell on you. I asked to get some different suggestions but only got one with the reason that this was the best one anyway. They have a variety of models. Some with a subscription service if you want to use their public charger. According to themselves, “EVA is the market’s most modern charging box in terms of security, design and functionality” It supports support for load balancing with a license. They have their app “Taking charge” for statistics and control. The charging effect is 1.4-22kW (1-phase 6A up to 3-phase 32A) and the price is one from price so expect it to be much more expensive.
Manufacturer: Chargestorm
Price: 9995: –
– Pretty expensive
+ App, stylish design and modern. Advantage of charging station solutions.
HALO Wallbox gen 2
Swedish company. The charger is among the smallest with a long cord. It has wifi that connects to the cloud service. An extra schuko outlet on the underside. RFID. Available with 3.7kW or 3-phase 11kW. The price is the smaller. Can be load balanced.
Manufacturer: Chargeamp
Price: 9,990:
– No app
+ Cloud service
Elvi
The box was released in mid-2018 and the company is from the Netherlands. It has 3.7 – 22kW. They also have an app that has the joyful name Hey app that I have not tried. Stylish and stylish. Built of three components.
Manufacturer: Evbox
Pris: 12,000:
– No direct
+ App
Clever (Bee)
This charging box is marketed by Bee, which is owned by a number of power companies. Clever is also the charging box recommended by Renault if you go through them. According to them, the charging box is smart. It communicates via a standard protocol which seems to be the GSM network and upgrades the charging box firmware for a cost of 29 / month. In my opinion, it doesn’t sound so smart. It appears that one should be able to get other statistics and other things, but it is quite unclear how this works in practice. Adjustable power from 3.7 to 11 kW According to one user, the statistics you get from Clever / Bee is an email that you get monthly with how many kWh you have loaded and how many hours you have been connected day by day during the past month.
Manufacturer: Keba
Pris: 11,900:
– Notable business model
+ Support from certain car manufacturers
GoPlug
This is the one I really want. Open Source based on Arduino. The project was started in 2011 and has now resulted in a DYI kit. Completely built on open code. Look around on their side. Of course there is also a component for Home Assistant.
Manufacturer: Open EVSE
Price: 6000: –
– Hard to find, difficult to find in Sweden
+ Open Source. Arduino, API, Need I say more…
ChargePointHome
American company. Available in several variants with different effects. Have an app. Energy star certified.
Manufacturer: Chargepoint
Price: 7000: –
– Buy at Amazon
+ App, smart, cheap, Alexa support
Conclusion
This is a jungle. If I had selected three, it would have been the Juicebox, Chargepoint and Goplug. This is because they have Alexa support, Works with API (some) and seems to have a good strategy ahead. But they lack some kind of smart connection and I have therefore chosen not to include them here. The exception is NRG Kick, which I think is more of a fast charger, but with a lot of functionality. It can certainly be that I missed this on any of these below.
Def
Accelev (EVSE)
NRG KickSam
the other 128 on the list at the top
