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--- | ||
title: "Community: Andreas from Wettringen" | ||
authors: [naltatis, detlef] | ||
tags: [community] | ||
hide_table_of_contents: false | ||
--- | ||
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In our series of community portraits, photographer [Detlef](https://hee.se) visited Andreas in Wettringen in the Münsterland region. | ||
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![Andreas in front of house with PV system](./andreas-vor-haus-pv.webp) | ||
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{/* truncate */} | ||
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## Fascinated by IT and kept going | ||
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**Michael:** Hello Andreas, nice to meet you. | ||
Tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got into electric cars and solar charging. | ||
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**Andreas:** Yes, hello Michael. | ||
I'm a pharmacist by profession. | ||
I've been the manager of the Sonnen-Apotheke in Wettringen for 35 years. | ||
I'm married, have two, now grown-up children and we live in a single-family house on the countryside. | ||
I've sold the pharmacy at the beginning of this year, but the IT in the pharmacy, 10 workstations, 5 virtual servers, Windows and Linux, I've always managed myself. | ||
This knowledge I could take with me. | ||
I've been dealing with IT since my discharge from the Bundeswehr. | ||
With the severance pay, I purchased my first computer, a Tandy TRS 80. | ||
Since then I've been fascinated by IT and I've stayed with it. | ||
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![Andreas and SMA inverter](./andreas-und-sma-wechselrichter.webp) | ||
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**Michael:** Wow, you have a lot of technical background knowledge and a good overview of what it takes to run a business with all that. | ||
How did you get into electric cars and solar charging? | ||
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**Andreas:** Three years ago, I bought a Mini SE out of interest in the technology. | ||
The car replaced a combustion engine Mini Cooper. | ||
At the time, wallboxes were still scarce, so I took the one the installer recommended. | ||
I had no knowledge what a good solution would be. | ||
Two months later, the 10kW PV system was installed. | ||
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One half of the modules is oriented to the east (4.6 kW), the other half to the west (5.4 kW). | ||
Since I had no storage at that time, I wanted to use the surplus of the PV system directly to charge the Mini. | ||
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![Andreas and charging cable](./andreas-und-ladekabel.webp) | ||
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## The Manual was no Longer a Solution | ||
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**Michael:** Okay, you were so early on the topic that there were not many experience values and you made your own. | ||
Did it work with the Mini and charging as you imagined? | ||
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**Andreas:** Well, there was no control logic in my installation. | ||
Every morning, when the sun was up, I went to the car and plugged it in. | ||
This manual process became tedious quickly, so I started looking for automations. | ||
Since I've been dealing with Open Source for a long time, I looked a bit on GitHub and came across evcc. | ||
An installation on a running Linux server was quickly made. | ||
The different components like inverter, EV charger and car were quickly integrated. | ||
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![Alphatec Mini](./andreas-alphatec-mini.webp) | ||
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## Wallbox-Debugging, but now it's running | ||
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**Michael:** That sounds like a good start. | ||
How did you proceed? | ||
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**Andreas:** Everything worked, only the wallbox, an Alphatec Mini, was not controllable. | ||
After a little research in the forum, it quickly became clear that the EV charger did not work as it should. | ||
There was no proper description of the control commands either. | ||
But [Premultiply](https://github.com/premultiply) can probably say more about that. | ||
After my contact with the manufacturer, it went quickly, Premultiply received a test box and the firmware of the control board was updated. | ||
I sent the board to the manufacturer and got the new firmware installed. | ||
Now evcc can talk to the wallbox. | ||
Thanks to this solution, the problem was not only fixed for me, but also for all new Alphatec users. | ||
Open Source at its best! | ||
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A step-by-step adjustment of the charging power from 6 to 16 A was finally possible. | ||
Since the box does not allow switching between single-phase and three-phase, a load switch was added to the sub-distribution. | ||
Normally I charge with one phase, since I mostly don't have more surplus. | ||
If I need a faster charge, I manually switch to three phases. | ||
The fun with evcc could begin. | ||
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![EcoFlow DELTA Pro](./andreas-ecoflow.webp) | ||
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**Michael:** Ah, then you have optimized and adapted your first setup. | ||
How did it affect the usage? | ||
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**Andreas:** After a year of operation of the system, I could see that I, despite the electric car, feed about 4,500 kWh into the grid. | ||
So, a second electric car would fit perfectly. | ||
The old family car, also a diesel, was replaced by an electric one. | ||
Now two cars are charged with evcc, one car is always connected to the charging station. | ||
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Optimal for our situation. | ||
To be able to continue to operate at least one or other device in case of a temporary power outage, I bought an EcoFlow DELTA Pro with additional battery, a total of 7.2 kWh storage. | ||
With some scripts in Home Assistant, these are charged when there is a surplus. | ||
A part of the storage is then used during the night to reduce the power consumption, the rest as a reserve. | ||
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![Diagram of Andreas' installation](./andreas-diagram.svg) | ||
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| **Component** | **Details** | | ||
|----------------------|------------------------------------------| | ||
| **Cars** | Mini SE, BMW iX3 | | ||
| **EV Charger** | Alphatec Mini | | ||
| **Inverter** | SMA Tripower 10 | | ||
| **Solar System** | 10 kW (4.6 kW East, 5.4 kW West) | | ||
| **Storage** | EcoFlow DELTA Pro (7.2 kWh) | | ||
| **Control** | evcc on Ubuntu Server under Proxmox | | ||
| **Integrations** | Home Assistant | | ||
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## Home automation and media server | ||
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**Michael:** That sounds like an exciting journey. | ||
What does your homelab setup look like? | ||
Do you use integrations into other systems? | ||
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**Andreas:** Oh yes, I've been fascinated by home automation for a long time. | ||
Originally I started with Homematic home automation. | ||
And more and more components came along. | ||
Since I also tried other manufacturers, I quickly wanted to manage all components together. | ||
Home Assistant was my integration. | ||
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I've also been running a media server for two decades. | ||
My children have always managed to damage the music tapes and CDs so much that they were no longer usable. | ||
So I started early to digitalize the analog media and make it available centrally. | ||
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![Home Server Dashboard](./andreas-home-server-dashboard.webp) | ||
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First with applications that ran on a NAS, later as virtual servers on a hypervisor. | ||
Currently, various homelab applications are running under Proxmox: evcc on an Ubuntu Server; Plex as a media server, eBlocker, paperlessNGX, Home Assistant. | ||
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## Meets all my needs | ||
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**Michael:** After the initial challenges and optimizations, it sounds like you now have a solution that works well. | ||
Do you have any wishes or suggestions for the future development of evcc? | ||
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**Andreas:** For me, evcc meets all my needs. | ||
I'm happy with the available feature set. | ||
It covers all the requirements I have. | ||
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**Michael:** Thank you for the conversation, Andreas. | ||
It was great to hear about your setup and your experiences. | ||
I wish you all the best for the future. | ||
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