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Solar Charging an EV
- Thread starter Supercaliber64
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- Energy Environment Policy
Self-providing power may make people feel good about themselves, but in the bigger picture, it's simply not efficient with current technology. There are substantial benefits from the diversity of supply sources from being grid-interconnected. From a economy-wide perspective, solar panels deployed in New Hampshire would have a much bigger (positive) environmental impact if they had been installed in Arizona.
Of course, it's your money, so you get to take your choice!
Of course, it's your money, so you get to take your choice!
Had to reverse my plan but got the fuel source installed...
35,000 miles a year. Any of you owners with Good Energy will be buying my electrons :biggrin:
Thanks to Intelligent Energy South West for getting the job done quickly and smoothly in the current conditions.
35,000 miles a year. Any of you owners with Good Energy will be buying my electrons :biggrin:
Thanks to Intelligent Energy South West for getting the job done quickly and smoothly in the current conditions.
dhrivnak
Active Member
if you are rebuilding in a hurricane prone area I would strongly consider an ICF (insulated concrete forms) with an SIP (structural insulated panels ). They are good in winds up to 125mph. I have used these on my last home and they are very solid and insulate well. If you want to see some details feel free to see my website at Home Page.
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So I've been thinking about how to solar charge an EV that is away during the day. Seemingly some lead acid batteries and appropriate inverter/charger are the easiest cheapest way to do this, however I'd like to:
- Charge the battery during the day unless the EV is plugged in, in which case the solar power should charge the car and blend with grid power if necessary.
- If the battery bank is charged and the car is not drawing power, the PV should supply the grid.
- At night the car should draw power from the battery bank then switch to the grid if that gets depleted.
The closest device I've seen to this spec is this one from MPP Solar.
4000W 24v SOLAR pure sine wave dc to ac inverter 60A battery charger LCD heavy | eBay
MPP Solar Buying Solar should be this easy (the yellow one)
Does anyone have another example of this kind of set-up?
- Charge the battery during the day unless the EV is plugged in, in which case the solar power should charge the car and blend with grid power if necessary.
- If the battery bank is charged and the car is not drawing power, the PV should supply the grid.
- At night the car should draw power from the battery bank then switch to the grid if that gets depleted.
The closest device I've seen to this spec is this one from MPP Solar.
4000W 24v SOLAR pure sine wave dc to ac inverter 60A battery charger LCD heavy | eBay
MPP Solar Buying Solar should be this easy (the yellow one)
Does anyone have another example of this kind of set-up?
Why not leave out the battery and simply use the grid as both a sink for surplus power and a source for deficit power? Anything else is needlessly costly and wastes resources unnecessarily.
Because it's cheating...
PV is great for removing the daytime demand peak (it's about 55GW day, 30GW night in the UK), but it would be a shame if night charging EVs just moved the problem there. It's great to have a PV system contributing electrons to the grid during the day, but I don't want to have to fire up another coal or gas plant to charge cars at night when possible. I don't think that is truely solar charging your EV.
PV is great for removing the daytime demand peak (it's about 55GW day, 30GW night in the UK), but it would be a shame if night charging EVs just moved the problem there. It's great to have a PV system contributing electrons to the grid during the day, but I don't want to have to fire up another coal or gas plant to charge cars at night when possible. I don't think that is truely solar charging your EV.
Congrats on your PV system!
What's your installed peak-power?
I have been trying to charge the roadster by PV on sunny days this spring/summer, but it's not that easy if you want to send all the electrons directly to the car.
The problem starts with the fact that there are only maybe 20-30 days without clouds in a year. (at least here in the Netherlands)
Second, only around noon the power will be max, before and after that time, it will be lower. So you need a EVSE coupled to your inverter that can limit the current to the car. (i have not added that to my EVSE yet)
On my best day I could only harvest 38 kWh (i've got a 5400Wp PV system), in the winter it can be as low as 0 kWh (snow), today i got 1,4kWh.
Max power today was 1500W for maybe 10 minutes. That's too low to trickle charge the roadster.
Charging battery banks in the winter will not provide enough power, as the difference between summer and winter is around 6:1
The whole month of December yielded only 102 kWh so far.
If you want to see the yield of my PV system: Solarlink (this website comes directly from a development board, so please be gentle :smile: )
You can click on a month, then click on a day to see the data from that day.
What's your installed peak-power?
I have been trying to charge the roadster by PV on sunny days this spring/summer, but it's not that easy if you want to send all the electrons directly to the car.
The problem starts with the fact that there are only maybe 20-30 days without clouds in a year. (at least here in the Netherlands)
Second, only around noon the power will be max, before and after that time, it will be lower. So you need a EVSE coupled to your inverter that can limit the current to the car. (i have not added that to my EVSE yet)
On my best day I could only harvest 38 kWh (i've got a 5400Wp PV system), in the winter it can be as low as 0 kWh (snow), today i got 1,4kWh.
Max power today was 1500W for maybe 10 minutes. That's too low to trickle charge the roadster.
Charging battery banks in the winter will not provide enough power, as the difference between summer and winter is around 6:1
The whole month of December yielded only 102 kWh so far.
If you want to see the yield of my PV system: Solarlink (this website comes directly from a development board, so please be gentle :smile: )
You can click on a month, then click on a day to see the data from that day.
The system in the picture above is 9.1 kWp. We did 4.7 kWh today, 147 for the month so far. I think our worst day was boxing day which was 1.4 kWh.
The question about batteries etc relates to a different planned system though.
Your solarlink is interesting. What inverter is it connected to? I know SMA make a webbox that does similar, but it's pretty expensive.
The question about batteries etc relates to a different planned system though.
Your solarlink is interesting. What inverter is it connected to? I know SMA make a webbox that does similar, but it's pretty expensive.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
Yup, that's the dirty secret that many people don't really understand. Plus with a battery system you also have emergency backup power if the grid goes down, or your local line. I can imagine it would be rather frustrating to look at your solar panels when the grid is down with a grid tie only system.
Mitrovic
Member
You are right, but. here in Switzerland no coal or gas plants it is hydro power during night. Maybe instead of investing in batteries, you should invest in a windmill?
What panels did you use?
My system has Suntech 180
I'm thinking about buying some left overs of Solyndra
OK I found that this can be done exactly as I described with a Xantrex XW charger/inverter and XW Solar Charger Controller.
Why didn't I find this before? Because for some reason the XW range is sold by Schneider Electric...
Renewable Energies - Schneider Electric
Drive a Solar-Charged Electric Car, Save $263,000 On Fuel Over 50 Years?
It does seem to leave out the cost of a new set of panels (or additional ones to bolster the first set) at 25-30 years. Nevertheless the gap is still huge.
It does seem to leave out the cost of a new set of panels (or additional ones to bolster the first set) at 25-30 years. Nevertheless the gap is still huge.
JRP3
Hyperactive Member
It also makes the unreasonable assumption that you don't move in 50 years, or you take your panels with you. But as you say the gap is so large you'd still come out ahead even if you had to purchase the solar system a few times over.
PV4EV
Member
... and if you rework that for UK fuel prices, the difference is not just huge, its ridiculous and looks like a major error in my maths ... except it isn't, its real.
The use of a 50 yr extrapolation also makes this seem extreme because compound percentages over such along time distort everything, so even if you took the original 3.5% petrol inflation and applied that to a 50 yr chart you still get a total petrol cost of £ 406,000. And both BP and Shell state in their shareholders documents that oil will have run out by approx 2050-5052, even allowing for marginal processes like shale extraction.
Basically, powering and EV from PV is a long term financial no brainer. However ... 50 yrs from now what ever oil is left (if any) wont be worth extracting and governments will have adopted road taxation based on miles travelled / monitored, and there will have been radical changes to energy harvesting / storage / use / modes-of-transport etc etc ... so all this goes out the window ...
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