New SolarEdge Bidirectional EV Charger Hands On Review

[@billjohnson3344]

Hands on review - no. Interview with manufacturer about a future product, yes. Mentions no conversion losses being DC coupled, but doesn't mention the DC-DC conversion losses taking variable voltage solar (500V or so), and down-converting to 400V (or up-converting to 800V) for the vehicle. Up-conversion also seems like needless cost in this unit, as 800V vehicles already have an onboard converter for 400V to 800V, and even the poorest ones will easily support the 12kW output of the bi-directional charger. So, maybe loop back when they launch this and there is a vehicle which supports this, but really this just a future concept at this point - vaporware until the charger is on the market, and vehicle OEM's enable bi-directional charging.

[@voyagerman22]

Totally agree. Talking to manufacturer rep is not a hands-on review. Very misleading.

[@ericjohnson3967]

12KW DC charger? The hardwired 48amp AC will do 11.5KW.

[@580guru]

​@ericjohnson3967 What your stating is true. However, the proposed products benefits is not intended to give you a DC Fast charging at home but rather being more efficient without the DC-AC conversion AND the future benefits of a giant powerwall (40-120KWh) using your cars battery instead of a 4-8 Powerwall installation to power your home or participant in power arbitrage (receiving say $1/KWh by discharging TO the grid during peak rate times). This could turn your EV investment from a depreciating asset into an income source! Not saying the power companies will allow/embrace it....but it's a possible scenario. Just my $.02 cents😊

[@ericjohnson3967]

@580guru won't that degrade your EV battery faster? Using it as grid backup/storage? I can see it on occasion, but I would mostly use a battery storage system.

[@580guru]

@@ericjohnson3967 It depends on the # of cycles of battery charging, the charge/discharge rate, and the battery chemistry of the battery. batteries In my case....I have solar on my house with a 5Kwh battery, an ionic plug-In hybrid with a 9KWh battery and a Bolt with a 60KWh battery and my solar produces more than enough to keep everything charged up and running for all but 2 months in winter. It's just my wife and I at home, she works from home 3 days a week, I'm retired. Most days my Bolt is in the driveway during the Peak 4-9pm time. Assuming I wasn't needing it for a long drive the next day, if I could feed 5KW/hr back into the grid for those 5 hours, making $1/KWh, I'd have $25 in my pocket and a ~half charged Bolt, which would get recharged during peak solar time (10AM-4PM). That's only a half cycle per day and my battery will probably last me 20 years at that rate.

[@travismorgan9273]

This video really explains why I can’t help to prefer SolarEdge over Enphase. You get the DC-DC. With Enphase, sometimes, it is DC from the panels, then AC from the Enphase micro inverter, to DC into a battery backup battery, then AC out of the battery to the power panel, then back to DC in a vehicle to charge your car when the power is out. I prefer having the DC to use for DC things.

[@colin3217]

Yeah ultimately it's all tradeoffs. SolarEdge inverters only have a 12 year warranty while Enphase microinverters have a 25 yr warranty. Personally I would rather have more resilient system and longer warranty with 5-8% conversion rate loss difference over running the risk of my whole system coming offline as well as likely having to replace it sooner

[@kevinbathke2137]

@@colin3217 SE inverters can be extended to 25 years for around $300

[@billjohnson3344]

Yes, but there is still power conversion going on and losses. Solar is going to be 500V or so (and variable), when the car wants a very specific voltage for charging. The vendor doesn't talk about those efficiency losses converting to 400V or 800V for the vehicle. Still losses with the DC-DC conversion - even if just staying in the DC domain.

[@t-lm]

great to see both SolarEdge and Enphase now have bidirectional DC coupled charger. Let's hope Tesla and all EV makers will support it very soon. This is HUGE! Victron should comes out with such charger too. For communication they can also use Bluetooth besides WIFI/LAN

[@martiruda]

Elon was against this. he will eat his words now that he released the cybertruck with V2V

[@AlessandroFama]

Are there any updates about this DC charger?

[@RiggerBrew]

Would be great if these can be used with any inverter/DC system and not tied to just their platform.

[@hareshkainth8259]

Would this require the backup interface ? In the event of a grid power cut will the bi directional start working immediately? Would a backup interface be required to enable island mode? What would be the switch over time ?

[@ColonelZanders]

Seems like Bidirectional Chargers rolling out 2024. The vehicle-to-home discharging seems like it could really cut into the stand alone battery business. I wonder if Tesla will drag its feet on enabling in its vehicles, as it seems like they have the most vertical integration(cars, panels, ev chargers, batteries) and could refine the communication between equipment

[@charleshill7184]

You'd still want a small home battery so if you want to use your car during a blackout, you won't cut your house off totally.

[@s.lionelmcauley4455]

Then you would stay with an AC coupled battery. @@charleshill7184

[@danamyrocket]

@@charleshill7184that’s what the old gas burner is used for.

[@theharper1]

@@charleshill7184 that would be ideal, but at least for emergencies or brief outages, just the car would be an improvement. I want to buy a small EV as a second car which would mostly be in the garage. If you're going to buy an EV like this anyway, it gives you some backup without having to buy a battery for the home.

[@jas340]

All 2025 Teslas will be bidirectional.

[@AEKok]

What is the price?

[@anthonykent8561]

Not clear, so assuming it does not work when the is grid down (keeping the PV on)?

[@NeblogaiLT]

It probably does not- grid-tied inverters do not generate grid frequency, and this device works on DC side only. However, if you do not have many outages, these kind of devices may be a cheap way to have vehicle-to-grid/home, with just an EV (without having to install all the extra AC/DC inverter, maybe BMS, batteries)- plus it may indeed be more efficient to pump DC solar directly into the car, instead of all the extra inverting/rectifying. I just wonder, if this is made to work with SolarEdge only, or is it universal.

[@gabolele3106]

how much does it costs?

[@GoSunSolar]

whats the status of the solar dc to dc ev system?

[@aaronj2296]

I would be interested but when he said it is wireless communication with your home network i lost interest. We want and need independent stand alone systems so WE can be in control of our energy and not connected to a outside party. Basically, we don't trust the grid, management of said grid or the Government that has the ability to control our energy we paid for.

[@AdamD-o8v]

Any idea on the pricing of these compared to a one direction solaredge EV charger?

[@SolarSurge]

No info on pricing yet. I expect it to come in around $2-3k installed.

[@milesaller]

I’m still waiting for the back up generator compatibility on the backup interface.

[@thomasmartin896]

The need for backup generator would be much less since you would now have a > 65 kWh backup battery that can be recharged by your solar array during a power outage.

[@carperdiem8754]

So if I already have panels with Micro inverters, this won’t work for me?

[@vevenaneathna]

man... going to a parallel DC home circuit system has many benefits. getting rid of hot inefficient inverters running, and just using voltage regulated DC power to me is the future. having DC run appliances, in combination with standards like usb-c feels like everything is starting to fall in place for this transition. most people dont realize the US has two electrical grids, one that is ran off DC 99% of the time over long distances. namely, analogue phone lines. obviously not meant to transfer large amounts of power, but would actually power land line phones in the old days. no reason why someone couldnt just get rid of all their wall warts/power adaptors and replace them with voltage regulators, and plug stuff in directly with like usb-c theyre already starting to make dc 12v based electronics for like RV's and marine applications which are orders of magnitude more efficient than the AC versions because of the omission of an inverter. everyone who runs inverters for a long time knows they eventually burn out

[@stevehuthman741]

My current system is Enphase solar panels with microinverters. Will that be incompatible with this system?

[@SolarSurge]

Enphase has their own bi-directional charger: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGeVaaV-rLqZj6c

[@Cyrribrae]

​@@SolarSurgeCurious if you guys have heard anything new about this since? Or do you think charger/battery companies are just waiting for the coming EVs that support bidirectional charging?

[@rickdibello3823]

Would this work with a solar system (Enphase) where the panels have microinverters?

[@SolarSurge]

No. This EV charger needs to be DC-coupled to the solar panels.

[@Weak_juan]

We have the homehub se10000, id love to be able to get an ev charger and ev that will enable us to use the ev as an emergency power backup instead of a generac system.

[@irenecheca6575]

Can his be paired with a Tesla inverter?

[@SG-777]

What is taking so long SolarEdge? We want to sell this in Canada!

[@kevinmanan1304]

The charger is built into the car. For bidirectional to work the car needs to support it. EVSE (level 2 chargers) don’t actually charge your car but only routes electricity. You’ll still need the bidirectional EVSE but the car needs the bidirectional hardware first and foremost.

[@dagooglenet]

@@kevinmanan1304 I am OK for now doing DC to DC charging only, this will allow me to utilize all the DC produced by the solar panels to charge my EV without any losses going to DC->AC and then again AC-DC, thats a lot of losses right here

[@kevinmanan1304]

@@dagooglenet it’s an 8% loss one way (can be significant, since it’ll be 16% DC-AC-DC). My panels cover 140% of my usage so it’s negligible for me.

[@dagooglenet]

@@kevinmanan1304 by the question is why do we need to loose 20%, thats why I went with optimizers instead, I want my DC power :)

[@kevinmanan1304]

@@dagooglenet There are optimizations. It’ll be cheaper or cost effective to add a few more solar panels to account for that loss 😂

[@PavolFilek]

They needed 20 years do to something what DIY people have and use regulary.

[@grahamastor4194]

Great video, great information. Thanks.

[@jamestucker8088]

My question is is this charger smart enough to keep the panels working during a grid outage? I would like my panels to power a refrigerator during the day and dump any extra power into an EV.

[@r.b.l.5841]

you can do that now with a regular inverter with dump load option. easy.

[@paulanderson6903]

Question for you, does vehicle have to be bidirectional too? There doesn’t seem to be “many” vehicles out there that allow this, or does this charger override this?

[@charleshill7184]

Yes, the vehicle needs to support it, too. This is a relatively new thing, with the Nissan Leaf, Ford F-150 Lightning actively supporting it. The Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, and Kia Kona EV are "any day now" and already support V2L. My Ioniq 6 has a 120V outlet in the back seat and I can use it to power stuff like a vacuum, lights, television, etc.

[@thomasmartin896]

GM currently has multiple V2H & V2G capable vehicles acailable for sale.

[@RichardABW]

So, to be clear, this will NOT work with Chademo? Would also be good to know which SolarEdge inverters they expect it to be compatible with.

[@simonpaine2347]

I also need that question answered, however I'm guessing that there will be an adaptor available to do this, because I doubt that any manufacturer is going to go with a Chademo connector, although it is also possible to just change the cable to a Chademo plug and cable..providing all the connections are made professionally in the 'charger'

[@RichardABW]

@@simonpaine2347 Yes, I wondered if it may be possible that they offer it with various different plugs, and providing the correct setting is selected then in software couldn't the charger be configured to use the correct protocols? In the UK the only currently widely available cars with bidirectional charging are the Nissans with Chademo and also some VW's with CCS.

[@simonpaine2347]

@@RichardABW BYD cars also have bidirectional capability. Excellent option!

[@campchet]

One of your best videos... very informative guy

[@navsoltani]

Funny, there hasn't been any talk about the price range!

[@martiruda]

must be hard to come up with a price from a presentation, but history tells you all Version 1s of products are expenny

[@musicbox4022]

Can this charge a Tesla in the event of a grid failure?

[@allenaxp6259]

Does it allow a Tesla EV that is not bidirectional allow it to become Bidirectional in the near future?

[@simonpaine2347]

I guess that it's possible, but it would need major internal changes to allow it to function.

[@Mari0o0o]

No because you are limited by the internals of the car which won’t let it send back electricity the other way. Tesla has already said their future vehicles will be capable of V2X though (likely starting with the Cybertruck)

[@ChristianFabbris]

1 year has passed and it's not yet on the market....

[@SolarSurge]

Still waiting on standards to be agreed between the automakers and solar equipment manufacturers

[@oudegarde2665]

A ISO 15118-20 standard is already introduced. So what is the problem?. Some KIA and VW models are already using it....

[@d96634]

apparently this is not going to be available until 2025 or even 2026????

[@SolarNinjas]

Misleading at best. Make this a real review not a manufacturer promotion. we want these things in canada

[@bruceeverett5372]

So, let me get this right, bi-directional.....hmmmm, do you really think auto manufacturers are going to warranty their batteries so that you can power your homes every night? #Pipe dream

[@anthonyhalkyer2036]

Yes. Better yet as a home owner what if your car generated a significant amount of money every day and paid by the utility company?

[@danamyrocket]

Most EVs have vastly larger storage than home battery systems. The potential to use EVs for time shifting power supplies is a good thing. Powering a home is a light load for an EV battery.

[@MC-bm3cy]

V2X cars will likely have X amount of battery cycles or X amount of miles…whichever is first. Solved it! Pipe dream realized.

[@robedwards6926]

Every night? I would only use it for emergency back-up.

[@seabream]

...Nissan has for years in Japan. In Canada at least, the manual going back to at least 2015 explicitly allows you to use the car for V2X without voiding the warranty. At least a dozen countries have LEAFs in programs for grid services, usually connected to utility programs. It hasn't been an issue for other manufacturers because CCS and NACS didn't include V2X as part of their standards, unlike CHAdeMO.

[@tjmozdzen]

Hands on review - nothing hands on. Sorry.