Published Oct 23, 2023

Updated Jun 03, 2024

Exciting news for Zaptec and amina™ users with solar panels installed: With Perific, you are now able to automatically charge your EV with solar power when there's excess solar energy available.

Our latest feature, Solar Charging, marks a significant move towards greener EV charging. By automatically initiating charging when your solar panels generate enough power to cover both your property's electricity needs and your car's charging requirements, you can significantly reduce the amount of purchased electricity used to charge your car.

Below, we have compiled information and frequently asked questions about the Solar Charging feature.

What does the Solar Charging feature involve?

The Solar Charging feature requires you to have solar panels installed, generating enough electricity periodically to cover both your house's energy needs and simultaneous EV charging.

What happens on cloudy days? Will my car still charge?

To ensure your car never runs out of charge, the Solar Charging feature complements our optiCharge schedules: Price-Adapted Charging and Manual Charging. This means your car will always charge, regardless of the weather. It will automatically utilize solar power whenever your solar production is sufficient, providing you with a reliable charge regardless of the weather conditions.

Does this feature mean the car exclusively charges using self-produced electricity?

To ensure a consistent charge, your solar power might occasionally be supplemented with purchased electricity from the grid. This occurs, for example, when passing clouds quickly reduce solar production. During such periods, the charging continues, utilizing purchased electricity to compensate for the temporary drop in your own production.

Once the clouds pass and production returns to a higher level, your car will resume charging exclusively with solar power.

This guarantees a steady and predictable charge for your car.

My property's solar production exceeds its electricity consumption, but the surplus electricity is sold to the grid. Why isn't this surplus used for charging?

For the Solar Charging feature to enable charging, there must be an overproduction of at least 8A per phase beyond the property's other consumption.

When the surplus is less than 8A per phase, no charging is allowed, and the excess is sold instead.

When my solar production decreases to a level where charging can no longer be sustained by solar power, the car still continues to charge. Why isn't the charging interrupted?

The Solar Charging feature incorporates a built-in delay to handle temporary dips in solar production, such as during fluctuating cloud cover. Charging continues for a brief period before eventually being interrupted.

What is required for Solar Charging to function?

Solar Charging operates under the following conditions:

• Your solar installation is large enough to periodically generate solar energy covering both your house's needs and ongoing charging.

• There must be solar production of at least 8A per phase beyond the house's consumption to initiate charging.

• You have activated one of our optiCharge features: Price-Adapted Charging or Manual Charging.

• You have activated the Solar Charging feature.

I have activated Solar Charging, but my car is not charging.

Please ensure that the conditions mentioned above are met. If your car still isn't charging, kindly contact our support team for assistance.

I have a charging station from a different manufacturer controlled by Perific. Can I use the Solar Charging feature?

Currently, the Solar Charging feature is exclusively available in our Zaptec and amina™ integration.