Dual-phase 2x faster home charger - ready

[vtechtuning]

This is my last project - 4.4-4.8kW 2-phase Type1 portable electric car charger at your home - without special 32A power lines...
It uses 3phase power connection to generate one "superphase" and charge Type1 cars (PHEV, Leaf). 2 phases are loaded equally. It also has a special mode for battery safe Leaf charging - read below.

If you have Type1 EV Car (like US Tesla, Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV etc) and 3-phase power in your garage, parking, home - this charger will accelerate your charging speed more than twice!
...and still can be used as normal 230V 10A charger.

Project page: http://evtun.com/type1-portable-charger.html
Crowdfunding: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/accelerated-evse-charger-type1-2x-faster-car-electric#/

Typical speeds at home:
Tesla - 21-22 km/h ,(4,8 kW, 20A)
Outlander PHEV - 3,6 kW (factory onboard charger limits at 14 A),
Nissan Leaf - (4,8 kW, 20A)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16XyFWsp7Uw

***** STORY - why I developed this charger, why it is really something new ******

Me & my Wife own two EV cars (Outlander PHEV and Nissan Leaf) and I’m electric car tuner (http://evtun.com). Main problem I have noticed while charging our EV cars at home is that we have 3-phase connection at home, but limited to 14,5A per phase (this is very common in Europe in small houses).
If you want to charge your EV car quicker, fuses will go off. 10A charger is a real maximum.
I decided to solve this in one step – intelligent 2-phase to „superphase” converter, that loads two phases equally. Also it monitors current and if you switch on something loading one of phases used, it will immediately reduce speed of charging of car to avoid fuses to react.

- My charger uses clever conversion from 230V phases to 240V „superphase” - this helps with another 5% acceleration because EV cars limit current and accept any voltage up to 260V.

- Beside of that, that my charger monitors phases load and reduces speed automatically if needed, you can also set basic speed as 8A (night charging), 16A (standard), 20A (fast).

- Z-wave is added, you can integrate charger with your home network.

- Charger uses profiled charging and voltage for cars with known issues or with extra capabilities:

1. Outlander PHEV – it blocks prebalancing (factory charger slows down to almost 1A, for 25 minutes if battery was empty) so Outlander charges full 3.6 kW every hour, including first hour (without that trick – 2.2 kW only within first hour). Superphase + blocking of prebalancing double the speed of factory 10A charger
2. Nissan Leaf – charger charges it to 90% SOC, then stops, or 90% SOC, stops for 15 min to cool battery down and then – finishes charging (effectively this is faster and more safe for battery).

- I want to add bluetooth and RFID access (with cards or RFID tokens) and application to control more sophisticated parameters of charging / cooling battery.

- Charger will have detacheable 400V cable, so you may have more cables, for 230V or for 400V for instance if you take charger with you

 

[jaapv]

Err... Mitsubishi does warn against fast charging on a regular basis, as it impacts battery life. So I would never use it for overnight charging, nor is it needed, as most of us sleep more than 3 hours.

However, it does sound like an intelligently designed product for those that need the car in a hurry and have a 400V connection at home or at work.

BTW, in the Netherlands (and Germany too, I believe), a standard group, and the norm is minimally 3 groups, is rated 16A.

 

[Tipper]

If you need the car in a hurry then what's wrong with using the petrol engine in hybrid mode? Obviously not for a LeaF OR Teslar. Mitsubishi say they set their charge rates so as to prolong battery life, why change that?

If this charger is effectively increasing the load on our already stretched electricity supplies then not necessarily a good idea.
For example, if every household in the UK bought an electric car, eg a PHEV, then the electricity demand on our distribution system would be doubled! (This is based on the average household load being around 10kW/day and an EV like a PHEV taking 10kW/charge.

 

[maby]

...

For example, if every household in the UK bought an electric car, eg a PHEV, then the electricity demand on our distribution system would be doubled! (This is based on the average household load being around 10kW/day and an EV like a PHEV taking 10kW/charge.

I would have thought that the impact would be higher than that, wouldn't it? Most houses in the UK are still heated by gas - our electricity consumption is effectively what goes into the light bulbs, the TV, the washing machine a couple of times per week and the dish washer every couple of days - most food is either cooked in the microwave, or the Indian a couple of hundred yards away. Seems unlikely to me that we average 10kWh per day.

 

[anko]

Imho, there is not much added value for an Outlander PHEV, as it will charge at 3300 watts anyway on any single phase 16 amp charger, and there are an awfull lot of those, at least over here. I have a portable one myself.

There could be huge added value for the upcoming Ampera E, which has a 32 amps single phase on-board charger (I have one of those on order). Can I ask, why is the solution limited to 20 amps and not 32 amps? The added value of 20 amps over 16 amps is too small, especially taken into account that grid voltage over here is already closer to 240 volts than it is to 230 volt..

Any info on pricing?

 

[jaapv]

If you need the car in a hurry then what's wrong with using the petrol engine in hybrid mode? Obviously not for a LeaF OR Teslar. Mitsubishi say they set their charge rates so as to prolong battery life, why change that?

If this charger is effectively increasing the load on our already stretched electricity supplies then not necessarily a good idea.
For example, if every household in the UK bought an electric car, eg a PHEV, then the electricity demand on our distribution system would be doubled! (This is based on the average household load being around 10kW/day and an EV like a PHEV taking 10kW/charge.

That is a bit pessimistic. The household demand is only a part of the total energy demand.The industrial demand is substantial and would not be affected. Moreover, the majority of electric cars will be charged at night, when demand is at a minimum.

 

[vtechtuning]

My schema of PHEV usage is: charge at night. To work, back (34km). Eat something (car charges 1 h, this adds 3.5 kW, so 20km added). Then I drive for example shopping or to parents etc.

Without quick charger I need to use ICE...

Why 20A - there are two version of this charger. First, that uses 2 phases is ready. Second, that uses 3 phases - is in development.
I decided to limit current to 10A per phase, as this is enough if we consider not to overload it. Typical 3 phase grid is fused 16A, and limited to 14.5A per phase. So 10A is max IMHO. I tried to set more than 10A per phase and monitor it (and react to avoid overload) but sometimes it is too near to 16A fuse limit and my monitoring is not fast enough to avoid fuse off.

If you use 16A one phase charger with 16A fused grid - this is not a good idea...

@jaapv - Fast charging for Mitsu means using CHAdeMO. About speed/impact on battery - onboard ICE charges with speed of 8-10kWh and this is not a problem for battery. Braking with generator does max 60kWh... So charging it with speed of 3.5 kWh cannot be a problem too.

@anko - main gain comes from faster charging within 1 hour and 10% overall faster charging.
For example charging to 95% from zero will take 2h 43min with 16A charger and 2h 15m with my charger. But you cannot use 16A charger in 16A power grid. So with 10A charger you need 4h...

 

[anko]

I have a 16 a fuse and a 16 a charger and can charge within 3.5 hrs. Without issue. Every day. This is very common over here. Imho, the only 'gain' would be to eliminate the balancing phase ( which might as well occur in the second or third hour of charging, rather than rhe first). You can ask yourself if that is a smart thing to do. It must be there for a reason ...

 

[jaapv]

Agree completely with Anko. 3 hrs 20 mins for a full charge. As I tend to sleep somewhat longer it is a non-issue for me.
I must admit that I have 3x35 A main fuses, mainly because I run a 12 kW 400 V Sauna, so my 16A charger is peanuts. I run it on a 25A group.

 

[anko]

Agree completely with Anko. 3 hrs 20 mins for a full charge. As I tend to sleep somewhat longer it is a non-issue for me.
I must admit that I have 3x35 A main fuses, mainly because I run a 12 kW 400 V Sauna, so my 16A charger is peanuts. I run it on a 25A group.

I have 3x25. Stil no issue.