Hypothetical question - solar charging
Discussion
I have 6kW of panels (24), and a 20kW Lithium Iron Phosphate battery bank.
I run my house on it and have plenty of spare capacity to charge an EV; when I get one.
So yes, it can be done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4zOVhjSbY8
I run my house on it and have plenty of spare capacity to charge an EV; when I get one.
So yes, it can be done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4zOVhjSbY8
Lol you don’t need science to tell you that pv panels won’t charge at night!
Realistically domestic PV won’t give you enough energy to materially charge a car.
If you have a large PV array and / or don’t do many miles it’s possible but the maths are simple
1kW of PV will generate 900kWh per year
A typical EV battery holds 80kWh
Or does 3 miles per kWh
A typical U.K. roof will hold 4kW of PV so In a year could give you 10800 miles if you used it entirely in a car but in reality self consumption of PV is circa 40% without a battery or being able to charge when the sun shines
Realistically domestic PV won’t give you enough energy to materially charge a car.
If you have a large PV array and / or don’t do many miles it’s possible but the maths are simple
1kW of PV will generate 900kWh per year
A typical EV battery holds 80kWh
Or does 3 miles per kWh
A typical U.K. roof will hold 4kW of PV so In a year could give you 10800 miles if you used it entirely in a car but in reality self consumption of PV is circa 40% without a battery or being able to charge when the sun shines
Edited by GAVGOLF on Thursday 2nd December 20:57
Edited by GAVGOLF on Thursday 2nd December 20:58
Assuming you're talking about solar panels on your roof, not the car (as one person seemed to think) then you can but you're not going to be able to use it as a permanent solution or get the practicality you might think. Part of it is the number of panels and inverters you will need and partly down to when you have sun. At this point I should highlight I'm not basing my views on watching YouTube but in the fact I do have a solar panel and battery set up for my house, and being only ~10 months old it is using the latest generation of panels.
Now I have a standard size 1950s former council semi. My roof is actually angled ideally for solar power, though the central chimney between myself and my neighbour does impede the pick up of my morning power. I have 12 panels, that is as many as my roof will fit. Panels will vary between ~300 and 360 watt, though in a few years time they may get close to 400. Net result I have a maximum theoretical production capacity of 4.4kW. Except I do not as I have only one inverter, which is normal for a home set up unless you are doing it yourself, or have specified a second (my panels are on two runs so I could theoretically have a second inverter). Most consumer inverters limit you to 3.6kW of production through to your house/your battery/the national grid, the larger capability does not mean I lose out it just means I maintain a higher level of power generation at the start and end of the day.
So this means, if I'm not putting power in to a battery or putting anything in to the house then I could theoretically charge my Zoe50 at 3.6kW, half what my charger unit will do. For me that would be about 12-16 miles of range gained per hour depending on temperature and assuming I'm not either driving really slowly or blatting it. Except this would only be true if I'm getting the sun, so from about April to September I should be able to get a decent enough charge in to my car every day. However even towards the end of that I was getting the occasional day where I could generate no power and that has been getting more often as autumn went on and we entered winter. I actually produced 13kWh today, but that is roughly the same as I produced in total for the previous 4 days, I'm expecting more zero generation days as we heading in to December and January, and here is the real killer if you are just wanting to use solar power to charge a car. You can expect your car to be off the road for much of the winter due to a lack of charge,
Now if you are actually wanting to run solar alongside powering the house then during summer it is possible if your charging unit will allow reduced levels of charging or work with a solar setup, and for that reason I'm considering swapping my Chargemaster unit (theoretically smart but can never talk to the back end servers it needs to do to change configuration) for something like a Zappi when the 3 year warranty runs out so I can do precisely this, but I suspect economy wise for me it will be poor man maths.
Now I have a standard size 1950s former council semi. My roof is actually angled ideally for solar power, though the central chimney between myself and my neighbour does impede the pick up of my morning power. I have 12 panels, that is as many as my roof will fit. Panels will vary between ~300 and 360 watt, though in a few years time they may get close to 400. Net result I have a maximum theoretical production capacity of 4.4kW. Except I do not as I have only one inverter, which is normal for a home set up unless you are doing it yourself, or have specified a second (my panels are on two runs so I could theoretically have a second inverter). Most consumer inverters limit you to 3.6kW of production through to your house/your battery/the national grid, the larger capability does not mean I lose out it just means I maintain a higher level of power generation at the start and end of the day.
So this means, if I'm not putting power in to a battery or putting anything in to the house then I could theoretically charge my Zoe50 at 3.6kW, half what my charger unit will do. For me that would be about 12-16 miles of range gained per hour depending on temperature and assuming I'm not either driving really slowly or blatting it. Except this would only be true if I'm getting the sun, so from about April to September I should be able to get a decent enough charge in to my car every day. However even towards the end of that I was getting the occasional day where I could generate no power and that has been getting more often as autumn went on and we entered winter. I actually produced 13kWh today, but that is roughly the same as I produced in total for the previous 4 days, I'm expecting more zero generation days as we heading in to December and January, and here is the real killer if you are just wanting to use solar power to charge a car. You can expect your car to be off the road for much of the winter due to a lack of charge,
Now if you are actually wanting to run solar alongside powering the house then during summer it is possible if your charging unit will allow reduced levels of charging or work with a solar setup, and for that reason I'm considering swapping my Chargemaster unit (theoretically smart but can never talk to the back end servers it needs to do to change configuration) for something like a Zappi when the 3 year warranty runs out so I can do precisely this, but I suspect economy wise for me it will be poor man maths.
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