Testing integrated electric vehicle charging and domestic heating strategies for future UK housing

A building simulation tool and customised electric vehicle (EV) charging algorithm was used to investigate the impact of electrified home heating coupled with EV charging on the electrical demand characteristics of a future, net-zero-energy UK dwelling. A range of strategies by which EV charging and electrified heating could be controlled in order to minimise household peak demands were tested including off-peak load shifting, fast and slow vehicle charging, demand limited charging and heating, and bi-directional battery operation. The simulation results indicate that in all cases, electrical energy use was more than doubled compared to a base case with no EV or electric heating. The peak demand also increased substantially. The most effective strategy to limit peak demand, whilst also minimising the impact on end user comfort and EV availability, was to control the heat pump operation and vehicle charging using a demand limit, this restricted the rise in absolute peak demand to 46% above that of the base case. Off-peak load shifting proved ineffective at reducing absolute peak demands and resulted in increased discomfort in the house. Peak limiting of EV charging proved a more useful load management mechanism than allowing the vehicle battery to discharge.