How Solar Charges Your EV
A silly idea, a proven concept or somewhere in between? The story from Electric Car Faqs and video from Matt Ferrell reveal the power of the sun, what and how much to use!
First, the video Matt Ferrell:
And a few words from Electric Car Faqs:
Why Should You Charge EVs with Solar Panels?
Not only will you save money on car charging, but your entire home system will be powered by a solar panel, which will save you money in the long term.
Because the amount of solar panels required to charge your electric vehicle’s battery varies from battery to battery, you must first calculate the size of your EV battery and the panel’s efficiency.
The capacity of your battery will be measured in kWh (Kilowatt hours). Contacting your energy supplier will give you a better idea of how many panels you need to install.
Remember, the higher the quantity of kWh, the more energy it will need to fully charge your electric vehicle.
There are other options, too, so why a solar panel? What difference will that make?
Let’s discuss the other options first. One of them is to charge through your grid. The cost of your electric car fuel would be the amount you pay for your electric bill for every single kWh. That cost differs from area to area.
If you are paying 0.19$ (estimate) for every single kWh, then if you are utilizing 12-15 miles every single day, it would be around 2.85$ per day. As the electricity rate is always on the rise, it will add up to your electric bill, increasing the bill every year.
By using solar panels, you are taking part in making the globe clean and green because it’s not only your electric car that is being charged through the solar panel, but the entire system of your home will run through solar energy. It eliminates emissions of greenhouse gases, putting an end to the usage of fossil fuels like oil, gas, petrol.
How Many Solar Panels Do You Need to Charge Your Electric Car?
At this point, I am sure you have no doubts about whether you can charge your EV battery with solar panels. Now, let’s talk about how you can do it using a solar panel.
As we have already discussed above, to find the number of panels needed to charge your electric car, the first thing that you need to be sure of is the kWh of your EV battery.
To do so, you need to keep track of your car’s mileage on an annual basis. If you do not have a record of the mileage, you can estimate an average for that.
Here, we’ll consider the Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus RWD as an example to have more clarity. The battery capacity for this Tesla Model is 35-kWh for 146 miles, as an estimate. You can visit your car manufacturer’s website to get the details.
According to the above estimate, you need to produce around 35 kWh. If you do not have a solar panel system, you must calculate the number of panels to add to your system. But if you already have it, you need to check how much energy your panels can produce.
A typical 250 Watts panel can produce around 30-40 kWh power over a month. You need approximately 35-36 panels to power your Tesla Model if a single average panel generates about 1 kWh.
So if you drive approximately 15 miles a day, it will be 3.6 kWh of electricity. You can estimate the number of panels accordingly.
Whether you opt for an average or a top-notch quality panel depends entirely on you. But it’s a good practice if your estimate is according to low quality or average panel.
Once you are done with the calculation part, you need to look for the essentials required to charge your electric car through the panel.
A charging setup will include an array of panels on your roof and inverters to convert your DC (output of the panels) to AC and send it to the main distribution panel.
The next thing that you need is a charger for your electric car. If the model of your car is Tesla, you have two options, including 120V (Level 1 charger) or 240V (Level 2 charger).
In most cases, drivers look for a level 2 charge because it’s faster so, you can opt for the charger according to your need.