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Smart charging means you can intelligently manage how and when your EV charges and what energy sources it uses. This enables you to charge in the best way both in terms of cost and driver requirements, while also protecting your vehicle and building. 

Smart charging offers many advantages for both businesses and private individuals, specifically in saving costs, minimizing the investment needed for additional electricity capacity and ease of management with handy dashboards and apps.

In practice, smart charging relies on sophisticated data exchange systems that are automated and integrated with AI to ensure the most economical, well-timed, driver-oriented and infrastructure-friendly solution.

Smappee’s real smart charging solutions make it hands-free to always charge at the best rates, with maximum solar energy and avoiding exorbitant capacity rates, which can save you up to 50% on charging costs. You can also rest assured that your EV will always be charged at the time and level you require. Another real smart feature of Smappee, load balancing, protects your building (no tripping) and can save you up to 25% on installation costs.

Renewable energy is energy from a source that is not depleted when used. In other words, it cannot run out, it is natural and self-replenishing, and usually has a low- or zero-carbon footprint.

The most important sources of renewable energy:

• Solar energy
  Sunlight is one of Earth’s most freely available sources of energy. The availability of sunlight is variable and depends greatly on location, season and time of day. Solar power is captured on solar panels in a joint chemical and physical reaction, known as the ‘photovoltaic effect’.

• Wind
  Wind power is currently probably the largest form of renewable energy in the world. While solar energy can only be captured for about 5 – 6 hours a day, wind power can be available day and night. Onshore and offshore wind farms generate electricity through the spinning of blades on wind turbines. The kinetic energy of the spinning blades is converted into electric energy by turning a drive shaft and gearbox, which is connected to a generator. Electricity is converted into higher voltages and added to the national grid.

• Hydroelectric
  As a renewable energy source, hydropower is one of the most commercially developed. It can often be more reliable than solar or wind power and also allows for electricity to be stored for use when demand reaches a peak. Hydropower is created by harnessing the movement of flowing or falling water. Naturally, places where you will find a lot of water are the ideal spots to place hydroelectric power plants, such as dams or the ocean. Electricity is generated through underwater turbines that turn a generator. Similar technology is used to create energy through wave and tidal power in the ocean and at the mouths of rivers where it flows into the ocean. 

• Bioenergy
  Electricity can be generated by burning organic matter as fuel. Known as biomass it includes anything from plants to timber to food waste. When bioenergy is made carbon dioxide is emitted, but these sources can be considered renewable because they can be regrown and absorb as much carbon as they emit across their lifespans, and therefore can be considered carbon neutral.

Charging your electric vehicle with renewable energy is not only cheap but also good for the planet. Smappee’s smart charging and energy management system is designed to maximize the use of variable rates and solar energy. It has built-in solar forecasting, allowing users to charge their electric vehicles, and power the washing machine or the A/C, all with free solar power. 

Installing a charging station has a major impact on the overall energy consumption of a home or business.

• This makes the use of renewable energy even more important.
  Therefore, Smappee offers a solution that maximizes the use of renewable energy and energy during off-peak hours throughout the day for each charging session. In this way, you optimise your self-sufficiency and save costs. Depending on your country, you may also need this smart feature to take advantage of tax cuts.
• The current infrastructure often cannot handle the additional energy demand of electric cars.
  This can lead to blown fuses. Smappee’s autonomous overload protection ensures that cars can charge safely and the system stays within its power limit. Thus, an expensive extension of the electrical connection is not necessary.
• Most electric drivers must wait for their monthly bill to know how much charging has cost them.
  By purchasing a Smappee EV Line charging station, you get a real-time overview of the charging process and an overview of the charging costs in the Smappee App and Dashboard. In addition, you can also perfectly track the extent to which your charging session used the solar energy you produced yourself. And that’s not all, combined  with the energy management technology Smappee Infinity, you also get instant insight into your entire energy consumption. Discover which are the biggest energy guzzlers and how self-sufficient you really are. Take immediate action and monitor how you use energy through the Smappee App and Dashboard.

You can charge your electric car at home, at the office or at any public electric charging station. Fully charging can be done in as short as 15 – 20 minutes at fast charging stations or can take as long as half a day depending on how big the battery is, or the speed that your charging point can charge.

The maximum charging speed  is dependent on your electric vehicle. If the max charging speed of your vehicle is for instance 50 kW, you will not be able to charge quicker than that, not even at a fast charger. 

There are many other variables that can also influence the speed of charging. The emptier the battery, the quicker it charges. The colder the battery, the slower it will charge. Whilst charging, the battery temperature will rise, and so will the charging speed. Some vehicles include the feature of automatically pre-heating the battery, when a fast charger is set as destination in the vehicle’s navigation system. 

To best maintain the battery health and optimal charge time of your electric vehicle, it is advisable to stick to a charge level of between 20% – 80%.

Most cars achieve a maximum charging speed of 11 kW with regular charging (AC) but making use of fast charging services (DC) will allow you to speed up your charging sessions.

Smappee’s EV line of charging stations offers charging between 22 kW for the EV One, EV Wall and EV Base, up to fast charging between 80 kW and 200 kW with the EV Ultra.

Example of charging with the Smappee EV line of chargers:
Car X has a battery of 80 kWh. If you want to charge it from 20% to 80% it will take approximately, 4 hours (11 kW, if your car has this max charging speed) or 2 hours (22 kW) to charge with the EV One, EV Wall and EV Base and 20 minutes with the EV Ultra (200kW)

There are two types of ‘fuels’ that can be used in electric cars. They are called alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC). The power coming from the grid is always AC. However, batteries, like the ones in your EV, can only store power as direct current.

• AC charging for electric vehicles
  When it comes to electric vehicles, an inverter is built into the car. It is called the ‘onboard charger’, although it is really an inverter. It converts electricity from alternating current to direct current and then stores it in the car’s battery.
  
  
• DC charging for electric vehicles
  The difference between AC charging and DC charging is the location where the AC current is converted; inside or outside the car. Unlike AC chargers, a DC charger has the inverter inside the charger itself. This means it’s larger and provides power directly to the car’s battery and doesn’t need the built-in charger to convert it.

An energy management system will allow you to cut ever-rising energy costs and facilitate self-consumption, using the renewable energy produced to its fullest. To do that, you need real-time, actionable energy insights and the ability to automate the energy flows on your premises. Appliances need to switch on or off automatically according to your tariffs or when production peaks or is at a low and surplus energy needs to be stored for later. Smappee allows just that, paving the way for a future in which buildings are decentralised energy hubs without having to compromise on comfort.