Anyone else trying to charge an EV from an off-grid setup? What's actually working?

by Helen Phillips · 1 month ago 56 views 0 replies
Helen Phillips
Helen Phillips
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Joined Nov 2024
1 month ago
#8128

Been running a 48V Victron Multiplus-II 5000 in my shepherd's hut for about 18 months now, backed by 15kWh of Fogstar Drift LiFePO4. Solar input is around 3kW via a pair of Victron SmartSolar MPPTs. The system handles the hut's day-to-day load no problem, but I've recently started trying to trickle-charge my Nissan Leaf (24kWh battery, older 2014 model) from it overnight and the results have been... mixed.

The Multiplus handles the EVSE handshake fine on a standard Mode 2 cable at 6A, and I can pull maybe 1.4kW sustained without the inverter complaining. Problem is, on a cloudy November day in mid-Wales I'm starting the night with maybe 8–9kWh usable in the battery bank, and by morning I've either barely moved the Leaf's state of charge or I've hit the low-SOC cutoff and the inverter's shut down. Currently using Node-RED on a Raspberry Pi to watch the Cerbo GX MQTT feed and try to pause charging when bank SOC drops below 30%, but the logic feels fragile.

Has anyone actually got a robust automation workflow for this — ideally something that throttles the EVSE dynamically rather than just on/off switching? I know some people use an OpenEVSE board which exposes a proper API, but wondering if there's a slicker integration with the Victron ecosystem before I start soldering things together.

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