You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Is there a cheap DIY way of doing it? I've only got a hybrid so the battery gets me to and from work, about 30 miles.
It just seems pretty simple to put a solar panel up and charge the car through it?
Has anyone done this and how cheap/easy is it?
A friend has, his garage has a flat roof and set away from the house on the south side a bit. Just covered the rood in 8ftx4ft panels on A-frames. MPPT, inverter, the appropriately named "death plug"* and a charger designed for the job so it can be configured to charge only when the suns out.
*definitely not the approved way of doing it, a 13A plug where the power is going out of the pins and into the wall. In principal it's safe as the inverter won't start without sensing the grid frequency. to match, but it's definitely not the right way to do things.
He's an electronics engineer though (not electrical, but some transferable knowledge), messing with things like mains, high voltage DC and batteries has the potential to get a bit fiery. If you have to ask etc.....
If your car is at work during the day, when the sun is shining on your solar panels, then you'll need a battery to store the energy so you can then charge your car when you're at home.
So, you need solar panels + inverter + battery (with BMS) - which won't be simple or cheap.
I work lates permanently so that could work in my favour.
I work lates permanently so that could work in my favour.
In which case, a lot cheaper as the battery is the expensive bit...
You need an inverter to generate 230v ac so you can plug your car into that to charge.
What kind of costs would it be to set up?
A standard solar set up costs around £1000 per KW. Roughly.
At 45p KWH, then a 2KW set up will save you 90p per hour when it's sunny.
What kind of costs would it be to set up?
£150 per 425 Watt solar panel ish.
£1500 ish for an inverter.
With the set up we've got, you need to be producing at least 1.3kwH for 30 seconds (from memory), before the wall charger kicks in. - I assume this is to stop the contacts constantly clicking in and out. If its a mixed day, you can be generating lots of power for 29 seconds before the next cloud comes over and none of gets to the car.
If its a mixed day, you can be generating lots of power for 29 seconds before the next cloud comes over
That's why we fitted batteries
Panels created lots of low grade 4-500w power over a whole day. Lots of which was wasted due to being exported at 4p /kw most of the things we wanted to use it for ere of the 2-3kw/h magnitude.
Our Zappi charger has a solar setting so that you can set the car to charge with any specified percentage of solar power. Given the cheap charging at night, it needs to be >75% solar to be cheaper than night-time.
So far in the winter have managed not much more than 20 miles of 90% solar charging per sunny day.
Hopefully will be much better in Summer. Would be amazing if I worked from home…but I don’t, so it’s just at weekends for now.
With the set up we’ve got, you need to be producing at least 1.3kwH for 30 seconds (from memory), before the wall charger kicks in. – I assume this is to stop the contacts constantly clicking in and out. If its a mixed day, you can be generating lots of power for 29 seconds before the next cloud comes over and none of gets to the car.
Yep, was wandering about that, but we don't have an electric car, so no idea....
Those of you with batteries, any recommended supplies. We have a decent solar array but only use 0.1 kw during the day and only get paid half of what we generate on the fit. We now have a electric mini and thinking a battery might help with bills and charging it. Need to do some math to out if it’s worth it but interested in suppliers people have used. (Midlands based)
The answer is ride to work - 30 miles return is an hour each way !
Those of you with batteries, any recommended supplies.
I would guess it needs to be compatible with your inverter?
We have the Huawei solar system and the inverter and BMS talk to each other. Not sure how easy it would be to have an inverter from Manuf A and a battery system from Manuf B.
Quite a few independent AC linked systems that don't care what your solar set up is - which is most likely how he will have to go if he has a fit paying solar install already there.
get solar and battery for the house and maybe some of it will get put into the car?
This will provide solar offset for all your usage.
We have a Solis inverter which works with quite a few different types of battery. We’re using LG Chem.
We now have a electric mini
Put the electricity in the battery in the Mini? You’ll lose at least 15% going via another battery, plus the fact that you’ll see off your house battery in less than 5 years if you drain it to empty every single day.
You might have more luck persuading your employer to install some free charging for you.