Can new EV charging software optimize battery use?

Q&A and troubleshooting EVCS
1

Finally I done my first EV charging with this beta SW and I have some points to discuss.

  1. Adding visible countdown indicated time to stop charging, if EVCS uses power from battery/grid is good improvement. It will be good to have this counter also available via MQTT from Cerbo GX. :sunglasses:

  2. Until now, if EV was charging in Auto mode and battery SOC reached parameter “Start charging at backup battery SoC (%)” then charging automatically starts. Alternatively when battery SOC during charging dropped below this value, charging was automatically stopped and EVCS status was switched to “Low SOC”, until battery SOC reached mentioned value again.
    Now EVCS still continue with charging when battery SOC is 84 % (parameter for start charging is set to 92 % in my case). Due to my observation I think, that this is related with automatic reset of countdown counter (10 minutes from battery/grid in my case), which is reset every-time if battery status is changed from “Discharging” even for very short time… Because charging EV battery from home battery completely doesn’t make sense for me (lower capacity, battery cycling, power losses,…), it will be good to have min. SOC parameter for stop EV charging in Auto mode - existing parameter “Stop charging at backup battery SoC, if Off Grid (%)” could be used for this also for ESS grid tied installations, not only for off-grid installations, if you don’t want to use same parameter as for start charging.

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  3. Another good feature will be not using home battery for EV charging in EVCS Manual mode. I have done this using Node-RED - if actual battery SOC is higher than 90 % then ESS min. SOC is set to 90 %, if actual SOC is lower then ESS min. SOC is set to the nearest lower multiple of five; if charging is stopped, ESS min. SOC is set back to previous value.
    Below is the situation, when I started charging in Manual mode when battery SOC was at 84 %, so ESS min. SOC was automatically changed to 80 % and after decreasing to this value, EV charging power was drawn from the grid and PV power was used to recharging the battery.

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2

Regarding point 2 - it was always like this, so it did not stop charging when reach minimum soc set at EVCS. Unless no grid :slight_smile: but I support kind of check box that disallow to charge from battery (use only solar or solar+grid)

3

With previous FWs I never see battery SOC dropping so low under min. SOC setting for start charging (= Low SOC condition)…