Anyone else charging their EV from solar on a tiny house setup?

Been running a small off-grid system on my tiny house for about 18 months now — 4 x 200W panels, a Victron MultiPlus-II, and a 200Ah Fogstar Drift LiFePO4 bank. Mostly handles the day-to-day no problem.

Recently got a second-hand Nissan Leaf and I'm dead keen to charge it from the system rather than the grid. Obviously I know I can't do a full charge off this setup, but even topping it up 10–20 miles worth on a sunny day would be a win for me.

Currently looking at whether a simple Type 2 EVSE on a timer during peak solar hours would play nicely with the Victron, or whether I'm heading for grief with the inverter struggling to handle the inrush. Anyone tried something similar? What's the minimum sensible charge rate — can you actually run a Leaf at 6A without it throwing a fit?

Graham1995 | 47 posts

@ExChippie30 Cracking setup! I've been doing something similar — 6 x 200W on a static caravan with a 280Ah DIY LiFePO4 bank. Charging an older Nissan Leaf works surprisingly well in summer, but I'd be realistic about winter — your 800W array will struggle to meaningfully top up even a small EV once days get short and panels are sitting at 30% efficiency in the gloom.

What I'd suggest is running the Victron's scheduled charging feature and only pushing excess into the car after your house bank hits around 90%. Keeps domestic loads sorted first.

Also worth checking if your MultiPlus-II inverter can handle the sustained draw if you're using a portable EVSE — some people underestimate that side of things. What kWh battery has your Leaf got?

EV charging from a 200Ah bank is essentially asking your system to donate a kidney every afternoon — done it in the van conversion and learned quickly that a dedicated EV charging buffer (I run a separate 400Ah Fogstar bank purely for vehicle top-ups) is the only sane approach, otherwise your Victron will spend its whole life in absorption limbo trying to recover. Worth setting a strict SOC floor on the MultiPlus-II so your house loads don't end up competing with the car at 11pm when the sun's long gone. Also — timed charging via the Victron GX timer function during peak solar windows only changed everything for me; dragging in grid overnight defeats the whole point.

ChloeScott76 | 134 posts

@ExChippie30 Great thread! I charge a Nissan Leaf from my off-grid setup occasionally and the key for me has been using a timer to drip-charge during peak solar hours rather than hammering the battery bank. Even then, @T5Project isn't wrong — your 200Ah bank will feel it!

What I'd suggest is setting a strict SoC floor in your Victron (I use 40%) so the EV charging cuts out before you're left with nothing for the evening. The Victron GX portal makes this dead easy to configure with an ESS assistant.

Realistically though, 800W of panels charging an EV is more of a "top-up on sunny days" situation than a proper charge strategy. Anything beyond 10-15 miles range per good day is a bonus in my experience. What's your use case — daily driver or occasional trips?

RockyMaker | 312 posts

Great thread @ExChippie30! The key thing nobody's mentioned yet is timing your charging session to coincide with peak solar production rather than just plugging in whenever. I run a similar-sized system and found using a basic timer or the Victron DVCC settings to restrict EV charging to, say, 11am–2pm makes a massive difference. You're pulling mostly direct from the panels rather than hammering the battery bank. Also worth looking at whether your EV supports reduced charging rates — dropping to 6A instead of the full 13A through a standard EVSE is much kinder to a small system like yours. @T5Project is right about the battery strain, but with a bit of scheduling it's surprisingly manageable even on a modest setup.

SolarCol | 847 posts

@ExChippie30 worth looking seriously at a Zappi or similar EVSE that can operate in "eco" mode — it'll throttle the charge rate dynamically based on surplus generation rather than hammering your Fogstar bank. I run a similar-sized system at my cabin with a dedicated solar sub-array for EV charging; the trick is treating your panels as the primary source and the battery purely as a buffer for cloudy-day shortfalls.

Your MultiPlus-II gives you reasonable flexibility here — the ESS assistant can be configured to prioritise grid feed-in thresholds, which you can repurpose off-grid to protect your SOC floor. Set a 20% discharge limit specifically during charging sessions.

200Ah is genuinely tight for meaningful EVSE sessions though. Even a modest 3.6kW charge draws that bank down faster than most people expect on a dull British afternoon.