It has now become easier to configure your SMA Electric Vehicle charger to use a specific percentage of solar power. This can be beneficial during the winter months, when the surplus from solar panels is lower.
Why is this interesting?
Electric cars require a minimum charging capacity of around 1.4 kilowatts before they can start charging. Since such a surplus isn't always available during winter months, it can be beneficial to lower the percentage of solar power, for example, from 100% to 50%. This way, the car starts charging when only 700 watts of solar are available, with the remaining 700 watts required for charging being drawn from the grid.
In this example, the charging station is set to 100% solar power. Since the surplus solar power is lower than the minimum, the car doesn't charge at all in this situation.
Adjusting the percentage helps charge the car using a combination of solar and grid power, so you can still make maximum use of your own generation despite low solar irradiance.
By changing the charging station setting to 50% solar power, the car can now charge: with some power from the grid, but at the same time using all available solar power that is not fed back into the grid.
How do you set this up?
You can now easily set the percentage via the SMA Energy App, provided you have the latest version (the latest version is 1.29: you can update it via the App Store or Google Play if necessary). When you select "Charging with PV surplus" in the app, you will now see this image:
Using the SMA Energy App it's easy to change the percentage of PV power
Adjust the slider to the desired setting, for example, 50%-50%. Then click "Apply": the charging station will now charge with all available surplus solar power, plus the same amount of power drawn from the grid.
New option for variable rates
Another new feature in the app is the "Charging with cost limit" option. This will become more useful when dynamic electricity rates can be loaded into the app, which is something SMA has been working on for some time. Unfortunately, the expected date has already been postponed several times; it currently looks like it should be ready in March 2026. You can already set a fixed purchase and feed-in tariff in the app. Do this by clicking on "My display area" and then on "Rates."
More information about using the SMA charging station can be found on this page.
