EVSE integration

[riwall]

Hi,

I just got the 48A EVSE and Vue. I have the EVSE set to charge overnight during off-peak time. The cost savings is awesome but my wife does not approve of having to use another app just to start charging outside the normal schedule if needed. It would be super helpful to be able to use Google assistant, Smarthings, IFTTT, or even just a simple documented API to initiate charging.

[djwakelee]

Although many EVSE’s support control of scheduling the charging time, I’ve found that this is typically better handled by the car ecosystem.  Two examples…

1) Cadillac ELR (similar to Chevy volt).  Setup scheduled charging via the car infotainment system.  The GM phone app stinks, but if you unplug and re-plug the charge cord – it overrides the schedule and charges immediately.

2) Tesla Model 3 (or any Tesla).  Setup scheduled charging via the car infotainment system.  The Tesla phone app is wonderful and allows you to do just about anything remote.  There is a ‘start charging’ button on the main screen – should you need to override the schedule at any time.  And there exists an API (unsupported and undocumented, but works well).

Just my personal experience.  There are all these ‘Smart’ EVSE’s trying to get involved with on/off charging times, but I’ve found those features to be not needed in the EVSE.  I do like the ability of the EVSE to keep track of power consumption and energy usage – just not scheduling the charging.

 

[riwall]

Unfortunately, the car I’m using with this EVSE (Volvo XC90 Recharge) doesn’t have a scheduled charging function. Strangely, the European XC90s do. Hopefully they will roll it out to the US at some point. I do us the schedule feature for our model 3 and it works great as you said. The Vue takes care of monitoring usage for it.

[djwakelee]

That’s a bummer about the XC90 Recharge and no scheduled charging in the US.  I’m sure it is a nice car overall.  Though I have heard things in general about the software on the Volvo / Polestar EV’s not being quite fully baked (Alex on Autos, etc).  Hopefully they will add that soon – didn’t know any modern EV’s lacked that capability natively.

You mention having a Model 3 also.  Not sure if you know, but Tesla just added a charging history for the last 30 days into their app.  That is quite nice – but I wish it wasn’t only limited to the last 30 days.

[daklein]

I have found that the EVSE does work with google home as a smart switch device.  It can turn on and off, starting & stopping charging if the car is plugged in.  I named the EVSE ‘charger’ in google home app, and say google ‘turn the charger on’ or ‘off’.

I don’t know if the charging speed can be changed.   Is there any info about what commands can be used with google & the Emporia EVSE?    Thanks!

[emporiacs]

At this time we only support on/off functionality.

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