I just put Solar panels on my home. My power company says the system is to large for the home and wants us to remove 2 panels. I told them that I am getting a new Tesla Model 3 sr+ and the new would require more power. Does any one know the kWts drawnby the Mod 3 ? I need this based on driving 1000 miles a month using a Nema 14 50 hookup. My power company wants documentation. My research shows the my car will draw approx, an extra 280 kWh per month?? does that sound right?
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How much energy does a model 3 use on average every month?
- Thread starter PUDGYKINS8$
- Start date
rpiotro
Active Member
280 kWh per month is about right. You’ll probably use more in the winter and less in the summer. You’ll definitely want those two extra solar panels.
Some anecdotal data for you...
I put on 2500-3000 miles per month, and my KWh increase from last year to this year (as in no electric car to electric car) is about 800-100KWh per month.
My car lifetime Wh/M is 262 as reported on the screen in the car.
Reality is my car uses about 350Wh/mile, not the 262 it claims. Largely because preconditioning battery and cabin, charging inefficiency (I have a wall connector and charge on a 240V/40A circuit, so it is charging at 32A or about 9% of my battery per hour), and the roughly 400W per hour it burns while awake are all not reflected in the Wh/mile number the car spits out at you.
My electric use more than doubled when I got my Model 3. Again, I drive a lot, so I expected this. And I'm still saving $250 a month in "fuel" costs relative to driving the other vehicle.
SR+ is more efficient while driving than my LR, but the overhead is going to be very nearly the same. You should expect closer to 300 KWh increase in use per month when you get the car.
See the attached pic for what my electric consumption jumped by. Scaling miles and thus electricy use down to 33% would yield closer to 330KWh instead of the 280 the OP calculated...
I put on 2500-3000 miles per month, and my KWh increase from last year to this year (as in no electric car to electric car) is about 800-100KWh per month.
My car lifetime Wh/M is 262 as reported on the screen in the car.
Reality is my car uses about 350Wh/mile, not the 262 it claims. Largely because preconditioning battery and cabin, charging inefficiency (I have a wall connector and charge on a 240V/40A circuit, so it is charging at 32A or about 9% of my battery per hour), and the roughly 400W per hour it burns while awake are all not reflected in the Wh/mile number the car spits out at you.
My electric use more than doubled when I got my Model 3. Again, I drive a lot, so I expected this. And I'm still saving $250 a month in "fuel" costs relative to driving the other vehicle.
SR+ is more efficient while driving than my LR, but the overhead is going to be very nearly the same. You should expect closer to 300 KWh increase in use per month when you get the car.
See the attached pic for what my electric consumption jumped by. Scaling miles and thus electricy use down to 33% would yield closer to 330KWh instead of the 280 the OP calculated...
I am doing Solar on my house now, IMO you should only offset your normal home usage with solar and not try to offset your vehicle usesage also. What happens if you sale your Tesla? or what if you decide to sell the house and the new owners don't have an EV? If either of those happens you will not recover your funds you spent adding the solar.
280 kWh vs 300 kWh vs 330 kWh is kind of moot when the OP is trying to justify keeping two solar panels, which will generate less than a half that in a month’s time.
The bottom line is that the Model 3 will add more consumption than those two panels will ever produce, so it should be no problem to justify keeping them. If anything, power company should authorize adding even more if you have the roof space for it.
The bottom line is that the Model 3 will add more consumption than those two panels will ever produce, so it should be no problem to justify keeping them. If anything, power company should authorize adding even more if you have the roof space for it.
This depends entirely on what your goals are, and how expensive your electricity is.
In both of those cases, absolutely nothing "negative" happens. You just have more power you are generating than you can use. Its extremely difficult and expensive to "add later" so in general, its best to get as much you think you might need.
In this case its "2 extra panels" that are already installed that the utility appears to be trying to make them remove. They should absolutely be trying to keep those panels.
I live in CA, which has some of the most expensive electricity in the Nation, and is also prime for solar due to how much sun we get. Pre covid, I drove 18k miles a year. My wife, who is no longer working, has a 2019 BMW X3, whose lease expires in Jan of 2022 (3 months from now). Her X3 has 5800 miles on it (over a 3 year period!).... lol.
Since that car is leased, and 10k miles a year included in that payment, I originally planned on splitting driving her car and mine to work, to lower the miles on my car and use miles on hers. When I started driving my model 3 performance, however, I liked it so much I basically stopped driving her car unless I had to for some reason or other.
I was going to give it back to BMW at the end of its lease and get a model Y for her, but a couple things are stopping me from doing that.
One is, BMWs normally are not worth their residual at lease end, but due to the used car market right now and the limited miles on that car, it actually is worth more than its residual. Its also not "easy" to get a model Y, what with the still in existence waiting list etc. Her BMW is basically new, and the "savings over gas" is minimal for that car, simply because she really only drives around town.
With my existing solar, I am basically "net zero" on true up at the end of a 12 month period (which means I am using all of the electricity I generate, but dont really have surplus at the end of the year). I am also under a version of net metering that doesnt exist any longer, and adding any solar would drastically change how my billing works currently. My grandfathering into the old plans would be gone.
All that to say, buying a model Y would simply be more electricity use from the utility for me, since I am already using my solar. Given CA electricity rates, and the fact we dont drive that car much on a yearly basis, there is very little "savings" to switching her car to a model Y, and she likes her current BMW (but was "open" to a model Y if I thought it was that much better for us as a household).
All that to say, for each family, how much solar, etc etc, all "depends" on a number of actors....
(looking back at this, boy am I rambling... but I guess I will hit "post reply" anyway, lol.)
Good points, the point I am trying to make is that essentially it's a wasted investment as most likely there is no ROI for the additional panels. If they are already there and paid for then it makes sense, but I would expect most companies wouldn't charge for them if they aren't usable.
In CA there is no such thing as a "wasted investment" on solar, pretty much no matter how much you get, so, again, it depends on circumstances.
As someone not familiar with solar, can someone explain why the power company has any say or involvement in determining what you can install on your roof? Is this because they're subsidizing your investment cost? If you generate more than you use, does it run your meter in reverse?
To answer your question - I've averaged about 340w/mile in my P3D over the last year (yes, I know that's terrible but I don't drive to conserve charge). So if you're driving 1,000 miles per month that comes out to 340kw / month. But, I've read that the charger is only about 80% efficient so in reality you're going to draw/use 425kw extra per month.
To answer your question - I've averaged about 340w/mile in my P3D over the last year (yes, I know that's terrible but I don't drive to conserve charge). So if you're driving 1,000 miles per month that comes out to 340kw / month. But, I've read that the charger is only about 80% efficient so in reality you're going to draw/use 425kw extra per month.
jrweiss98020
Tessa's Tesla
Normal summer driving: about 4 mi/kWh, or 250 kWh per 1000 mi.
Winter driving: about 3 mi/kWh, or 330 kWh per 1000 mi.
Winter driving: about 3 mi/kWh, or 330 kWh per 1000 mi.
I just finished signing the contract for a solar install on my house. The system will produce 111% of my electric needs based on the last year's usage, and that would include 8 months of owning my SR+. It should cover the extra 4 months too. I'd have put more up but this max'ed out the best part of my roof for panels. The cost after rebates will be offset in about 4-5 years and the whole package just made a lot of sense.
At a high level, its because most solar installs are on properties that are still connected to the electric grid, and in most cases when you generate more energy than you can use, it goes back down the wires as you being a generation facility.
If you dont buy storage (batteries), you almost assuredly will generate more power than you use during the middle of the day, and having solar work out for most people depends on the ability to get credit for the extra power you generate and send to the utility during the day, so you can "buy it back" at night.
The utility doesnt want people setting up generation facilities and trying to "make money" from solar. In effect, they want you to use what you generate, on a yearly basis, or very close to it. Their infrastructure (transformers etc) usually cant support a ton of people feeding back power at once, either, so they might have to perform costly upgrades.
Thats it at a high level. the TL ; DR version is:
When you install solar, you are still connected to the utility grid and need to get credit for energy you dont use for it to all work. Generating significantly more than you use can cause the utility to need to make costly upgrades, and they dont want people to install much more solar than they historically use electricity.
Can you get a payment from the electric company if you put in more than you take out?
A small one, but not enough to make that a concern. When your peak electricity costs are greater than 50 cents a kWh though, its more important that you try to cover all your use (or as much as possible), since putting in more when you are putting it in is relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of trying to put in more later.
People also are not using "less" electricity year over year, they are using more... and when people put in solar, they ALWAYS use more. Their significant other will want the AC set colder, stop trying to conserve, etc because "we got solar, right?"
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