Solar charging/topping up

[Norton850]

Here in Tenerife we get plenty of sunshine so as i have been contemplating a new EV (MG4 X power,Tesla,I Pace) it makes sense to harness this energy.
I am organising a 7kw home charger but wonder what if any solar products are worth considering..

Car will not do many miles (5k per year) as i have a couple of ice vehicles too..

Any advice welcomed...

[paradigital]

Solar PV array makes sense here in the UK with mainly overcast daylight, I’m sure in Tenerife you would see a return on investment quicker than I will (calculated out at 6.5years based on the last year’s use).

Of course this will depend on your available tariff (can you get a cheap night rate?) and cost involved in the installation to begin with.

I’d also suggest a storage battery, rather than throwing all of your surplus into the grid. We tend to only use off-peak power due to the PV and battery, which has on average quartered our monthly bill.

We top-up either our PHEV or the Model 3 from the sun, not both simultaneously.

[Norton850]

paradigital said:

Solar PV array makes sense here in the UK with mainly overcast daylight, I’m sure in Tenerife you would see a return on investment quicker than I will (calculated out at 6.5years based on the last year’s use).

Of course this will depend on your available tariff (can you get a cheap night rate?) and cost involved in the installation to begin with.

I’d also suggest a storage battery, rather than throwing all of your surplus into the grid. We tend to only use off-peak power due to the PV and battery, which has on average quartered our monthly bill.

We top-up either our PHEV or the Model 3 from the sun, not both simultaneously.

Thanks i hadn't thought of going down that route but was thinking more of fitting some solar panels specifically for topping up the car,we have outbuildings that a few sizeable panels could be attached to but now you have me thinking....

[robbieduncan]

What are electricity contracts like out there? In the UK battery makes sense because import and export prices have such imbalance. If they were closer to parity it would make sense to just use the grid as storage

[Norton850]

https://coelca.es/175-energia-solar

Had a chat with these guys and they have everything i need to keep my new EV charged..

Edited by Norton850 on Saturday 12th August 16:31

[Mahalo]

Solar charging Evs is not without it's issues. You can use excess solar to charge up your BEV and there are Solar enabled chargers like Myenergi Zappi which support the diversion of excess solar to your BEV. Naturally excess solar can only occur when there is solar energy available which is during daylight hours and in particular during the period from say 10.30 to 15.30 here in the UK when you get most solar energy. This means your BEV needs to be plugged in at this time which tends to be when a lot of people use their cars.
A storage battery enables you to store the excess solar energy in the battery for drawdown later be that domestic house use or car charging. You need to workout what the typical output of your imtended solar installation will be, look at your daily consumption and then see how much is potentially spare.

[Norton850]

Mahalo said:

Solar charging Evs is not without it's issues. You can use excess solar to charge up your BEV and there are Solar enabled chargers like Myenergi Zappi which support the diversion of excess solar to your BEV. Naturally excess solar can only occur when there is solar energy available which is during daylight hours and in particular during the period from say 10.30 to 15.30 here in the UK when you get most solar energy. This means your BEV needs to be plugged in at this time which tends to be when a lot of people use their cars.
A storage battery enables you to store the excess solar energy in the battery for drawdown later be that domestic house use or car charging. You need to workout what the typical output of your imtended solar installation will be, look at your daily consumption and then see how much is potentially spare.

Thanks for that information.

Here in Tenerife we get plenty of sunshine and as i am retired the EV won't get too much use as we have other vehicles.

[Paul Drawmer]

I aim to use excess solar charging as much as I can.

I'm retired and the majority of the use is short local runs - to Banbury and back is about 12 miles. Sometimes the car doesn't get used for 3 or 4 days. It's better for me to walk into the village than to drive.

Basically, the car is always plugged in. On cloudy days, the car is on and off charge all day as the Zappi detects enough XS to activate charging. Our grandchildren are just over 70 miles away, and I like to make sure that there is always enough charge to get there if I have to in a hurry. Using the My BMW and Zappi aps, I can keep a note on what the state of charge is.

Otherwise I'll switch the zappi to boost, if I have need more miles the next day.

I've got used to seeing a low range, now being more aware of my actual usage, I'm less fixated on range.