Replacing the Gas Station with the Sun

Thread Starter

Home To Auto

Joined Sep 17, 2022
11
Trying to go green with an Electric Vehicle and having trouble charging it with my solar power collector.

My home solar power has a 2060 watt capacity.

The car has 3 charge states:

Level 1- less than 2kw
Level 2- up to 7.4 kw
Level 3 – up to 50kw

I have 2 charging cables to feed the car:

1) 1 phase / 240V / max 40A / max 9.6kW / 60Hz
1 phase / 120V / max 10A / max 1.44kW / 60Hz

2) 1 Max = 10 A
120V / V AC
1.2 kW

Thoughts?
Thanks
 

Alec_t

Joined Sep 17, 2013
14,280
Does Cable 1 automatically detect the voltage (240 or 120) it's plugged into, or do you have to select the voltage?
What trouble are you experiencing?
 

ronsimpson

Joined Oct 7, 2019
2,985
The 2kw panels is what limits the charge time.
Most panels do not output as much as they say. There will be time when the panel can only do 1kw or 500w.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
I was referring to the two options available to him, which is what he was asking about.
If available options are the limitation, what fraction of a day will a 2060w panel achieve in excess of 2000W? From my view, Level 1 is really the only option.
 

Ian0

Joined Aug 7, 2020
9,667
Your expected power output depends on where in the world you live. In Britain, expect 1kWh per day for every 1kW of installed panels in the winter, and 4kWh in the summer.
Places with clear skies in the winter fare rather better.
 

bassbindevil

Joined Jan 23, 2014
824
So what is your home solar setup? 2k of panels and a grid-tie inverter? 2K of panels and a battery bank and inverter? 2k of panels and alligator battery clamps?
 
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BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,804
Solar panel ratings are hopelessly optimistic- ideal conditions, zero shading, brand new, etc.

If you need 2kW of real power, you need a 4kW system on a perfect day at high noon, at the equator.
That is nonsense. I have 7.6KW of installed panels, I live nowhere neat the equator. And on the the best days have produced nearly 50KWH.

The average, over all days in operation, about 6 months, is 33.8 KWH per day, which is over 4 hours at the rated output. This includes rainy days where it produced as little as 3 KWH.
 

drjohsmith

Joined Dec 13, 2021
852
Trying to go green with an Electric Vehicle and having trouble charging it with my solar power collector.

My home solar power has a 2060 watt capacity.

The car has 3 charge states:

Level 1- less than 2kw
Level 2- up to 7.4 kw
Level 3 – up to 50kw

I have 2 charging cables to feed the car:

1) 1 phase / 240V / max 40A / max 9.6kW / 60Hz
1 phase / 120V / max 10A / max 1.44kW / 60Hz

2) 1 Max = 10 A
120V / V AC
1.2 kW

Thoughts?
Thanks
What s your car / Charger ?

I use a zappy charger with my solar panels and ev cars
the Zappie regulates the amount of charge sent to the car, dependent upon the amount of surplus PV I have
or I can tell Zappi to charge car in other modes,

QED, the cars I know of take the charge they are given, the charger connection just tells the car how much to take over a sort of I2C interface.
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
That is nonsense. I have 7.6KW of installed panels, I live nowhere neat the equator. And on the the best days have produced nearly 50KWH.

The average, over all days in operation, about 6 months, is 33.8 KWH per day, which is over 4 hours at the rated output. This includes rainy days where it produced as little as 3 KWH.
I'm not getting your point at all from these numbers - you are mixing KWH and KW without giving any info about solar hours per day. But to get back in point, are you trying to say the OP should select a charge technology for his few minutes of peak power per day (2.00k to 2.06kW for Level 2) or that he should design for something under 2kW of solder output from a 2.06kW panel which would mean Level 1.
 

BobTPH

Joined Jun 5, 2013
8,804
My point is the the rating of solar is not over-optimistic, unless you expect that you will get more than the equivalent if 6.5 hours of rated output on a good day, or 4.4 hours on average, both of which are better than I expected from my research prior to getting this system installed.

On the best day I have seen so far, the panels produced the full rated power from 1:30 to 3:30 PM. I would not consider the rating of 7.6KW as overly optimistic, and only achievable at noon at the equator.


A2DB94FF-B95B-4AEE-82E1-FD2866EB6485.jpeg
 

panic mode

Joined Oct 10, 2011
2,715
peek performance during just 2h of the 24h period (or 12h if considering daytime only) and only on a best day in a year is a definition of over-optimistic. it means yes it can be reached... in very special cases.... and that is what makes the rating not realistic.
 

drjohsmith

Joined Dec 13, 2021
852
I'm not getting your point at all from these numbers - you are mixing KWH and KW without giving any info about solar hours per day. But to get back in point, are you trying to say the OP should select a charge technology for his few minutes of peak power per day (2.00k to 2.06kW for Level 2) or that he should design for something under 2kW of solder output from a 2.06kW panel which would mean Level 1.
Elec Cars are confusing to us engineers. To be honest pv panels suffer the same.
People say 2 kw , but you have to use the context to know if they mean kw or kWh. Let's ignore case here .
So charging , the statement is kw , but they mean the instantaneous power applied to the battery .
Battery capacity is also often quoted in kw, but you and I know it's kWh.
Confusing enough !
 

MrSalts

Joined Apr 2, 2020
2,767
Elec Cars are confusing to us engineers. To be honest pv panels suffer the same.
People say 2 kw , but you have to use the context to know if they mean kw or kWh. Let's ignore case here .
So charging , the statement is kw , but they mean the instantaneous power applied to the battery .
Battery capacity is also often quoted in kw, but you and I know it's kWh.
Confusing enough !
No, I'm pretty sure BobTPH was using the correct units - see post 15 where he clarified. 7.6KW peak rate on his graph and integrated area under the curve of 49.2kWH.
 

drjohsmith

Joined Dec 13, 2021
852
No, I'm pretty sure BobTPH was using the correct units - see post 15 where he clarified. 7.6KW peak rate on his graph and integrated area under the curve of 49.2kWH.
Sorry
Missed the graph on the phone screen,

To confuse even more,
solar panels are quoted in KWp

And they are variable output , not just on the solar energy, but also the temprature
we have 6Kw of panels, but mid summer they wont get much above 4.5 KW peak
but in spring / autumn, we can easily get 5 KW peak out of them
( in fact, they probably pump out more, but our invertor is 5kw limited )
 
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