With Tibber you can shift your EV charging to the cheapest hours of the day automatically and all you need is an integrated EV and/or charger. This allows Tibber to calculate when we need to charge your EV to have it ready, charged as cheaply as possible for your next departure. And as an extra bonus you're helping out in stabilizing the energy grid👌
💡 How do we do it?
We fetch data about your EVs' battery size and status (SoC), your next set departure time, charging effect as well as the energy price. We get this data from several differens sources depending on what EV and charger you have - but more on that later on👇
This data is then used to calculate the time needed to charge your EV and the time remaining to your next set departure time. If there is room to move all or parts of the charging session to cheaper hours Tibber will do so automatically. This will only be done if there is room for it - a fully charged battery always trumps low prices.
🚙 I've got an online car - how does it work in practice?
An online car is an EV with a direct integration to Tibber - allowing Tibber to fetch data directly from the EV itself.
The EV is connected to the charger.
Tibber call the manufacturers API every 15 minutes to check if the car has been connected to a charger.
Tibber call the manufacturers API to fetch data on whether the EV is at it's home adress, what the battery status (SoC) is, the battery size and charging speed.
Tibber calls its' servers to fetch data about your set departure time and the energy price.
The data is used to create a charging schedule and if there is room all or parts of the charging session will be postponed to the cheapest hours.
This can be done in several ways but most common are scheduling of delayed charging - the same as in the manufacturers own app.
When it's time to charge Tibber will activate charging automatically either by scheduling or by canceling delayed charging.
There is an exception to👆for online cars where Tibber is not allowed to activate start/stopp charging but is allowed to fetch the battery status (SoC). These EVs' requires an integrated charger to smart charge. You then activate smart charging via the charged as stated 👇 but you won't need to set the SoC manually👌
The very first time you smart charge your EV the standard value 3,5kW for cars with batteries size <20 kWh and 5,0 kW for cars with larger batteries will be used when calculating charging speed. But all succeeding charging sessions will be based on the average charging speed for the previous session.
🔌 In what way does it differ if I've got an online car and an integrated charger?
Not that much actually, at least if you follow Tibber preferred settings to only activate smart charging via the charger when possible. We will then fetch the same data as👆from the EV except for charging speed which we instead fetch from the charger.
The major difference is in how we control when and if the EV should charge and this is how it works:
The EV is connected to the charger.
Tibber notices the EV is connected and out algorithm is activated.
It calls the manufacturers API to fetch data on whether the EV is at it's home adress, what the battery status (SoC) is and the battery size.
Tibber then calls the chargers API to fetch data on the average charging speed during the latest charging session.
Data from both sources is used to create a charging schedule and if there is room all or parts of the charging session will be postponed to the cheapest hours.
If there is room to postpone the charging Tibber vill set the available current to 4A which is so low that no EV or hybrid car can start charging. (The limit is usually 6A or 7,2A depending om model).
When it's time to start charging availiable current will be reset to your max current which is determined by eg. the EVs onboard charger, load balancing, main fuses etc.
The very first time you smart charge your EV the standard value 3,5 kW for cars with batteries size <20 kWh and 5,0 kW for cars with larger batteries will be used when calculating charging speed. But all succeeding charging sessions will be based on the average charging speed for the previous session.
🚗 What if I only got an offline car and an integrated charger?
In this case it differs a bit more. The actual start/stop of the charging is done the same as with an online car and an integrated charger 👆but instead of dynamic values fetched from your EV regarding battery status (SoC), battery size etc. Tibber has to rely on the integrated charger and a more static model of the EV.
Previously Tibber algorithm assumed an offline EV had 50% and a hybrid 0% SoC when connected and this is still the standars values. However you can (and should) set current SoC and battery size directly in the Tibber app. For the best result you should reset the SoC value for each charging session but you can also set your own standard value that's usually pretty correct 😉
This is how it's done:
Your offline car is shown as a circle on the home screen in the Tibber app (or it might be hidden under the ⚙️ in the top right corner).
Click on the circle to manually change the the battery status (SoC) and the battery size.
Smart charging will be more accurate when Tibber knows how much juice is remaining when the EV is connected to the charger.
The very first time you smart charge your EV the standard value 3,5 kW for cars with batteries size <20 kWh and 5,0 kW for cars with larger batteries will be used when calculating charging speed. But all succeeding charging sessions will be based on the average charging speed for the previous session.