[Yellow Yapper]

Been done by tons of people on this forum.

I wouldn't risk this mod with the newer EVSE's that come with the Bolt. The original were made by Clipper Creek and were for both the North American and outside markets, thus the ability to run off 120 or 240 VAC. The later ones (don't know exactly when they started) were made by Webasto (I believe) and may not support 240V. Test it out at your own risk.

 

[Kbecker]

Cool!

I'm kind of curious how they would know when the panels are generating more energy than the house is using?
(I suppose I could ask the AI.)

Emporia sells a separate product called Emporia Vue, that measures the power draw of your whole house, the power draw of individual circuits, the power from solar if you have it, etc. I have this, it’s cool, it works great. Anyways, the Emporia EVSE can talk to the Emporia Vue, then adjust on the fly to feed the car only the excess solar. And whether or not you have solar, it can adjust on the fly based on the rest of the loads in your house, to make sure your car doesn’t pull more Kw than your panel can handle.

 

[ClarDold]

Bolt just accepts 32A via A.C.,

My 2023 Bolt EUV accepts 48A.

 

[Summit]

Cool!

I'm kind of curious how they would know when the panels are generating more energy than the house is using?
(I suppose I could ask the AI.)

it's very cool, but a bit of an investment. You'll need the Emporia EVSE + Vue monitor (abotut $430+$220 ~=$650). The Vue has pick-up coils (CTs) on the main panel grid lines to detect current flow direction. The app software can adjust the EVSE charging rate (via the pilot signal modulation). For example, if you have solar, it can be configured to charge from solar only by keeping the grid in-flow current close to zero.

 

[Summit]

I wouldn't risk this mod with the newer EVSE's that come with the Bolt. The original were made by Clipper Creek and were for both the North American and outside markets, thus the ability to run off 120 or 240 VAC. The later ones (don't know exactly when they started) were made by Webasto (I believe) and may not support 240V. Test it out at your own risk.

that is my querry to see what's the latest year it is still possible. So far it seems 2020 Bolt EVSE still ok.

 

[newboltdriver]

Many of the "Smarter" EVSEs integrate with your home Solar Panels by prioritizing Solar power for charging rather than Grid Electricity. Basically, whenever your Solar panels are generating more energy than your house is using the excess energy is used to charge your car rather than sell it back to the grid. It's a great way to maximize the value of your Solar system, rather than selling your excess Solar back to the grid for less money than they charge you to buy electrons from them.

That integration won’t help me as I’m 95% off-grid.

 

[ClarDold]

I do hope it's easy to semi-permanently set it down to the 16amp setting, as I prefer to charge at that slower than max rate.

I don't think there are any adjustable ClipperCreek units. The JuiceNet enabled ones have been abandoned. The newer "IQ" range has WiFi, and might be adjustable.

The good news is they last forever. The HCS40 will charge at 32 amps.
You might open it up and examine the connections to the relay to make sure they are tight.

 

[Sean Nelson]

Emporia sells a separate product called Emporia Vue, that measures the power draw of your whole house...

I would love to find a system like this that isn't dependent on the cloud to operate.

 

[ClarDold]

I would love to find a system like this that isn't dependent on the cloud to operate.

I don't have one, but I read a lot of stuff in the Tesla Solar/Powerwall Facebook groups about Home Assistant.
There is a smart device installed on your private network that manages local devices.

I see a conversation about how it works without Internet, and the failure mode is something I discovered recently. My Arris Cable Modem/Router doesn't keep my local network up when its Internet connection goes down. My previous setup of Modem and separate router would work fine locally during Internet outages.

"As long as your local network stays up and your integrations don’t depend on an external service you should be able to continue to use it."
Some devices are cloud controlled, so home Automation needs Internet access for them.

 

[Sean Nelson]

I don't have one, but I read a lot of stuff in the Tesla Solar/Powerwall Facebook groups about Home Assistant.
There is a smart device installed on your private network that manages local devices.

That doesn't do anything for devices like the Emporia whose whole purpose is data collection and whose mode of operation is to store that data on remote servers which are unlikely to stay up if the company fails.

I'm extremely dubious of cloud-based products which rope you in and could then potentially go bankrupt, decide to start charging service fees, or become purposefully obsolete when new models are introduced. I much prefer products which will provide me the functionality I need without any outside dependencies.

 

[ClarDold]

I'm extremely dubious of cloud-based products which rope you in and could then potentially go bankrupt

Ah, I misunderstood your intent.
You could be referencing my JuiceBox, dropped like a hot rock by Enel.

If you are interested in a device that is protected from a particular company failing, you want something that is OCPP Compliant, with local ability to switch OCPP providers.
You would be relying on the Internet, but if your provider, an OCPP company, goes out of business, you can switch to a different OCPP provider.
Local ability to switch providers would be key. JuiceBox is sort of OCPP Compliant, but a change to a different OCPP provider must be done on an Enel server, which is not possible today.

You can even use a local controller for OCPP to avoid data going to anyone on the Internet.
Emporia does not do OCPP. Grizzl-E does.

| UNITED CHARGERS INC.

grizzl-e.com

Home Assistant hasan OCPP server in their device, and a list of supported EVSEs.

Supported devices — home-assistant-ocpp documentation

Table of Contents — home-assistant-ocpp documentation

Grizzl-E has some devices that are supported, some that are not.

 

[Sean Nelson]

You can even use a local controller for OCPP to avoid data going to anyone on the Internet.

Thanks for the info, it's something I'm going to have to look into...

 

[MichBolt]

I don't have one, but I read a lot of stuff in the Tesla Solar/Powerwall Facebook groups about Home Assistant.
There is a smart device installed on your private network that manages local devices...

That doesn't do anything for devices like the Emporia whose whole purpose is data collection and whose mode of operation is to store that data on remote servers which are unlikely to stay up if the company fails...

Just a quick clarification on this, since I use Home Assistant with my Juicebox. Home Assistant can act as a Man-In-The-Middle server, which effectively spoofs the cloud-based communication from the remote server. The device never actually communicates with the remote server - it just thinks it is. Your own Home Assistant server (could be running on a Raspberry Pi) is the one communicating with the device. That's how I'm still able to manage (and see data from) my Juicebox, even though Enel-X no longer supports it.

There is actually an Emporia Vue integration with Home Assistant, so that approach might actually help give you the functionality of the Emporia without relying on or sending data to Emporia's remote server.

GitHub - magico13/ha-emporia-vue: Home Assistant Integration for Emporia Vue Energy Monitor

Home Assistant Integration for Emporia Vue Energy Monitor - magico13/ha-emporia-vue

github.com

 

[ClarDold]

since I use Home Assistant with my Juicebox

I missed that juicepassproxy integrated with Home Assistant. I thought it was ... I don't know what I thought it was. I thought it was a standalone web interface to the controls and logging on my local Raspberry Pi that I had before Enel started breaking it a year before they just quit.

There were some people making it seem like they were going to provide something.
I kept expecting that Honda (who got left holding the bag for some unknown number of installed JuiceBoxes, still being shipped after Enel quit) would do something to get a server running.
Or the local utilities that could no longer manage their JuiceBoxes would take over.
The Enel actions astound me. I can't believe it was legal.

Once I accepted that my eight year old JuiceBox was just a dumb EVSE, I forgot about it.