Thread: Charging an EV from rooftop solar

So why can't we just charge an EV directly from solar panels mounted on the vehicle? Because too many panels would be required to be practical. But it could still work if you went camping and left the vehicle parked for a few days.

The number of solar panels required to power an electric car

Utopia here we come.
what if it is cloudy for a week?
pensioners do not drive during the day? Tell my wife that.

And how do pensioners actually buy an EV at 50k and for that matter solar panels.
Also AFAIK controlled load in NSW is tightly reserved for storage hot water.
It would be an advance to allow use for say battery charging but I reckon that pigs might fly first.

that whole article is just speculative BS written by a true religious convert.

regards Philip A

Solar radiation doesn't stop on cloudy days, it just reduces, so charging takes longer.
There are people already charging their EVs off their solar houses, so it can be done.
If charging in the daytime and you have batteries it's all good. I have also read of people altering their solar setups so the solar directly charges the vehicle during the day.
If at night you need batteries.

BTW on the subject of controlled load, the contract that I recently signed increased the tariff by 30%.
I was recently talking to a coal and gas turbine consultant who advised that this is because there is not as much excess coal supplied power now available.
He also told me that the new inter connector between NSW and SA will be paid by all taxpayers,so once again we pay more for the SA stupidity.
on the bright side he is currently working with several investors planning HELE station and Gas stations.
I don't know about you but my panels only give about 5-10% output on cloudy days.
regards Philip A

Heres a clue . My EV Landy has a 3.3Kw onboard charger,

I have a 5Kw rooftop system, (on the shed not the Landy) given losses etc it puts out 3.5kw on a good day .

Guesstimation It does about 80km per charge & takes 8 hours to charge. So 10km per hour charge rate on a good day .

If I crammed 330W of panel onto the roof of my Landy , in a perfect world with no inverter losses, it would take 80hours to charge - ( 10 days of good sunlight ) , I'd be driving really carefully in Eco mode to stretch that charge out to 150km and thats not practical.




.... but There is a couple touring the world in a motorhome with a solar roof array .

Haven't seen his videos before , the bloke sounds Australian ?? The 'car' is the blue solar EV from the above post.

Mark French, of Marks 4x4 fame drove his Electric Suzuki across the Simpson on Solar alone.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Utopia here we come.
what if it is cloudy for a week?
pensioners do not drive during the day? Tell my wife that.

I'm amazed that pensioners cope at all with things that aren't perfect every day. Some weeks you charge off the grid?

Originally Posted by PhilipA

And how do pensioners actually buy an EV at 50k and for that matter solar panels.

Alas poor pensioners, they have so mismanaged their retirement funds that they have to subsist on bread and dripping so they can buy petrol for their decrepit Range Rovers... meanwhile self funded retirees take cruises every year and enjoy themselves to the hilt and also buy stuff that saves them money in the longer term.

Originally Posted by PhilipA

Also AFAIK controlled load in NSW is tightly reserved for storage hot water.
It would be an advance to allow use for say battery charging but I reckon that pigs might fly first.

Move your hot water to mop up excess day time solar and you would think that off peak could be repurposed and smoothed by staggering charge starts. I've looked at SA generation charts and every night 200MW of HWS hits the grid all at once at around 11pm, (about 15% of grid load). How stupid is that?

Originally Posted by PhilipA

that whole article is just speculative BS written by a true religious convert.

You should then report the post for breaking forum rules...