EV CHARGING SYSTEMS

A wave of popularity of Electric Vehicles is approaching faster than anticipated, thanks to innovation, cost reductions, government support, and financial viability. New generations of environmentally conscious people are driving the Electric Car revolution and this is great news when considering the environment and sustainability but unfortunately, most of the buildings in any city were constructed before the new era of Electrical Vehicles. There was no consideration for Electric Vehicles (and their needs for charging) when the electrical infrastructure was built, so it is very likely that these buildings do not have the appropriate electrical capacity available to provide charging power for all of the Electric Vehicle chargers that are now required. A 2019 study by Pollution Probe and The Delphi Group in 2019 recognizes that ZEVs (Zero Emission Vehicles, which is another name for Electric Vehicles) require appropriate infrastructure to charge the vehicle, and that most EV owners typically charge while in the comfort of their home. Similarly, in 2021, in the United States Pecan Street has found that the largest roadblock to installing EV chargers (EVSE) at home is the Electrical Panel Capacity.

As the demand and popularity of Electric Vehicles grows, in order to accommodate the required number of EV chargers to satisfy the occupant(s), building owners and condominium boards are facing difficult choices because building new or expanding existing electrical infrastructure will mean upgrading the main service to the building by the utility and upgrading the main switchboard, which is very expensive and time consuming.

In an effort to help combat these cost, time and electrical capacity constraints, Intellimeter offers a suite of innovative, cost effective remedies for both Single Homes and Utility Metered Apartments as well as Multi-Unit Residential and Commercial Buildings. Aimed to address the electrical capacity constraints for EV charging and avoid the costly requirements of modifying existing building infrastructures, Intellimeter’s EVEMS (Electric Vehicle Energy Management Systems) are quickly becoming the preferred EV charging solution for building owners.

By managing EV charging demand, building owners can enjoy a slew of benefits and advantages. Intellimeter’s EVEMS’ will protect the buildings existing electrical infrastructure from overloads and safeguard owners from excessive demand charges while expanding the charging capabilities within the existing building constraints. What does this mean for building owners? It means you can forget about costly and unnecessary service upgrades! It can also save a lot of money in the deployment of EV chargers in new construction, by reducing the size of the main feeder.

Intellimeter’s car charging Energy Management Systems are brand agnostic which means they can be used with any level II charger available in the market. So if an owner or a tenant has a particular car charger or brand preference, they will have their freedom of choice. Our systems are simple and efficient and by keeping the electrical contractor in mind during our design process, reduced installation costs are an added benefit. With Intellimeter, there are no hidden costs or recurring fees that come with unwanted subscription platforms so you can rest assured knowing that our quoted price is the total price.

Below you will find a variety of options to suit your specific needs. Can’t find what you're looking for? Not to worry…At Intellimeter, we understand that every building and every situation is different and that not one size fits all so if you have an application that differs from our offerings, we’d be happy to review your application and the opportunity to provide our feedback and recommendations.

Our line of Electric Vehicle Charging Management and Control systems for Single Dwellings provide a smart and simple Electric Vehicle Energy Management System (EVEMS). There is no need to upgrade your utility service as you can use the energy allocated to other appliances to charge your vehicle. Learn more here. The system allows you to charge your vehicle when no-one is cooking, doing laundry and when the lights are off, literally while you sleep and your EV is parked.

The EVCMC-1 , with a couple of current transformers, monitors the consumption of the whole house, at all times. When there is capacity available on the service to add the load of an EV Charger, it energizes the circuit to feed an EV Charger or a NEMA-14-50 receptacle to provide Level-2 charging on your premises.

It is simple and is installed downstream from the utility meter with the additional benefit that if for a rental unit, the owner does not need to worry about billing separately for the energy consumed because it will be in the utility bill.

The EVCMC-1 is used when there is space in the main distribution panel to add two pole breaker for the future EV Charger. If you've run out of room in your distribution panel; don’t worry, we can add the breaker, keep reading.

In cases where the main distribution panel of the home is full and there isn’t any room for an additional breaker, the EVCMC-1B-40A series come with its own breaker. The EVCMC-1B-40A is built for home services rated at 120/240 Volts, 1 phase, 3 wires and up to 125 Amperes with a two-pole,40 Amp breaker which will allow the dwelling to install a 32A Level-II charger.

The EVCMC-1B-60A is built for home services rated at 120/240 Volts, 1 phase, 3 wires, and up to 200 Amperes with a two-pole breaker of up to 60 Amps which will allow the dwelling to install a Level-II charger with draws of up to 48 Amperes (for instance a Tesla charger).

If you install this unit at home and would like to track your consumption, just add one of our check meters.

Learn more about our single dwelling EV Energy Management Systems here.

For the single home owners, Intellimeter’s Single Dwelling Offer is ideal, however, in the United States, with just over 43 million rental households, not including those that live in owned condominiums (strata/HOA), finding a solution for these Multi-Unit Residential Buildings is absolutely necessary.

Two of the main obstacles identified by the Pollution Probe study include the lack of capacity of the electrical infrastructure to allow the installation of EV Chargers or EV charge ports, and the need to recover the cost of energy consumed from the common elements of the condominium and used by the individual occupant when they are charging their electric vehicle.

With these challenges in mind, Intellimeter has developed the i-meter® EVCMC which is a demand controller for multiple Level II EV chargers. It is meant to share the car charging loads and expand the charging capabilities within the existing building constraints. The i-meter® EVCMC protects the existing infrastructure from overloads, and avoids excessive demand charges. Our EVCMC manages the existing capacity in the building, therefore, avoiding the unnecessary costly upgrade of the buildings' existing electrical infrastructure. It can also save a lot of money in the deployment of EV chargers in new construction by reducing the size of the main feeder. The EVCMC can be used with any charger and ensures that the existing capacity is never exceeded, protecting the building and maximizing the capacity among the EV's being charged.

Ultimately, the i-meter EVCMC allows building owners to triple the number of EV chargers they’d otherwise be able to deploy, without reworking the buildings' existing electrical infrastructure. The EVCMC combines a three phase 120/208VAC distribution panel board with multiple two-pole 40A breakers as required, one or two i-meter®45, individual contactors for each charger circuit and a controller that is programmable to manage the power and the time allocated for each charger.

Because of Intellimeter's experience in sub-metering, naturally, we provide a revenue grade, Measurement Canada and California approved and sealed meter which can be used for legal billing purposes for every charger. Intellimeter’s i-meter-45 metering module is at the core of the EVCMC. This is required in order to address the energy cost recovery from the common elements and to monitor the current draw of each of the charging circuits. As a redundancy mechanism, the EVCMC also monitors the mains of the feeder set aside for these chargers.

The i-meter® 45 is a Multi-Customer Metering System. Capable of metering up to 45 single elements, the compact design is great for applications where Tenant or Energy Cost allocation is important. The i-meter® 45 provides critical energy consumption KWh as well as the ability to monitor Volts, Amperes, Power Factor, Frequency and Harmonics (V, I, kW, kVA, PF, Hz, THD (V/I)). The i-meter® 45 CT-Rail option provides both the contractor and the installer the ability to save time and money. Its innovative design, makes it easy to mount and install and it and is a UL recognized component that can be installed inside the Distribution breaker panel saving the customer valuable space. Each of the 45 metering elements can be programmed with a portable computer on site, and grouped to meter single-phase, two-phase or three-phase circuits An optional 80-character display can provide instantaneous and real time information locally without the need to network the meter.

Using Modbus RS485 as a preferred communications protocol with the addition of a Data Collection Unit it can seamlessly integrate with existing Building Automation Systems using MODBUS, BACnet, or TCP/IP.

Additionally, like any of the Electrical Meters manufactured by Intellimeter, it is self-powered (no additional Power Supplies) and has a universal voltage input for electrical systems, 3 Phase, 4 Wires, from 120 to 600 Volts.

The i-meter EVCMC ensures protection of the existing infrastructure, by alternating and distributing the power of multiple chargers. As a car is plugged into the charger and begins its charge, the i-meter® EVCMC tracks how much time the charger has been on. As more cars are plugged in, the i-meter® EVCMC monitors the total charge to ensure that the contracted demand or ampacity of the breaker is never exceeded. It does this by disconnecting the car chargers gradually, based on the amount of time they have been on, protecting the existing infrastructure and allowing the alternation and distribution of the power to multiple chargers. As the load diminishes, the car chargers are automatically connected again.

Most current EV owners may have experienced ‘range anxiety’ at one point or another and most future EV owners often wonder how much charge ones vehicle would require in order to get through their regular day. According to Jerry, the average commuting distance in North America is about 41 miles per day, round trip. Yes, you may drive a little bit more or a little bit less, but if you were on the normal distribution curve, most people will drive less than 60 miles per day, round trip. This means that as long as you can charge your EV with a range exceeding the 60-mile mark, then that will be sufficient for you to complete your daily commute.

With the addition of a Data Collection Unit (we call it DCU ) with a smart algorithm, the system can control the car charging loads to guarantee every EV Charger user will accumulate the appropriate amount of charge at a 100% rate on a Level-II charger. Intellimeter’s EVCMC guarantees four hours of charging time for each user and by using the official U.S. government source for fuel economy information, Intellimeter analyzed the range that most of the EVs in the market (as of February, 2022) would charge in four hours. As you can see in the table, Intellimeter researched every EV model available in North America up to January 31st, 2022 and listed the EPA efficiency ratings to determine that with just four hours of charge at a 100% rate, users can successfully complete their daily commute, without any hassle or worry.

Intellimeter's new i-meter® DCU (Data Collection Unit ) collects meter information utilizing communication protocols including; Modbus and MBus. Capable of acting as a stand-alone or cloud system, the i-meter® DCU, comes with 16GB of memory storage and the ability to broadcast and store historical meter data. The i-meter® DCU offers a convenient way to bench mark energy consumption for energy efficiency and billing initiatives.

• Easy integration of multiple meter streams to a customized platform
• Customizable interval data: 15 minutes, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
• Data collection and integration ideal for Building Automation and Billing Systems
• Local or remote access of meter data
• Integrate meter information from multiple sites/applications; commercial, industrial, institutional or residential in one location

• Ensure the contracted demand is never exceeded by monitoring the main service demand
• Avoid tripping the main breaker due to overload by alternating the loads to ensure that the maximum ampacity of the feeder is never exceeded
• Electrical distribution panel board is included in the cost
• System includes a revenue grade meter for every charger for legal tenant billing purposes
• Meter and bill for the electricity used in each charger, including time of use rates
• Ensure that all vehicles receive an adequate charge overnight
• Multiple configurations with expandable options for your EV Charging station needs
• Logic and monitoring to protect the existing infrastructure to allow the shifting and distributing of the power to multiple chargers
• As the load diminishes, the car chargers are automatically re-connected
• No hidden costs and unnecessary recurring fees
• Comes prewired to simplify the installation in the field, resulting in reduced installation costs
• When the car chargers are activated, they are charging at 100%
• The system comes ready for an internet connection to allow the building manager to authorize and approve the connection