Variable charge rate

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

neilk

New member
Joined
Mar 11, 2015
Messages
3
I have a 6kW LEAF and at home I have a 5kW wind turbine. It is windy here (Orkney) most of the time and so the turbine works really well and last year delivered 16MWh. But unfortunately the car always draws 6kW, so I have to import at least 1kW, usually more from the grid.

What I'd really like to do is be able to set the car to take 3kW or something over a longer time, knowing that it will probably be windy overnight and I'd make better use of the available power. Ideally I'd like a more intelligent charging process and whilst there are some controllers that will shove 'spare' power (from pv or wind or whatever) to a circuit it does involve a load of hacking about to the supply. A simple turn down on the power demanded by the car would be easier.

Of course if we are going to get really smart the car ought to know what time I am going to want it the next day, and then sip just enough juice to fill by that point. At the moment it gorges on all it can get as soon as it is plugged in and then afterwards sits there bloated whilst the turbine shoves power out to the grid.......
 
Is your power out to the grid paid at wholesale or retail? I assume wholesale given your question.

You only need to get an EVSE with a lower power rating, like 3
kW, or a variable one like EVSEupgade, and your car will be limited to what the unit can put out.
 
This looks good. Power output control and wifi programmable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B019DKKR7S/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1470856605&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=B0083ZXWUO%7CB00MFVI8UG%7CB00MFVI92S%7CB019DKKR7S&dpPl=1&dpID=417OzecmkDL&ref=plSrch

BTW, have you found http://www.leaftalk.co.uk

Edit: looking deeper, that EVSE gets bad reviews, but I'm sure there's a unit out there that will meet your needs.
 
Lots of EVSEs that let you adjust the charge rate. I believe 6a is the lowest the Leaf goes and ~28a is the highest it can go.
Most if not all the openevse EVSEs or something like a Juicebox will let you adjust the output amperage, of course a EVSEupgrade'd EVSE is also a good option for 6-20a charging.
 
Back
Top