Solar "aware" EV chargers are similar to a standard EV wall charger, but have additional solar monitoring and control systems. The charger may have one or more sets of sensors called current clamps (often referred to as CT clamps) which monitor the power flows in your home to detect when excess solar is available. The EV charger can use the measurements from the CT clamps to adjust the rate of charging on your EV to match the excess solar available or according to other user preferences.

Home batteries may also require some additional CT clamps for monitoring.

Some solar inverter manufacturers offer inverters with either an integrated EV charger or an add-on charger with strong integration with the solar inverter.

For such EV chargers, the inverter is already aware of the solar production so additional CT clamps may not be needed.

Some advanced models may be capable of advanced functions such as controlling an EV charger, a home battery system, hot water or home heating systems.

Charge HQ takes a different approach to solar EV chargers. It communicates over the Internet with compatible devices (solar inverter, battery, energy monitor) in your home which are already measuring energy flows. It then communicates either directly with the EV (in the case of Tesla) or with a supported OCPP wall charger to control the charge rate to match.

If you have a compatible EV, charger and or solar system, Charge HQ will work with the hardware you already have.