Can you add a feature to let your Victron charger automatically charge the EV when we have relatively low prices within the dynamic tariff, like Tibber?
Tibber can directly communicate with several car APIs or compatible wall boxes. The problem is that Tibber, in both modes, doesn't recognize PV or PV+Storage systems, which leads to conflicts.
I can already auto-charge when Tibber directly controls the API of my Tesla, regardless of the charging equipment installed (in my case, Tesla's charger, the Tesla Wall Connector). My problem, as mentioned, is that since in addition to "just grid and tibber" I have PV and a Victron Energy storage system, Tibber doesn't recognize PV production and battery storage used to feed the loads. This means that in Tibber's automatic cheap charging modefirst empties my PV home storage batteries or uses more solar power than I produce, which should be reserved for the battery, loads, or EV surplus charging. Now, I'm switching from the Tesla Wall Connector to your Victron Charger to at least achieve controlled PV surplus charging.
The remaining challenge is integrating the dynamic tariff in the most intelligent and interconnected way.
The end goal must be to prioritize charging the car from solar power, which is my cleanest and cheapest energy source, almost never from the battery storage (mainly in summer mode), and secondly, automated charging during the cheap hours within my dynamic Tibber tariff (important in winter when PV production is low). Of course, the convenience feature that most surplus PV EV charging or dynamic tariff charging solutions already have, which is charging the car to a minimum self-selected SoC (like 40%) by a specific "leave time" (e.g., 7:30 am for the ride to work from Monday to Friday), should remain despite the current energy market price or PV charging potential. This feature should override the automation. Ideally, an added "nice to have" would be the ability to set a maximum price threshold, for example, "only charge when the energy market price is 20 cents or lower." GO-E's Wallbox can already perform this "maximum price" feature when you use Go-e's App/UI to make decisions based on Tibber's embedded price signal. However, Go-e cannot communicate with Victron's Cerbo for PV surplus charging. As of yet, there is no solution that addresses all these challenges. But there could be.
The solution I need, where everything works seamlessly for me and other Victron customers with ESS single or three-phase configuration or just Tibber and PV (with or without storage) in perfect harmony, is just a few lines of code and an update away.
Please consider or forward these ideas to Victron's programmers to make this logical next step and set of features come to fruition.
I work for the German company 1KOMMA5°, where PV production, battery storage, heat pumps, and EV charging with compatible hardware are orchestrated in perfect harmony and optimized to minimize total energy costs and related carbon emissions by our Heartbeat EMS connected to our dynamic tariff.
I found 1KOMMA5° because of the challenges I encountered. At the moment, they—or we—are the only fully integrated solution for the exact mentioned problem with my system. I identified 1KOMMA5° as the perfect, best-integrated solution and am fully convinced that today most homeowners should opt for our ecosystem and our one-stop-shop approach.
For several reasons, and because I'm already set up with the Victron system, which I like very much, I will stick with it privately. However, I want it to improve with the above-mentioned features to stay competitive, help people lower their energy costs, optimize for energy with the highest share of renewables, and be future-proof.
