While I agree that a direct connection to the main traction battery would not be a realistic thing to attempt with a Zoe, it would be possible to draw power at 12V from the small battery and rely on the car's internal inverter to top up that power loss from the traction battery. What I cannot say is whether the car needs to be "turned on" for this top-up process to run, nor whether it will stop after a few mins as the car reverts to its Power Save mode. A Nissan Leaf can supply up to 1kw in this way.
Thanks, Steve. I've loaned Zoe out to a friend at the moment but I'm going to have a good play around with it when she returns. (is Zoe a "she" lol??). I believe that Zoe can supply enough on the DC converter, the only limitation that I can see is not overheating the fairly small 12v battery. I've calculated that 1kw would also be possible but just using 600w just to play safe and that's all I need anyway.
I think this will become common place, batteries will migrate away from Nickel Manganese Cobalt perhaps to Lithium Ion Phosphate or something else and the chargers will operate in sync with the power companies providing a power source to car and home, whilst your away the home will tick over on minimum consumption powered by the grid, when you get back the car will be plugged in which then supplies the high levels of power needed for the home heating etc. The charger will only take electric from the grid when the rates are low eg pm or at night. I'm interested where you managed to connect a 600w power supply to on your car? Richy
Hi Richy, I just connect to the 12v battery. The trick is to keep Zoe live, so that it keeps the DC/DC converter topping up the 12v from the traction. I'm still playing around with the best way to do that (other than just leaving the key in the car and the car in "ready").
Hi Richard. The Zoe isn't able to do this but the new Renault 5 is. They even have a special charger to work with it. I think the cost will be astronomical though. I have setup a backup system with my ZE50 , using a 600w power adapter, which will power all the necessary things in my home during a power outage..... internet, SKY, tv, computers, lights and refrigeration. It's amazing how little power these things actually draw. Well within the 600w output, which my Zoe can happily supply.
OK Thanks Guys, It was purely a bit of a feasibility study on the art of what may be possible, my night rate which I charge my car with is roughly a 1/3 of my day rate, I have seen in the past people put a justifiable financial case together to install batteries in their property to make better use of night rate electric. Personally I'm not keen on installing large battery packs in the house, but i did wonder about using the car battery when not in use to feed the house to save money.
Doesn't look like a possibility with the Zoe but thankyou all for your comments.
Richard, there are cars which will allow you to draw AC 240V power from the car battery via a feature called Vehicle to Load. Hyundai/Kia , MG and Ford have this on some models (chargable with Ford Lightning pickup). Need to remember that using V2L regularly will add charge/discharge cycles to your battery which will have some impact on degradation so, for this reason, it would be better to choose a car that has a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery if this is your plan - MG4 has this battery and supports V2L.
I wouldn't know if you can but even if it is possible I wouldn't want to keep charging my car and then draining it for fear of degrading the battery much sooner.
Hi. As any solar panel user will tell you, thepanels cannot be used to power your home in case of a black out. However it is great to be able to charge the Zoe for a very small cost. Re the E car being able to supply the home, as Colin Paterson suggests, it would not be viable. However, in the case of a power blackout, it might well be a temporary solution until the lights come back on. Ron
Hi Ron, well the new two way charger is actually for the use which you portray, to be used in case of the need for backup. As to using the solar panels in case of a black out, the are several ways to use backup batteries to power up the converters, and so be able to keep the solar panels generating power. VICTRON has the MULTIPLUS II , which lets you do this.
While I agree that a direct connection to the main traction battery would not be a realistic thing to attempt with a Zoe, it would be possible to draw power at 12V from the small battery and rely on the car's internal inverter to top up that power loss from the traction battery. What I cannot say is whether the car needs to be "turned on" for this top-up process to run, nor whether it will stop after a few mins as the car reverts to its Power Save mode. A Nissan Leaf can supply up to 1kw in this way.
I think this will become common place, batteries will migrate away from Nickel Manganese Cobalt perhaps to Lithium Ion Phosphate or something else and the chargers will operate in sync with the power companies providing a power source to car and home, whilst your away the home will tick over on minimum consumption powered by the grid, when you get back the car will be plugged in which then supplies the high levels of power needed for the home heating etc. The charger will only take electric from the grid when the rates are low eg pm or at night. I'm interested where you managed to connect a 600w power supply to on your car? Richy
Hi Richard. The Zoe isn't able to do this but the new Renault 5 is. They even have a special charger to work with it. I think the cost will be astronomical though. I have setup a backup system with my ZE50 , using a 600w power adapter, which will power all the necessary things in my home during a power outage..... internet, SKY, tv, computers, lights and refrigeration. It's amazing how little power these things actually draw. Well within the 600w output, which my Zoe can happily supply.
OK Thanks Guys, It was purely a bit of a feasibility study on the art of what may be possible, my night rate which I charge my car with is roughly a 1/3 of my day rate, I have seen in the past people put a justifiable financial case together to install batteries in their property to make better use of night rate electric. Personally I'm not keen on installing large battery packs in the house, but i did wonder about using the car battery when not in use to feed the house to save money.
Doesn't look like a possibility with the Zoe but thankyou all for your comments.
Richy
Richard, there are cars which will allow you to draw AC 240V power from the car battery via a feature called Vehicle to Load. Hyundai/Kia , MG and Ford have this on some models (chargable with Ford Lightning pickup). Need to remember that using V2L regularly will add charge/discharge cycles to your battery which will have some impact on degradation so, for this reason, it would be better to choose a car that has a Lithium Iron Phosphate battery if this is your plan - MG4 has this battery and supports V2L.
I wouldn't know if you can but even if it is possible I wouldn't want to keep charging my car and then draining it for fear of degrading the battery much sooner.
Hi Richy, i'm not sure if it would work with a ZOE, but WALLBOX has a new very expensive charger on sale to be able to do this.
Ramon