Solar Car Charging
Universe Solar EV Charging for Clean and Efficient Electric Cars
The future of transportation is electric. If you haven’t joined the electric car revolution, you’ll be likely to move to the new technology in the near future. Internal combustion engines and burning dirty fossil fuels have met their demise, and hybrid and electric cars now lead the way.
With one in three Australian households now using solar, it follows that the change to electric vehicles will increase the demand for solar panels. Whether you run a family ev or a fleet of business vehicles, with solar, you can fuel your cars at a fraction of what it costs to drive a petrol or diesel powered car.
Time to install a solar car charging system
The time has come to install a solar EV charger as an option with your home solar system installation. Today there is a range of reliable solar ev chargers from which you can choose. Most home chargers are compatible with electric cars, so choose the solar ev charger that meets your budget and vehicle needs.
All chargers are solar-compatible. Some include smart technology, allowing you to manage how much grid power you use. A smart solar inverter does this by monitoring excess solar energy, feeding PV excess into the solar car.
How many solar panels do you need for vehicle charging?
The answer to this question depends on how far you drive each day. The best time to charge your car is during the day when the sun is shining. Household usage is typically at its lowest during the day, so it is unlikely that your car will draw expensive grid energy. Still, most people use their cars to get to work and back, so daytime charging may be difficult.
An efficient ev uses about 6Kwh to travel 100km. If you do an average of 50 km a day, you’ll need an average 8Kwh per day to charge your ev. Typical panels produce between 400kWh and 500kWh.
Your car battery and inverter are not perfectly efficient, and you’ll typically lose about 10% of the charge. You must, therefore, plan for more solar capacity than your car needs. It is worth noting that charging cable length and size impact charge efficiency. The longer and bigger the cable, the less efficient the charge.
The benefits of solar EV charging
Solar EV charging has several advantages
- Sleek and discreet – an ev charging system requires little space
- Durable – whether indoor or outdoor, the system is weather resistant and built to last
- Energy efficient – solar is the cheapest way to fuel a car and save money and the environment.
- Higher self-consumption – the more solar energy you use the more you save rather than feeding excess onto the grid at reduced prices, use it yourself and save money
How easy is it to charge an ev using solar charging?
The last to this depends on several factors
- The size of your solar system – rooftop solar systems range in size between 5kW and 15kW
- Your travel habits – how far and how often do you travel
- Charger type – charge speeds run between 2kW and 22kW
- Car battery – ev battery sizes range from 24kWh to 100kWhs though most contain batteries of 65kWh, enough to power the car through 350km
How long does it take to charge an electric car
Your card determines the speed at which you can charge your car. It takes from five to seven hours to charge an ev battery from 20% to 80%. The charging time you need will depend on how empty the battery is and the installed solar system capacity. It also depends on the amount of sunlight on the day and the size of the household load. A smart ev charger can help you to use the maximum amount of solar and avoid high grid costs.
Unless you have loads of time to spare, you’ll need a level 2 EV charger, which can add between 45 and 65km an hour into your EV battery storage.
Solar EV charger Considerations
Location
Most homeowners mount the electric chargers on an outside wall. The charger is connected to the fuse board, so they are commonly mounted on the building wall rather than on a remote wall requiring extra electrical wiring. A car solar charger takes little space and is contained in a box of about 30cm x 45cm. Expect cables of between five and seven meters.
Smart EV charger
Smart ev chargers allow you to manage your solar charging schedule to optimize your solar electricity usage and keep the costs low. You can maximise solar use and schedule ev charging for times when electricity charges are lowest. They can also monitor your solar generation and divert it to the car rather than the grid.
Tethered or untethered
A tethered solar charger has its own cable. If you choose untethered, you opt to use the cable provided with the ev. This can be a nuisance, adding to the time it takes to set up the charge.
Is charging EVs with solar energy worth it?
Without a doubt, vehicle charging using solar energy is the cheapest and cleanest source of energy. Instantly reduce your carbon footprint by using a renewable resource.
Let’s discuss your solar car needs
Start your gold coast solar power solutions move to clean energy today. Call us at Universe Solar. We’ll help you plan your solar power installation along with a charging station designed for your electric vehicle. We offer services at a competitive price.
We sell only the best solar products and hold all the warranties, so you don’t have to worry about the durability of the products you buy from us. Most solar panels carry a 25-year warranty, so you can rest confident that you will receive an excellent return on your investment.