A smart charging station? What is it and how does it work?
We are familiar with charging stations by now, but did you know that there are also smart charging stations? These are becoming more and more intelligent when it comes to charging. For example, they charge when the power is cheap, so you can charge cheaper, and in the future it will probably even be possible to store and use solar energy.
A smart charging station thinks along with you
A smart charging station from Blulinc knows when you can charge cheaply at an off-peak rate. As a result, you save on electricity costs and the electricity grid is also spared at peak times. But that's not the only thing a smart charging station from Blulinc takes into account. For example, if you have solar panels, you can also indicate that energy from the solar panels is preferred when available. Often, an app can be used to indicate when your car needs to be full, so that blulinc's smart charging station can perfectly determine which energy it uses, renewable or from the electricity grid. In addition, he can also take into account the other appliances that consume energy in the house. If other devices consume a lot of energy, the charging of the car can be scaled back a bit to prevent overloading. In the jargon, this is called 'load balancing'.
Is smart charging breaking through?
But it doesn't stop there, more will be possible in the future. For example, a smart charging station from Blulinc will not only be able to charge your car, but will also use energy from the car to absorb peaks or in the event of a power failure. What's more, you could even use your car's battery to bunker down excess energy. Just think of wind or solar energy that you can't use immediately. This is called bidirectional charging and the technology is also called vehicle to grid. Today, this is only used sparingly. This makes sense, because you need a special charging station that supports bidirectional charging. By the way, not only the charging station must be able to do this, your car must also support it. Today, there are only a handful of models that can do this.
