Can I charge from my excess solar with Amber for EVs?

Amber offers two types of solar charging for EVs: connected excess solar charging and predictive solar charging. Which one you get depends on whether Amber can read data directly from your solar inverter.

Note: Excess solar charging is currently only available for Tesla EVs

1. Connected excess solar charging

This is available if you have a solar system enrolled in Amber's SmartShift automation that reports both solar production and household consumption.

Overview of supported systems:

• SolarEdge inverters
• Fronius solar inverters (full compatibility list available here)
• Sungrow systems (full compatibility list available here)
• Redback solar inverters
• Tesla, Sigenergy and AlphaESS batteries that report solar and household consumption

Click here for a full list of Amber for Batteries supported systems

How it works

Amber reads data directly from your inverter, your EV, and your consumption meter to calculate how much excess solar is available to charge your car.

A couple of extra things worth knowing:

• If your inverter supports solar curtailment, it's automatically disabled during excess solar charging so none of your generation goes to waste.
• You can set a feed-in tariff threshold. If the feed-in tariff rises above it, charging pauses and excess solar is sold to the grid instead.

How to set it up

• Open the Amber app and go to the Devices tab.
• Tap Enrol Solar and/or Battery.
• Select your inverter brand and submit the required details (e.g. serial number).
• Once linked, turn on Excess Solar Charging in your EV settings.

2. Predictive solar charging

This applies if you don't have a compatible inverter that Amber can connect to directly.

How it works

Amber uses your solar system specs combined with weather data from AEMO to estimate your generation throughout the day. Because it's a prediction, it won't account for a home battery that isn't enrolled with Amber. Your EV may be prioritised to charge from solar over your battery in that case.

How to set it up

1. Go to your EV settings page.
2. Find Excess Solar Charging and scroll to Tell us about your solar system.
3. Enter estimates for:
   • Typical peak solar generation on a sunny day
   • Typical household consumption during solar production hours

Not sure what your peak generation is? A few ways to find it:

• Check your solar monitoring app for output curves on sunny days
• Ask your solar installer
• Read values from your inverter's LCD screen
• Use the nameplate power rating on your inverter

My account shows predictive solar but my inverter is connected

Contact ev-support@amber.com.au and we can switch this over for you.