What EV charger to install

It’s coming in at €16k for 15x 460w panels, 9 kWh Sigen batteries, 1x 5kW Sigen inverter and optimisers.

HOWEVER, for that price we are getting a veranda over our patio area consisting of 12 panels plus 1 panel facing south on the west side of our dormer, and 2 panels facing south on the eastern side of the dormer.

The veranda alone (with just a glass roof no solar) was coming in at €15k so we are getting two birds with one stone if ya get me.

I would like to have stuck 8 panels on the dormer but our Architect advised against putting panels on the dormer due to the weight of the ballast system etc.

@Gumbo thanks for sending on that price list.
Am I right in thinking I actually need an EV first before I can get the EV charger?
I hope to purchase an EV as soon as funds allow.

Ah right.
Thanks I’ll give Fokearn a shout so!

Yes sigenergy DC 12.5kw bidirectional charger. It will work with from 2024 ID4 which is what I'm looking at purchasing. Must have Sigenergy stack and gateway installed.

Obviously it's more expensive and payback time will be greater but its a good option for home power back up with the 77kwh VW battery.

Hoping to have a company out this week to price so I can report back then

TL;DR: it doesn't make financial sense for charging and has some major negatives. As a big backup battery, maybe!

While the export rate is much higher than the EV rates we can buy electricity for, a DC charger doesn't make financial sense for using the solar. From a purely financial sense you need to think of the power coming from solar as costing you 18c, cause that's what you get if you exported it. Ev rates are as little as 6c

the major negatives about a DC charger is that

• When charging off the grid, like on an EV rate, it will be limited by your inverter to 5kW. A regular AC charger is 7kW
• you can't charge your house battery at the same time (as your inverter will be at capacity). I only have a 12kW connection to my house and I should still be able to charge my house battery at 5kW and the car at 7kW at the same time.

The only advantage from a consumption point of view is it could help with clipping if your generating more than 5kW from the panel and if your house battery is full.

But as a giant backups battery, maybe! I was talking to a fella on the Facebook solar owners group and he installed a DC and AC charger to get around the negatives. The downside of that is he would to swap out the cables from the DC charger to the AC to charge the car at night.

Thanks for response and I hear what your saying .There are definite limitations to the DC charger especially when I have a 3 hour charging window and house battery also needs to be charged and immersion runs during this time.

However I like the idea of the EV as a backup for the home and for avoiding clipping as solar system is over sized. I could drive on otherwise clipped power a few months of the year.

I'll need to crunch some numbers before committing fully.

I'm already tied into Sigenergy with inverter and 8kw battery. That's why I'm thinking I'll go the whole hog on bidirectional. It's the future proof option I think.

The Sig system has been flawless in fairness I'm really happy with it. But the cost of adding extra battery storage is a real turn off compared to other providers that are not brand locked.

Anyway it's just another EV charging option for OP to think about.

Define best? Alibaba or Aliexpress is probably cheapest

Worth nothing if u buy and install separately u will pay 23% Vat on the charger where as buy and install together should be 13.5% won’t be a hugh saving but still something