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What is an EVEMS and why do I need one?
August 14, 2023
5 minutes
For such a big acronym, electric vehicle energy management systems (EVEMS) are deceptively simple: they manage electricity.
But why you need one might not be so obvious. And finding out is important; to power an electric vehicle charger, your home will need enough electrical capacity.
All homes have an electric panel with breaker switches. Condos and apartments, also known as multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs), will have an electrical panel for each unit, and often only one more panel for lights and outlets in shared spaces, like a hallway. These panels commonly have a limit of 100 amps, sometimes 200 amps. This means that all of the electronics and appliances that you have running in your home must draw power less than the maximum number of amps your panel can afford, or else a breaker will trip, or an electrical connection will overheat.
A typical charger, which is a high-draw electronic, adds anywhere between 30 to 60 amps to your panel, which is a 30 to 60% increase in an energy need. This is why most panels cannot afford to have electric vehicle charging equipment added directly to them.
And while this might sound like a problem: it’s not. There is no need to upgrade your panel.
The RVE Solution
Energy management is a concept with a history of success; sometimes called load balancing, energy can be switched off and on so that not all appliances and devices operate at once to cause a shortage.
RVE is a pioneer in applying the concept of energy management to infrastructure built specifically for electric vehicles. We do this with hardware because it is safer and will communicate most quickly and effectively to relay power towards, reduce and share power, or stop it altogether according to the electrical demands made, that the homeowner is making when they switch their oven or air conditioning on and off.
EVEMS are precisely what RVE offers with its best-selling products like the DCC line (DCC-9, DCC-10, DCC-11, DCC-12) and new product the SMP.
DCC-9 installation example
SMP installation example
Products mentioned in this article
Case Studies
EVEMS installed throughout North-America
Our electric vehicle energy management systems are installed in homes across North America. Discover some of these installations through our case studies.
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