What is charge with solar?
Charge with solar is a feature that allows homeowners with both a SPAN Drive and solar to charge their electric vehicle with solar electricity. This is excess solar production that would normally be sent back to the grid.
How do I enable charge with solar?
The charge with solar feature can be enabled via the SPAN Home App as follows:
- Scroll down on the flow screen and click on SPAN Drive or go to settings and choose SPAN Drive
- Click on “Charge with solar”
- You can use the optional slider to set up overnight grid charging to augment the excess solar available during the day.
- Click “Enable”
How do I know my vehicle is being charged with solar?
When your electric vehicle is plugged in and the charge with solar is enabled, your SPAN Drive screen will share one of the following statuses based on your solar production:
How do I know how much excess solar I have?
Under the “Stats” section of the App, you can view your solar usage and see how much went back to the grid. If you see a large amount of energy returning to the grid, this is a good indication that charge with solar will be a good fit for you.
How can I ensure my vehicle gets charged if I don’t have enough excess solar?
The charge with solar mode provides the option to supplement daytime solar charging with overnight grid electricity charging. Simply navigate to the charge with solar page and move the slider that indicates “Solar only” to the number of additional hours your car needs to charge. You can choose up to 4 hours. On-grid charging starts at midnight.
Why isn’t my EV charging as expected?
Your solar system may not have enough excess solar to power your home loads, backup battery, and your vehicle all at once. SPAN will always prioritize powering your home with solar first, your compatible backup batteries second, and your vehicle last.
There needs to be at least 1.44kW of excess energy to start charging so if your home is only producing 2kW of energy and you’re using 1.5kW to power your home, the remaining amount is not enough to start charging with solar.
Once you are producing a steady stream of excess solar, the charge with solar feature will activate.
NOTE: If your vehicle isn't charging at all, be sure that the charging cable is sitting properly in your vehicle's charging port. For additional troubleshooting, check out SPAN Drive Troubleshooting.
Why am I still using grid energy?
If your vehicle was charging with excess solar and the amount of available solar drops, Drive may temporarily trickle charge from the grid to prevent a disruption to the charge session.
Drive will also charge your vehicle with grid power at night when the overnight charging option is enabled.
What if I don’t see the option for charge with solar in my app?
If you have the most up to date SPAN Home App and don’t see the charge with solar feature, then your site does not meet the needed requirements. Please contact your installer to properly configure your site for charge with solar access.
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*Potential annualized savings based on charging an EV with 54 kWh of excess solar power per week compared to PG&E NEM 3.0 export rates and off-peak grid charging under the EV2-A rate plan; savings will vary depending on rate plan, solar system configuration, and driving habits.