Sungrow EV Charger Install - Earlwood

Sungrow EV Charger Installation for a ZEEKR, Inner West Sydney

Stephen and Kathryn had just picked up a new ZEEKR electric vehicle. These things are pretty damn cool, I really like the orange callipers of the brakes against the white.

The pair of them wanted to charge it at home without having to think about it, not only that, they want to do it quickly and utilise their electrical system to essentially charge it for free.

They already had a Sungrow inverter and battery running the house, so a Sungrow EV charger was the obvious pick. Same brand, same app, and the charger talks to the rest of the system instead of fighting it. That's the bit most people miss. The whole point of matching the charger to the inverter is that the car can drink from the solar surplus rather than pulling from the grid.

The install itself is where the real work was. As always, we wanted the ZEEKR charger installation super neat, with as little conduit on show as possible. The easy option was to run conduit along the outside of the house. We didn't do that.

Instead we ran the cable up through the wall cavity, got up on the roof and lifted a few sheets of roof sheeting to sneak the cable through. You can see it in the photos below. Tricky, but always possible if you're patient and pedantic.

From there we fed the cable into the existing air conditioning conduit and brought it down to a new isolation switch. Off the isolator we drilled neatly into the cavity and fished the cable across to the charger location. Everything in the wall is now seamless. It looks like it grew there.

While we were on site we also had a proper look at the switchboard. We upgraded the protection to Type A RCBOs, which is what an EV charger actually needs, and fitted a surge protection device. That protects the new charger from lightning strikes and power surges, but it also protects everything else in the house. The inverter, the battery, the fridge, the lot. When you've got that much expensive gear hanging off one board, it's cheap insurance.

Then we commissioned the charger, tested everything and walked Stephen and Kathryn through the app before we left.

Now they pull into the garage, plug the ZEEKR in and let the solar do the rest. On a good day the car is charging off the surplus from their own roof, so they're driving around essentially for free.

A tidy EV charger installation that took a bit of patience to get right, and a switchboard that's now properly set up for the way the house is going to be used.

If you've got a Sungrow system and you're thinking about a home charger, send us a few photos of your switchboard, your inverter, where the charger would go and where the car parks. We'll take a look and let you know what's involved.

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