Elecric Vehicle Charging

Almost Nothing is as convenient as powering your car at home. 

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Imagine starting every day with a car with a full fuel tank.  No more having to stop to put gas in your car at what always seems like the most inconvenient time. When you charge your car using solar power you'll be 'Driving on Sunshine', using free solar power. We've been doing it since 2010.  You'll start every day with a 'full tank', and never have to touch a dirty fuel nozzle or stop at a gas station again.  Really, it's the coolest and most convenient thing ever. 

But how much solar will you need to drive you car purely on sunshine?  It is

simple math.  Most EVs get 4 miles per kWH.  If you know how many miles you

drive every day, the formula is easy: 

 

      Miles driven daily / 4kWH per mile / 5 equivalent peak sun hours per day

                                     = how much solar you need. 

 

The average commuter in the US drives 40 miles per day.  In this case, the

math is: 40 miles / 4 miles per kWH / 5 sun-hours = 2kW of solar.

There are many EV chargers that you can buy for your home, but in reality

they do nothing but deliver power to the car -  the actual charger is on your

car.  Those boxes you’ve seen do very little more than have electricity in them,

something a simple dryer plug can do. All you need to do is deliver power to your car, and the on-board charger does the rest. 

 

But an EV needs a LOT of power.  Plugging your car into a normal wall outlet will take a long time to charge.  There are three levels of charging power options available for your home, and charging times of course depend on how discharged your car is.   The different charger levels are:

                             Level 1 –    120volt (a normal wall outlet).  It will take 12 hours to charge 100 miles
                             Level 2a – 240volt / 16amp.  It takes about 4.5 hours to charge 100 miles.
                             Level 2b – 240volt / 32amp.  It takes about 3 hours to charge 100 miles.
                             Level 3 --   480DCvolt/60+ amp.  Charge your car in 20 min. (not really for home charging). 

The charging cable for your car usually comes with a plug for a normal 120v outlet.  But optionally you can request a cable with a 4 prong dryer plug, and that would then become a Level 2b charger when you plug into a 40+amp dryer plug.  We of course can install a plug for you while we are installing solar at your home. For more information on this topic, check out our home back up battery system page.

One item we do offer and is highly recommend when installing a solar system, is to upgrade to the SolarEdge Inverter/EV Charger.  You need an inverter to install solar, so why not have it do double duty?  A Solar EV Charging Station for Home powers your abode, charges your car, only needs one circuit instead of two, and looks very nice.  But it's best feature is something called ‘Solar Boost’, which actually delivers 1920 watts more power to your car than a Level 2b charger, possibly shortening your charging time significantly.  

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Call Planet Solar Today, and You'll be 'Driving on Sunshine'  in no time!