Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Charging with Anker Battery, Solar, Bonding Plug

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
W

Waiting…

Member
Sep 7, 2022
114
77
Chicago
#1
I feel like there should be posts about this but I’m having difficulty finding them.

I’d like to try to setup a cheap solution to try to partially solar charge. I’m not interested in spending $10,000+ but figured I could setup something with some solar panels for a few thousand. I can’t seem to find anything that goes directly from solar panels to the Tesla. Seems like you have to go through a battery first.

I was looking for a possible solution like this:

www.anker.com

Anker SOLIX F2000 Solar Generator (Solar Generator 767 with 2× 200W Solar Panel)

Skip the sales tax, Florida residents! Portable power stations and portable power stations with solar panels under $3,000 are exempt through September 8, 2023.
www.anker.com

I just feel uncomfortable that it’s not grounded and you have to use a bonding plug. Thoughts?

 
#3
Make sure you do the math before shelling out almost $3k for that solution. That's 400 watts of solar output with full sun, and the battery built in will store a maximum of 2kwh. So assuming everything goes perfectly you'll get an average of 1.25mi/hr. It will probably barely charge via sun alone since there's something like a 250w overhead in keeping the car awake. This means that you'll need to charge the battery for 5 hours, plug in your Tesla to charge at 12A for 45 minutes(adding maybe 4 miles), then repeat. This means your twelve hour sun day MIGHT get you 12 miles.

And this is assuming the inverter provides a good enough waveform that the Tesla won't refuse to charge with it.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
  • Helpful
Reactions: lowercase, Rocky_H, Regaj and 4 others
#4
Sophias_dad said:
Make sure you do the math before shelling out almost $3k for that solution. That's 400 watts of solar output with full sun, and the battery built in will store a maximum of 2kwh. So assuming everything goes perfectly you'll get an average of 1.25mi/hr. It will probably barely charge via sun alone since there's something like a 250w overhead in keeping the car awake. This means that you'll need to charge the battery for 5 hours, plug in your Tesla to charge at 12A for 45 minutes(adding maybe 4 miles), then repeat. This means your twelve hour sun day MIGHT get you 12 miles.

And this is assuming the inverter provides a good enough waveform that the Tesla won't refuse to charge with it.
Click to expand...
Sonata Hybrid had a solar roof option and it added about 3-4 miles per day under optimal conditions. So the math checks out.

Tesla makes solar roofs so if it actually adds any noticable range then it would've been an option on the cars.
 
#5
Sophias_dad said:
Make sure you do the math before shelling out almost $3k for that solution. That's 400 watts of solar output with full sun, and the battery built in will store a maximum of 2kwh. So assuming everything goes perfectly you'll get an average of 1.25mi/hr. It will probably barely charge via sun alone since there's something like a 250w overhead in keeping the car awake. This means that you'll need to charge the battery for 5 hours, plug in your Tesla to charge at 12A for 45 minutes(adding maybe 4 miles), then repeat. This means your twelve hour sun day MIGHT get you 12 miles.

And this is assuming the inverter provides a good enough waveform that the Tesla won't refuse to charge with it.
Click to expand...

OP, this is why you dont find much information on trying to take solar directly to the car.
 
#6
Ideally I was thinking I could hopefully get one full Anker battery a day. 2 kWh / 50 kWh is about 4% of the battery or 28% charge for the week. Not a lot but better than nothing.

Unfortunate that it seems like there isn’t a cheap/good solution, since I’d love to charge the car on “green” energy
 
#7
Waiting… said:
Ideally I was thinking I could hopefully get one full Anker battery a day. 2 kWh / 50 kWh is about 4% of the battery or 28% charge for the week. Not a lot but better than nothing.

Unfortunate that it seems like there isn’t a cheap/good solution, since I’d love to charge the car on “green” energy
Click to expand...
Close to 0.3kwh of that 2kwh will be wasted keeping the car awake, and probably another 10% will be wasted in the transition to/from AC to feed the car. That's 1.5kwh(3%) per day, or 21% for the week if its sunny enough.

I mean sure, if you are living off-grid somewhere that might make a little sense. But that same $3000 will buy you approximately 12,000kwh of power out of a random supercharger. I'm not convinced that the monster battery in the solar system will last that long (its guaranteed 10 years, which is 3650 days, or 7300kwh power delivered) even if you were to get two full cycles in per day and every day were sunny, you'd just BARELY be getting the solar power for less than the supercharger costs.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: AlanSubie4Life, RoBoRaT, Rocky_H and 1 other person
#8
Waiting… said:
I feel like there should be posts about this but I’m having difficulty finding them.

I’d like to try to setup a cheap solution to try to partially solar charge. I’m not interested in spending $10,000+ but figured I could setup something with some solar panels for a few thousand. I can’t seem to find anything that goes directly from solar panels to the Tesla. Seems like you have to go through a battery first.

I was looking for a possible solution like this:

www.anker.com

Anker SOLIX F2000 Solar Generator (Solar Generator 767 with 2× 200W Solar Panel)

Skip the sales tax, Florida residents! Portable power stations and portable power stations with solar panels under $3,000 are exempt through September 8, 2023.
www.anker.com

I just feel uncomfortable that it’s not grounded and you have to use a bonding plug. Thoughts?

Click to expand...


Tesla needs a pure sige wave. You would need a Solar Generator - solar input, inverter, battery & and pure sine ups circuits.

Ans you’ll need enough solar panels get enough power (6 x 400w depending on needs) with a battery big enough to keep power stable as the solar power panel moves.

You could also piece mill each piece as well. Likely be more expensive. More complicated. Etc.

You’re looking at a minimum of $3000 if you buy say a 2000W 20A pure sign generator and 2000w worth of used panels. New panels will take the package well above the $3000 package price though.

I’ve spent the last year looking at the options, determining minimum requirements, various price points, battery life span, warranty. Etc.
 
Last edited:
#10
I doubt this would work at all. I have the smaller version of this (the 555) and it doesn’t have any ground at all. The ground pin socket is just molded plastic — there’s no connection for any device I plug in.

So you wouldn’t have a ground and if recall, the Tesla mobile connector throws a bit of a hissyfit about that.

So even if you solve the other issues, don’t think it’ll work out.
 
  • Helpful
Reactions: Rocky_H
#11
You can make it work technically. But you need some specialty wiring. There are YouTube videos of people wanting to do the same thing, if not just to prove it possible.

Either way it’s possible, but not practically as others have mentioned.

No enough solar input, not enough battery, you need more panels thank it will support, no grounding, and without looking it up most of these smaller units don’t have proper or any pure sine wave capability.
 
#12
rangeanxietykit.com

Range Anxiety Kit

*All of our kits come with a 2-Year Warranty* 12-Mile Kit / 20-Mile Kit 【🔋Battery Type】LiFePO4 【🔋Capacity】3.6kWh / 5kWh 【🔋Output】3.6kW / 5kW 【🔋EV Range】11-14 Miles / 18-24 Miles 【🔋Solar Input Max Watt】1500W / 6000W INCLUDES RAK Power Station RAK 20- (20 ft Charging Cord) RAK JT-Adapter (J1772 to...
rangeanxietykit.com

I got an ad for this today. Has anyone used?
 
#13
Waiting… said:
rangeanxietykit.com

Range Anxiety Kit

*All of our kits come with a 2-Year Warranty* 12-Mile Kit / 20-Mile Kit 【🔋Battery Type】LiFePO4 【🔋Capacity】3.6kWh / 5kWh 【🔋Output】3.6kW / 5kW 【🔋EV Range】11-14 Miles / 18-24 Miles 【🔋Solar Input Max Watt】1500W / 6000W INCLUDES RAK Power Station RAK 20- (20 ft Charging Cord) RAK JT-Adapter (J1772 to...
rangeanxietykit.com

I got an ad for this today. Has anyone used?
Click to expand...

$2300 to carry around a battery that can provide 7 miles range, or basically hopefully enough to get to a charging station? A person can buy a lot of tow truck trips with $2300 (and thats the cheapest one according to the link you submitted).

I would be surprised if anyone that managed to find this website actually bought something like that, but /shrug...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rocky_H
#14
I think OP was looking for a way to charge his car with solar on the cheap at home.

They offer various units but only up to 20 miles of storage. But the optional solar panels can charge the car and battery.

The pricing and performance on this product is sub par compared to what you can get from EcoFlow or Bluetti. They’re also using VERY low performance solar panels so you have to use a LOT of them. The company also doesn’t have the proven reliability or track record of the aforementioned companies.

And as previously discussed the cost of the equipment is equal or higher than just buying the power for the electric company.

There is also the fact that the batteries have a cycle limit, as due solar panels to a limited extent. Any potential resale value is very limited if one was factoring that in to the cost.

The best choice of someone insists on doing this is to get at least 1200-1500W of solar panels, a solar controller capable of handling the solar input AND ALSO has UPS or Pure Sine functionality and the smallest battery possibly just to keep the power outlet level and stable and to keep the price as low as possible.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: jjrandorin
#15
jjrandorin said:
$2300 to carry around a battery that can provide 7 miles range, or basically hopefully enough to get to a charging station? A person can buy a lot of tow truck trips with $2300 (and thats the cheapest one according to the link you submitted).

I would be surprised if anyone that managed to find this website actually bought something like that, but /shrug...
Click to expand...
Or more than a decade of AAA Premier subscription. And you don't have to worry about your expensive solar gear and backup battery being stolen out of your trunk/frunk.
 
#17
Waiting… said:
I feel like there should be posts about this but I’m having difficulty finding them.

I’d like to try to setup a cheap solution to try to partially solar charge. I’m not interested in spending $10,000+ but figured I could setup something with some solar panels for a few thousand. I can’t seem to find anything that goes directly from solar panels to the Tesla. Seems like you have to go through a battery first.

I was looking for a possible solution like this:

www.anker.com

Anker SOLIX F2000 Solar Generator (Solar Generator 767 with 2× 200W Solar Panel)

Skip the sales tax, Florida residents! Portable power stations and portable power stations with solar panels under $3,000 are exempt through September 8, 2023.
www.anker.com

I just feel uncomfortable that it’s not grounded and you have to use a bonding plug. Thoughts?

Click to expand...
Given the awakes overhead, current Tesla vehicles are just not designed to make trickle charging with this systems small battery practical; likewise, having the car awake for long periods of time while trickle charging has to add to wear and tear on vehicle components. If the battery of this system was larger, you could trickle charge its battery then wake the Tesla and charge at a faster rate then rinse and repeat. Doing this would add to the cycle life of the internal battery in this system. Vehicles designed for solar trickle charging, like the upcoming Aptera, must have very little power overhead while solar charging. Maybe the upcoming Cybertruck, with an optional solar roof, will have much less overhead while solar trickle charging?
 
#18
rrolsbe said:
Given the awakes overhead, current Tesla vehicles are just not designed to make trickle charging with this systems small battery practical; likewise, having the car awake for long periods of time while trickle charging has to add to wear and tear on vehicle components. If the battery of this system was larger, you could trickle charge its battery then wake the Tesla and charge at a faster rate then rinse and repeat. Doing this would add to the cycle life of the internal battery in this system. Vehicles designed for solar trickle charging, like the upcoming Aptera, must have very little power overhead while solar charging. Maybe the upcoming Cybertruck, with an optional solar roof, will have much less overhead while solar trickle charging?
Click to expand...
I still think the law of diminishing returns comes in to play. I have seen new optics that overlay on panels and have a significant impact on the solar panel efficiency. If this could somehow get incorporated, you may find a better return. However -the space within the vehicle required to get enough surface area exposed for solar panels is still a limiting factor. Maybe simply to service the vehicle's idle power consumption this could be an option. Combating phantom drain and preventing the 12v battery from going dead.

Overall better served to put an array up and shuffle that energy in to charging at home. Or in tesla's model, build huge solar farms, feed the grid with this power and offer Low cost charging to consumers based on where they live (in proximity to the solar farm), and hour of day.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Back
Blog
New
Forum list
Marketplace
Menu