[Paladin1]

Anyone using two chargers with Power Share capability (and recommendations)? Or have two 50-amp circuits installed for two cars?

[TechCTU]

Now that I have placed my order, I started to get educated on home charging.

I have been watching Tom at State of Charge on YouTube and he has reviewed most current chargers with the link below. If you are an EV newbie like I am it's a good channel to check out.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...2djL5kVWZQZgTY

Based on his reviews, I think the best charger for me is the ChargePoint Flex

[NiallG]

Does anyone know if bi-directional charging is something supported by the iX (ie. Storing excess solar power generation into the car and then drawing that power back to the house instead of a home battery at night)?

In Australia they announced yesterday it's going to be officially approved for home electrical certifications/installs sometime in next few months. We are very interested in this as we have Solar but no home battery & a lot of excess power generation which we don't get a good feed-in rate for.

[PhilD]

I think I'll probably go for an EO Mini Pro 2 here in the UK as it's the most compact 7kW charger by a mile and space matters in our courtyard garden / occasional parking space!

[Paladin1]

Installed today:

[Bird~Dawg]

I picked up a ClipperCreek plug-in unit in a NEMA 4 enclosure. Just need to add a circuit and 240v outlet to the sub panel in the garage now and plug it in. Easy peasy.

[The BOB]

BMW Wall Charger Gen3 11kw 3 phase. No smarts in the charger as everything is done via the car/myBMW app.

[cinoh2000]

If I have a 50 amp 14-50 outlet, one vehicle, and no nighttime rate advantage, I’m not sure why I need a wall box at all. Just the $0 cable that comes with the car. The smarts are in the iX and the app, and the car won’t try to draw more than the outlet can provide. Am I missing something?

[sward]

Originally Posted by cinoh2000

If I have a 50 amp 14-50 outlet, one vehicle, and no nighttime rate advantage, I’m not sure why I need a wall box at all. Just the $0 cable that comes with the car. The smarts are in the iX and the app, and the car won’t try to draw more than the outlet can provide. Am I missing something?

Here in Sweden the 220 V cable that comes with the car is limited to 8A so charging takes half a week. I was really struggling until I got my box installed.

I don't know what cable you get with the car in the US and how fast it will charge the car. I'm just trying to put thing I perspective and tell you why Europeans need a wall box.

[BimmerBahn]

Originally Posted by NiallG

Does anyone know if bi-directional charging is something supported by the iX (ie. Storing excess solar power generation into the car and then drawing that power back to the house instead of a home battery at night)?

In Australia they announced yesterday it's going to be officially approved for home electrical certifications/installs sometime in next few months. We are very interested in this as we have Solar but no home battery & a lot of excess power generation which we don't get a good feed-in rate for.

No, Vehicle-to-Grid/Home isn't supported. I would recommend a dedicated battery storage system (i.e. Tesla Powerwall, SunPower, et al). Benefits of a dedicated system is it's not dependent on your vehicle being home/plugged in. If you have a grid outage and your car is away, you're house goes dark, affecting everything. It also removes the added charge cycles of your BEV.

Cheers!

[BimmerBahn]

Originally Posted by cinoh2000

If I have a 50 amp 14-50 outlet, one vehicle, and no nighttime rate advantage, I’m not sure why I need a wall box at all. Just the $0 cable that comes with the car. The smarts are in the iX and the app, and the car won’t try to draw more than the outlet can provide. Am I missing something?

nope, even if you have TOU rate, you could still manage via the app, though I don't know if you can schedule in the app or not....it could be a very manual process.

I've used a dedicated mobile connector for my Tesla for the last few years. It caps at 7.6KW@32A and has been fine for my driving needs. I'm going to do the same thing for the i4 M50...and maybe iX (if the wifes proceeds with her order). The BMW mobile connector is rated at 9.6KW@40A, so will be a bit better in charging speed compared to my current car.

[ppagiga]

Originally Posted by cinoh2000

If I have a 50 amp 14-50 outlet, one vehicle, and no nighttime rate advantage, I’m not sure why I need a wall box at all. Just the $0 cable that comes with the car. The smarts are in the iX and the app, and the car won’t try to draw more than the outlet can provide. Am I missing something?

Same deal here. Will plugging directly with BMW’s included cable give me level 2 charging? Excuse the rookie questions everyone !

[BimmerBahn]

Originally Posted by ppagiga

Same deal here. Will plugging directly with BMW’s included cable give me level 2 charging? Excuse the rookie questions everyone !

Yes, the mobile connector...the one that comes with the vehicle can charge at Level-1 (120V) or Level-2 (240V)... to a max of 9.6KW / 40A.

[ppagiga]

Originally Posted by BimmerBahn

Yes, the mobile connector...the one that comes with the vehicle can charge at Level-1 (120V) or Level-2 (240V)... to a max of 9.6KW / 40A.

Ty my friend.

Happen to know the length of the connector for US vehicles?

[Rickardg]

Originally Posted by sward

Here in Sweden the 220 V cable that comes with the car is limited to 8A so charging takes half a week. I was really struggling until I got my box installed.

I don't know what cable you get with the car in the US and how fast it will charge the car. I'm just trying to put thing I perspective and tell you why Europeans need a wall box.

In Sweden we get the "flexible fast charger" P/N 61905A13822. For this charger there is an optional 3-phase cable P/N 61905A138D7 which gives 11 kW charging. 11 kW is the maximum that the onboard charger can handle and therefore equal to any additional box. There is also an installation set to attach the flexible fast charger to a wall. Not as pretty as a box, but works like a charm.

[ppagiga]

Would you guys go 6-50 or 14-50 receptacles given the choice today? Have an electrician coming Monday. Lean is to install 14-50 as its easy to switch only outlet to 6-50 at a later time, if need be.

[NiallG]

Originally Posted by BimmerBahn

No, Vehicle-to-Grid/Home isn't supported. I would recommend a dedicated battery storage system (i.e. Tesla Powerwall, SunPower, et al). Benefits of a dedicated system is it's not dependent on your vehicle being home/plugged in. If you have a grid outage and your car is away, you're house goes dark, affecting everything. It also removes the added charge cycles of your BEV.

Cheers!

The battery prices are ridiculous at the moment and make them a completely unviable option - latest Powerwall is about AUD$15k. So that's about a 8-10 year payback period, which is basically longer than the actual warranty of the battery itself.

Of course if the only goal is to be grid independent/have backup power for outages then that's fine, but if it's to save $$ on electricity costs (combining with solar) then there is no point - we are better off just selling it back to the grid (we have a 8.14kW solar system).

Being able to use the car would be a no brainer - zero extra cost and we'd have somewhere to store all our excess power during the day without having to sell it to grid and then buy it back at 2-3x the cost at night time. Right at the moment (during the sunnier months) we are generating in excess of extra unused 25-30kW of power during the day & most days our car doesn't need to be charged.

[Paladin1]

Originally Posted by ppagiga

Would you guys go 6-50 or 14-50 receptacles given the choice today? Have an electrician coming Monday

In the US a NEMA 14-50 plug is the more common installation (ground up or down depending on your charging unit - the cord for a wall charger is generally short, thick and not very flexible, so don't count on bending it up or down). 6-50 is more common elsewhere (the difference is that the 6-50 has no neutral wire, so may cost slightly less to install). Both are rated for 50 amps. The 14-50 is theoretically more flexible to use because it's an RV plug, the 6-50 is generally for industrial equipment. Either will work, but your installer may just use a 14-50 plug if you're in the US.

[BimmerBahn]

Originally Posted by NiallG

The battery prices are ridiculous at the moment and make them a completely unviable option - latest Powerwall is about AUD$15k. So that's about a 8-10 year payback period, which is basically longer than the actual warranty of the battery itself.

Of course if the only goal is to be grid independent/have backup power for outages then that's fine, but if it's to save $$ on electricity costs (combining with solar) then there is no point - we are better off just selling it back to the grid (we have a 8.14kW solar system).

Being able to use the car would be a no brainer - zero extra cost and we'd have somewhere to store all our excess power during the day without having to sell it to grid and then buy it back at 2-3x the cost at night time. Right at the moment (during the sunnier months) we are generating in excess of extra unused 25-30kW of power during the day & most days our car doesn't need to be charged.

I'm not sure about down under, but here in the US a Powerwall is ~$8K...but you need a gateway and installation, which adds another $3-5K.... My PW install was ~$21K all in for two, which was done at the same time as my 13.4KW PV system install.

As far as V2H, we're starting to see more BEVs offer it, such as Ford and Hyundai/Kia... With Ford, it really makes sense with the F150 line up... they already offer in in their ICE trucks...including that capability for worksite power and then the Bi-Directional charger for V2G/V2H support is perfect. Hyundai/Kia offers it as well, but their capacity is ~3.6KW... good for some light stuff, but you're not running the house on that.

I'm sure over time, as OEMs become more comfortable with the battery tech, etc we'll see V2G/V2H as standard.... we're not there yet. You're also starting to see more 3rd-party L2 chargers support Bi-Di, so the market is moving that direction.....will just take some time.

[hugo_nz]

Originally Posted by Rickardg

In Sweden we get the "flexible fast charger" P/N 61905A13822. For this charger there is an optional 3-phase cable P/N 61905A138D7 which gives 11 kW charging. 11 kW is the maximum that the onboard charger can handle and therefore equal to any additional box. There is also an installation set to attach the flexible fast charger to a wall. Not as pretty as a box, but works like a charm.

Same here in NZ. Our cars come with a public type 2 cable, flexible home charger and a Wallbox Gen 3. It’s curious that BMW decided to limit the onboard AC to 11kw, but then again my e-tron is also 11kw and I’ve never had any charge/range anxiety when charging at home.

[ppagiga]

Originally Posted by The BOB

BMW Wall Charger Gen3 11kw 3 phase. No smarts in the charger as everything is done via the car/myBMW app.

Hey The Bob. Is that a hardwired connection or plug in?

[The BOB]

Originally Posted by ppagiga

Hey The Bob. Is that a hardwired connection or plug in?

Hard wired directly to the house switchboard via it’s own earth leakage circuit breaker. Australian electrical regulations also require the extra switch you can see in the photo.