Charging electric cars with Solar
Many solar power systems installed in Australian homes create more electricity than their owners use. Solar system send the excess energy back to grid. At night, these same users must pay at least 26 cents to purchase this electricity back in the evening. This problem lead to many solar owners to search for approaches to expand the utilization and capacity of their solar energy, in some cases by purchasing either a home battery framework or an electric vehicle.
Lets examine the practicality of charging your EV with solar power from a solar panel.
EVs in Australia:
To start, we’ll immediately go through the normal sorts of Electric Vehicles predominately found all through Australia.
Hybrid Electric Vehicles or HEVs
Hybrid Electric Vehicles or HEVs have been on Australian roads since the early 2000s. These cars will often run on the battery alone at low speeds, but as soon as the car needs to go faster, the petrol or diesel engine kicks in. The Toyota Prius Hybrid is a popular example of this type of vehicle.
Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs)
Plug-in Hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) use batteries to power an electric motor, as well as another fuel, such as petrol or diesel. Popular examples of these kinds of vehicles are the Mitsubishi PHEV and the Hyundai Ioniq PHEV. For short trips, you can be 100% electric in a PHEV, but once your stored electricity runs out, you will switch over to the petrol engine.
Battery Electric Vehicles
BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) are 100 percent electric vehicles that run solely on electricity, with no need for gasoline or diesel. This means they emit no direct carbon dioxide while in operation. These vehicles must be charged from a separate source, such as an electric vehicle charger. The most well-known examples of this sort of vehicle is The Tesla Model 3 and the Nissan Leaf
How to change Ev’s battery?
All plug-in electric vehicles EVs sold in Australia use different types of charge points. Because plugs and connectors differ between vehicles, types can’t always be used interchangeably. There are three ways to charge an EV – two of which are not compatible with each other.
LEVEL 1: fast charging
A high-voltage DC charger at a public charging station is used for fast charging. Your EV can be fully charged in as little as twenty to thirty minutes by sending power directly to the battery.
In Western Australia, RAC has created an electric highway that uses Fast Charging technology.
LEVEL 2: wall charger
Converting AC to DC, wall chargers, often known as EV chargers, are often found in homes, restaurants, hotels, and shopping malls. It will take around eight hours to fully charge your electric vehicle. EV changers are available from Infinite Energy for residential, business, strata, and apartment buildings.
LEVEL 3: electric socket
This mode of charging is the simplest and most accessible, as it involves merely plugging an electric vehicle’s mobile charge cable into a standard electrical socket or outlet. This is also the slowest charging technique, taking nearly 14 hours to fully charge your EV.
It is cheaper to drive an electric vehicle or a petrol vehicle?
The average cost of electricity is around 26 cents per kWh, and it takes about 18kWh to power a basic electric vehicle for 100 kilometres. This means that travelling 100 kilometres with grid power will cost around $4.70 in electricity rates. If the average Australian fuel price in 2021 is $1.40 per litre, a trip of 10 kilometres will cost $14.84.
Your solar inverter will ensure that your home always uses the solar energy that your system provides first, only turning to the grid for extra electricity when your own supply is insufficient.You can charge your electric vehicle instead of exporting any solar electricity that you don’t utilise to the grid. This is similar to how spare electricity is saved in a battery, except that instead of powering your household appliances, you’ll utilise it to power your car.Your solar power system could easily half or fully charge your EV if you can charge it in the morning or during the day.
If you’re like many Australians who do most of their driving during the day or park their car at work during the day and expect to charge your EV in the evening, your solar power system might not be able to help you charge your EV.
If you can charge your car with solar power every day, you could save $440 per year. You can use just five units of solar power instead of grid-supplied power for the same amount of money a year. If you’re in Sydney, you can try charging your car before work or when you get home from work.
Driving your solar power further
Because your electric vehicle functions similarly to any other item in your home, maximising the savings generated by your solar power system will be contingent on how smart and efficient you can be with its use. You can maximise the carbon footprint-reducing power of your electric vehicle by making smarter energy choices.
