How to charge an electric car on a small solar power system — without accidentally using Eskom

Daniel Puchert

Daniel Puchert

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Daniel Puchert said:
How to charge an electric car on a small solar power system — without accidentally using Eskom

I recently charged an electric vehicle (EV) using only energy from an entry-level solar power system and added about 30km of range in a day.

Based on the current prices of new EVs, it is fair to assume that most households aiming to use their solar to top up their cars' batteries will have invested in a sizeable system.
Click to expand...
@Daniel Puchert - The link on the article (https://mybroadband.co.za/news/ener...-system-without-accidentally-using-eskom.html) doesn't link here...
 
I've pretty much set my sights on a separate, off-grid, solar installation above the garage when I eventually get an EV. Solar panels are the cheap part these days. EVs have their own inverter and charge controllers built in. And no point using a secondary battery to charge a car, unless you really want to charge a bit at night. A 2kW system should be well affordable. Maybe R20k at a stretch. That'll be like 15 refuels worth of expense, considering that petrol will still get hella expensive this decade, and I don't refuel often. After that - Pasella.

If I ever really need to charge from the grid or the other system, then I just plug the charger in there.

Also... I wonder if you can use the export to grid function, and those grid export boxes thingies, to export excess power to your charging station, rather than the grid. You could then probably even have something similar from the secondary system to the grid for when your car's not charging.
 
The Trutherizer said:
I've pretty much set my sights on a separate, off-grid, solar installation above the garage when I eventually get an EV. Solar panels are the cheap part these days. EVs have their own inverter and charge controllers built in. And no point using a secondary battery to charge a car, unless you really want to charge a bit at night. A 2kW system should be well affordable. Maybe R20k at a stretch. That'll be like 15 refuels worth of expense, considering that petrol will still get hella expensive this decade, and I don't refuel often. After that - Pasella.

If I ever really need to charge from the grid or the other system, then I just plug the charger in there.

Also... I wonder if you can use the export to grid function, and those grid export boxes thingies, to export excess power to your charging station, rather than the grid. You could then probably even have something similar from the secondary system to the grid for when your car's not charging.
Click to expand...
How do you plug the solar panels into the car?
 
tianjin-china-a-self-made-solar-car-parks-in-xiqing-district-on-june-22-2016-in-tianjin-china.jpg
 
On a little EV Ora this would be perfect for running around and going to work essentially as a free ride.
 
I use one of these does it automagically from spare solar only.

EV Charging Station | Victron Energy

The EV Charging Station has three-phase and single-phase capabilities. It delivers a maximum of 22kW AC in three-phase or 7.3kW in single-phase mode.It has a built-in LCD touch screen for monitoring and control directly from the charging station. Initial setup, configuration and monitoring is...
www.victronenergy.com www.victronenergy.com
 
DavidP said:
I use one of these does it automagically from spare solar only.

EV Charging Station | Victron Energy

The EV Charging Station has three-phase and single-phase capabilities. It delivers a maximum of 22kW AC in three-phase or 7.3kW in single-phase mode.It has a built-in LCD touch screen for monitoring and control directly from the charging station. Initial setup, configuration and monitoring is...
www.victronenergy.com www.victronenergy.com
Click to expand...
I opt'ed for one of these... as it is open source... plus fully controllable over mqtt/http and from HomeAssistant.

Advanced Series - 32A Mennekes IEC Type 2 Single Phase Charging Station

Earth Day Sale - $100 Off2-3 Week Lead Time The most Advanced and fully featured charging station on the market...This Charging Station powered by OpenEVSE is powerful and packed with features at a price that gets you only the basics with the other guys. OpenEVSE experts have put together the...
store.openevse.com store.openevse.com

1715198290962.png
 
Pythonista said:
If you charge the EV during the day at home, when do you drive it to work ?
Click to expand...

Everything is still in the experimentation phase, no need to involve your rational here. Its all theory, thumb-sucking dreamland ideas. Dont rock the boat, someone might accuse of working for Eskom or a Putin nuclear power troll or something like that.
 
You would need to be bristling with panels to practically deal with the charging range of that 69kWh, plus daily overheads and charging house battery etc. Having 69kWh of storage for a house alone would be considered hugely extravagant for most people.
 
Problem is still that electric cars cost R800k to R1.1m. Free charge from the sun is great, but spending R600k extra on an ev doesn't justify the thousands of kilos you could have filled up with petrol. Fiy, i am more for ev than against it. We just need cheaper ev's thats the biggest problem
 
BYD dolphin now R550,000. A great car if you listen to reviews on YouTube. Plenty of family petrol cars are more expensive. With the crap in the middle east who knows what the price of petrol will be in a year or so.
 
Daniel Puchert said:
How to charge an electric car on a small solar power system — without accidentally using Eskom

I recently charged an electric vehicle (EV) using only energy from an entry-level solar power system and added about 30km of range in a day.

Based on the current prices of new EVs, it is fair to assume that most households aiming to use their solar to top up their cars' batteries will have invested in a sizeable system.
Click to expand...
Great article thanks. I've set my Wallbox at 20A so I can predominantly charge the EV from 10am till 3pm using only solar. All other household appliances including geysers are also on timers during the same time then from 3-5pm it's time for the batteries to be replenished to 100%
 
Tubbs said:
Great article thanks. I've set my Wallbox at 20A so I can predominantly charge the EV from 10am till 3pm using only solar. All other household appliances including geysers are also on timers during the same time then from 3-5pm it's time for the batteries to be replenished to 100%
Click to expand...
When do you use the EV?
 
The Trutherizer said:
I've pretty much set my sights on a separate, off-grid, solar installation above the garage when I eventually get an EV. Solar panels are the cheap part these days. EVs have their own inverter and charge controllers built in. And no point using a secondary battery to charge a car, unless you really want to charge a bit at night. A 2kW system should be well affordable. Maybe R20k at a stretch. That'll be like 15 refuels worth of expense, considering that petrol will still get hella expensive this decade, and I don't refuel often. After that - Pasella.

If I ever really need to charge from the grid or the other system, then I just plug the charger in there.

Also... I wonder if you can use the export to grid function, and those grid export boxes thingies, to export excess power to your charging station, rather than the grid. You could then probably even have something similar from the secondary system to the grid for when your car's not charging.
Click to expand...
Are you saying if EV's have their own inverters and charge controllers you can jack the output from the panels straight into the car's charging port? Without going through a traditional setup?
 
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