Get More EV Charger Power with a Full Grid Connection

October 5, 2022 4 min read

We all want to do “good” — maybe we’re instituting “meatless Mondays”, sorting our trash, or even investing in an electric car.

But here’s the deal — we don’t have to change everything at once to do better for the environment. The reality is we can’t do everything at once, but we can do many things smarter.

That’s what VOOL is focused on — doing smarter. And we're starting by getting you more EV charger power.

The starting point.

We’re like you — we’re thinking about and making lifestyle decisions that are kinder to the planet.

But we’re also not like you — our core team has years of experience in the power industry and holds several engineering degrees including a few electrical engineering PhDs. Wait, this is like you? Join us

That small difference means that when one of our founders had to tell his partner she’d be missing a trip because the plugged-in electric car wasn’t charging, it became a mission to solve the charging problem.

It didn’t take long for the brains to figure out that improving the charger didn’t get at the core of the problem: the electrical grid setup.

What’s wrong with the grid?

Well, nothing. As long as your electrician did a decent job setting up the electrical panel (what year was that?), your appliances haven’t changed, and someone doesn’t try to blow dry their hair while the washer is running. And that’s without that shiny EV being plugged in.

Most of us have been there — lights out, trying to remember where the electrical panel is, forgetting to unplug everything before we go to reset it.

But why is it this way?

The reason that car chargers don’t work or your breaker trips is because of the grid setup. Throughout Europe, we’re connected to three-phase power, but we’re accessing a fraction of that capacity.

Let’s visualize it this way — our homes have a connection that uses a garden hose, but we’re actually using a drinking straw to water the lawn.

The power grid is built as a static system with three wires running in parallel and each capable of supplying the same amount of energy. Sockets are connected statically to separate wires and right now it's not possible to switch loads between the phases. As new appliances are added and old ones are removed, the system goes out of balance and the total amount of energy we can use is limited by the most loaded wire (phase).

That means that even as we try to do better for the planet by choosing an electric car over a gas guzzler, we’re limited by what’s flowing in the wires in our homes, businesses, and parking lots where we need to charge.

But as most of us aren’t electricians or electrical engineering PhDs, you don’t know how electrical systems work, and — beyond the basics — you shouldn’t have to. If your new car [or any other home item] comes with a plug, you should be confident that once it’s plugged in it works.

With a glaring inefficiency in access to available power, we’re already seeing overtaxed systems limiting charging in places like Norway, where EV adoption rates are highest.

And that’s what we at VOOL are working on.

How we’re making the grid sustainable

We understood that if you find your electrical car isn’t charging, the solutions available were marginal improvements with the newest charger or a costly upgrade of your electrical system.

Yeah, they’re solutions, but they’re not smart.

We started working backward — how do we safely and efficiently access the electrical capacity we need?

If the goal is to be mindful of our impact on the environment, telling someone interested in buying an electric vehicle that they should spend thousands on upgrading their grid connection wasn’t going to work. Mass adoption certainly isn’t going to explode when the charger options offer nominal improvements in speed or reliability. Remember that part about the charger being only as good as the grid connection?

That’s where we’ve focused our innovation so far.

Building on top of the MultiPhaser

We’ve created the MultiPhaser, a new way to access all the power in the grid — without changing your current power setup. Our technology isn’t just going to change EV charging — it’s changing how we use electricity.

The MultiPhaser can make our breaker boxes effectively obsolete —because it balances the load continuously, equally, and without any additional thought or action on your part. No more tripped breakers or waking up to a partially charged car

That’s where we’re applying this tech first — EV charging.

It’s the original problem we wanted to solve and it’s where we know we can make the most impact quickly. The electric car market is growing but to become mainstream the support system around it needs to develop. We’re addressing the literal access point.

Our charger makes it more efficient to use your power connection.

The underlying MultiPhaser means that you could be charging several cars simultaneously without affecting other electrical connections. This level of electrical connection means that:

  • Apartment boards will now have a way to update facilities without costly upgrades
  • Commercial spaces like offices and retailers can offer EV charging with little effort

With our patented uninterrupted phase switching technology the grid is used as efficiently as possible with up to 6x more EVs charged simultaneously.

With more efficient access and applications, we’re creating software solutions that give you detailed information about not only your charger but also the grid access. By using our administration portal, you can save money because it doesn’t just make access more efficient, it knows when it’s cheaper too. With built-in charger communication, commercial users can have a simple solution that maximizes their profits. Heck, put it on the light pole by your driveway and you can make an income as well — without overburdening your household electricity needs.

We set out to make a better EV charger. We built a smarter charging system based on a new way to access the power grid.

We’ll keep building to fulfill our mission to make energy accessible, equitable, and sustainable. Check out the smartest charging option on the EV market.

About us

VOOL is the first complete EV charging solution making reliable, smart, and cost-efficient charging available for everyone. Affordable and hassle-free EV charging fastens the energy transition. VOOL means hardware and software made inhouse, flexible charging options for private users and businesses. You can save money with smart charging and earn money opening your chargers to other EV owners.

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EU funding
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 190136402. This publication reflects only the author’s views and the European Union is not liable for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.