Charging an Electric Car Off Grid with the Schneider XW Pro

Testing the capabilities of the Schneider XW Pro.
Equipment:
Schneider XW Pro
Conext 100a 600v Charge controller
Mini PDP
Battery Monitor
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[@DavidPozEnergy]

You are the man! Another win for Schneider. Thanks for the video.

[@cgutowski471]

Keep these Schneider videos coming! Super pumped your doing these as the XW Pro will most likely be my choice of inverter. Great job!!!

[@fuckthisksksjjksdfjd]

Would love to see more updates.

[@kickgas7171]

Smart move charging your EV with a Schneider Electric XW low frequency, transformer based inverter. The low cost, high frequency, transformerless inverters that are now flooding the market can easily fry the onboard charger of any EV because they don't use an isolation transformer.

[@mike_t_007]

Great video! Can we have a video on your Chevy Bolt? Looks fantastic 😎

[@yankey4]

Kick ass! Thanks for sharing brother. God Bless

[@beckfordelectrical]

Nice video Ben.

[@jeffmaling9577]

Helpful video Ben. Do you like your Chevy Bolt? With the rebate next year and the reduced price this year, either Bolt option is a fantastic deal.

[@benssolarandbattery]

Thanks, Jeff. I love the Bolt! Mine is a 2020. I've taken it on road trips with the family and run it on the track regularly during the summer. I've even taken it out on Lake Champlain for ice racing last winter!

[@royamberg9177]

my magnum inverter works to not an issue

[@theheathkitshop2424]

Ben, do you think the Sol-Ark would have done that?

[@benssolarandbattery]

Yes, it did.

[@jameshancock]

Things that are ridiculous that we’re still doing: conferred DC to AC to convert it back to DC at, at most 85% efficiency instead of DC TO DC at 98%. Worse, we’re mounting charge points near the car instead of mounting and EV DC charger near the panel (if on grid) or beside the battery bank (it off) and then piping 400/800v directly to the car thus cutting wire size in half and removing the AC/DC converter in the car which isn’t necessary. First company to release a DC charger (not fast) that works with Tesla or ccs that can optionally be hooked to the grid wins. It annoys me to no end that I’m wasting inverter power (and thus have to have more inverter) and all of that battery juice for no reason other than linear thinking. Meanwhile Munro and associates showed just this week what using 240v outlets and even standard breakers does and how much of a risk it is even if installed per code. The faster we get to DC only homes with minor legacy AC the better.

[@billjohnson3344]

You are right regarding efficiency, but high voltage DC has its challenges also. Perhaps you have seen some of the nasty videos on solar panels and the huge DC arcs that are possible? Which is the reason why most jurisdictions require the residential solar PV runs to the inverter to be in metal conduit, arc fault protection, rapid shutdown requirements, etc. Would make the wire run to car a bit more involved, but certainly doable. There are people working on what you describe. For example, the Ford Connected Charge Station Pro and Sunrun inverter has a direct DC connection to the vehicle battery through CCS. Presently just for backup power (EV truck to house), but in the future will have bi-directional capability. So it's coming. Probably their focus isn't on power efficiency though - more about backup, and time-of-use, and grid management.

[@benssolarandbattery]

I totally agree, but like Bill brought up, there are issues with high voltage DC too. A lot of people do really stupid things with electricity and I think it would be made worse with higher voltage DC at their disposal.

[@jameshancock]

@@benssolarandbattery DC is safer than AC at the same voltage. In fact 400v DC has less nasties than 240AC. (Ie arcing) it’s also more predicable. The rules state that 120v dc is as safe as 50v ac. Further, USB type power is a vastly better process: there is only 5v until more is negotiated and the cable has to handle it too. If it’s disconnected at all, there’s on 5v and the physical case of the device must have 0V relative the negative and thus any voltage results in immediate (< 0.05ms) fault and detachment. Further because DC doesn’t bond ground, there’s none of the dangers of AC care of the cheap out that Tesla did for competitive advantage that makes power to earth dangerous (not so with DC) (ie you can die with AC with hot to earth through your feet or hot to neutral or hot to ground or even neutral fo ground in the right cases. With DC ONLY negative to positive through your heart will kill you which eliminates almost all causes of electrocution. (It’s very rare that someone dies from grabbing hot and neutral in separate hands or similar. Most are hot to earth.). Further when you do get shocked with DC it’s a single clamp that you can pull away from if it doesn’t kill you instantly. Not true with AC because it causes a muscle pulse 60 times a second causing constant muscle clamp and release which also makes an AC shock more likely to break bones and stop your heart. Further even at 800v but lower amperage because same watts going into the battery has no more danger in the real world. Actually less because ground faults just can’t happen. And because of the Tesla protocol, which works exactly like USB, connecting directly to the meter or battery and then sending in high voltage DC is actually safer all of the way to the cable that comes out of the wall, and as evidenced by no one getting electrocuted at super chargers the rest isn’t a real problem either because a disconnect even slightly causes drop to 5v renegotiation and verification. If we did the same for all devices, we’d eliminate virtually all electrocutions in homes and fix ground fault risks that beget gfci requirements everywhere now in the NEC. Ie GFCI is moot in DC. At most you do a case short sense disconnect like Tesla and USB but even then the ability to electrocute you is vastly reduced because you’d have go get your heart between the negative and positive potential not just touch the case without rubber shoes on as with AC. And by standardizing on 50vdc for virtually everything up to 15a point to point, 120vdc for high draw devices like computers and hair dryers and 380/400 for big appliances and then point to point charging for cars, with negotiation everything will start using these so there won’t be weird conversions all over the place either. (In fact most stuff is already there with USB now supporting 48vdc @ 5a. AC thinking is based in marketing fear of DC and a failure to rethink the problem. We can use existing wiring right now and replace all 240vac point to point circuits with DC applicances etc right now with the existing wire in the walls. 120vac circuits are a little more complex because they have to switch every point and share 15a (reallly about 20a on a 14 gauge wire because ac RMS) so you have to find every outlet on the circuit. But of course if you have LEDs you don’t even have to worry about them. They just work right now with 50vdc so it’s just wall sockets which can all be just switched to USBC (which there’s no reason it can’t go to 120vdc in the same connector as is driving 1800 watts per circuit just like we have today. And for EVs, the high voltage over the wire lowers the real risk which is heating caused by high amperage which is what causes resistance. Thus in the real world 800vdc on Romex with the same wattage will be vastly safer day to day because of vastly less heat generation than driving 48 amps with 240vac because you’re at 13 amps through the wire instead of 48.

[@jameshancock]

@@billjohnson3344 AC is more likely to adc at any given voltage. That’s which the line between high voltage AC is 600v and for DC is 1500v. So 400vdc is less likely to arc than 240ac. And every device you own that takes 240ac is actually 380dc internally yet no one is dying from getting 380vdc from a ground short inside them but you do on ac. Why? Because ac is earth bonded. Dc is not. And that also means that with dc you have to have positive and negative across your heart. AC you just have to grab the hot or unbalanced neutral and not be wearing the right shoes and you’re dead. This you’re VASTLY more likely to die from AC in the real world. And of course solar panels are not s real example because solar are full voltage always. DC power works like USB where it’s 5v by default and has to negotiate higher voltage, the cable has to agree and there has to be a perfect connection. Tesla connectors work exactly the same way, and it’s basically impossible to die from 5vdc. All AC is full potential all the time. There’s just no case where 400vdc replacing 240vac is more dangerous and if done like USB is VASTLY more safe. And 800vdc to the car using Tesla protocol isn’t dangerous at all because it’s a closed system that literally never has uncontrolled 800vdc and never anything exposed and even a case or cable fault can’t kill your because hot to earth does nothing. Only positive to negative can kill you and only though your heart or brain.

[@jameshancock]

@@billjohnson3344 PS: CCS is the dumbest system ever created. It’s horrific and needs to die now.

[@petronellanuce4648]

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