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groingo
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 00:19 - Edited by: groingo
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Looking into a dedicated solar ELECTRIC CAR battery charger but am hung up on how to charge via inverter directly from panels....micro inverters look to be the way to go but.....I wonder what I may be missing.
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creeky
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 02:00
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High speed chargers are dc. So i would want to know if i could run dc to the battery.
Failing that on the ac side. Check the acceptable input voltage range on the charger. Then amps. Then the car inverter. Cause at some point the ac gets converted to dc.
Why micro inverters? Did you get a deal? Those should send 240 out. Then it's just how many amps get the charger going I guess.
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Steve_S
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 06:44
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Are you talking about a "Trickle Charger / Maintainer" for your vehicle battery or something different ?
I have one of those 40w Coleman / Sunforce panels with the little PWM controller that comes with it and use that as a trickle charger for vehicle batteries... Use it on my lawn tractor as well and works a treat. I believe I bought it on sale for $129 a couple of years back.
http://sunforceproducts.com/products/40-watt-12-volt-crystalline-solar-panel/ Seems they can be had off e-bay for roughly the same price now.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 10:13
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I think he really means electric car as in the subject line,
a Leaf, Volt, Tesla, DIY.....
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groingo
Member
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 12:00
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Spot on Don....it was late, my cat was chewing on the power cord and I got distracted.....that's my story and I'm sticking to it!
And here is the varmint....Loki the cat....his look says it all!
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 14:32
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From dc to ac to dc- lot of waste so it seems
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groingo
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 14:59 - Edited by: groingo
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The thing is that I have option B.
A is that I spend a bunch of money to make my own power to get groceries to prove to myself I could and for all the right reasons....it makes me feel good and independant.
Option B says save a boatload of money and hook up to the grid with a corrupt thieving power company I loathe but in the end the money saved would be a LOT!
I can reconnect to the grid of the evil empire for $100.00 vs make my own juice would cost approaching $10,000 less the car.
This is my pardox....values or save a buck...tune in tomorrow same Bat Time Same Bat Channel for the exciting conclusion!
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 15:06
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But the energy is "free"; once the solar system is in place. Some friends in AZ have two Chevy Volts and live off grid. They do have a large battery bank. They also have good paying jobs. They have a 2012 and a 2014 (or '15?). They use their PV system to recharge. I am not sure of the details but it works very well for them. They use very little gasoline.
Another couple we know has an oversized roof top grid tie setup and a Tesla. That works well for them as daytime puts a lot of kWh in the grid "battery" and they pull it out overnight.
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groingo
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 15:12 - Edited by: groingo
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I am actually meeting with a rep tomorrow from the. ggah (power company) to look at possible grid tied option to offset the cost....this is like going off grid for me in that it took a long time to do it but once I did it has been great.
The thing is that the money is not the issue, my moral compass is weighing heavy to give big brother the bird!
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 16:38
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If that company is bad as you say, don't see how it can last forever. They'll get their butts kicked at some point.
Another way to look at it is that power companies don't like grid tie PV systems. Politically, they have to do it, but then you get the advantages of being on grid without being a regular rate payer, which is what they want. The whole issue of who pays for the grid is still being ironed out, but in many cases as it is now a person with a grid tie system basically gets access to the grid for free, if they make enough power to zero out the bill. So you would be sticking it to Big Brother, if that's what you want to do, by hooking up grid tie with enough kw to offset your use, using the grid as your battery.
If it's $100 to grid tie (sounds too cheap) and $10,000 to set up a PV stand alone, I'd tie to the grid and put in $5-8000 worth of PV. Best of both worlds.
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creeky
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 17:26
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I too know a fellow who's saving 7k a year with a grid tie setup. Heats and cools his house, wife drives the boys about in a solar charged phev.
Grid tie needs no battery. Inverters are cheap. Panels cost less than bottled water.
For fun tho. I'd go off grid with a lithium battery bank and a 240 inverter. Oh wait. I did do that.
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Atlincabin
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 18:41
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If you go grid-tie, beware of the power companies. As has been noted, they do not like any sort of alternative energy that does not help pay them. I live in NV and the solar industry just went belly-up here (in one of the best states for solar in the country) because the local power monopoly got their PUC puppets to allow them to buy the power I generate at a fraction of what they sell it back to me for. This happened almost overnight (the regulation change) after they had been begging for alternative energy sources to meet the state-mandated goals of percent renewables. Once they got more than enough renewables, they cut us little guys off at the knees. Rant over.
On the other hand, it is the right thing to do (renewables) and once I'm moved out of NV to a friendlier state (soon), I will install another solar system. They are much more reasonable cost if you DIY.
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MtnDon
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 19:40 - Edited by: MtnDon
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Regarding power companies being loath to have grid tie customers...
Many grid tied, solar PV equipped, customers don't understand that they should be paying their power company for the privilege of using the power company grid as a battery. Our POCO presently charges a $7 monthly connection, or meter, fee. $7 x 12 months = $84 annually. They are asking for an increase to $13 a month; $156 annual cost. Try and get a loan that will let you buy batteries at a similar cost. True, the grid is not a real stand alone battery, but for most users, like our neighborhood, have a very dependable grid and don't really need true battery reserve power.
The power we will be producing once connected will be recorded and we can draw on that credit anytime. If we go over that then we pay the POCO; kWh for kWh. I don't have a problem with that.
We're on the old style meter; are you on a smart meter system? I know the smart meters here have a higher monthly fee, but that is countered by a real cheap off peak rate.
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groingo
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# Posted: 5 Mar 2017 21:13 - Edited by: groingo
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Hooking back to the grid would cost me a hundred but grid tying can easily be upwards of $2000.00.
The meters they use have two way digital communication so they can turn you power off remotely and also alter usage reading remotely.
The downside here in Washington is you won't see any cash just a tradeoff reduction in your bill and that amount is limited and cannot be rolled over year to year so if you exceed power back to the utility before the year is up they get it from you for free.
Also, the power rate the power company pays you for your power is the wholesale rate not retail.
In other wards the game is rigged in their favor but you can work within that and feel comfortable you can make it work.
This is also what happens when the power company is owned by a foreign investment group and they hold a monopoly in the Pacific Northwest.
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Atlincabin
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# Posted: 6 Mar 2017 10:05
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I have no issues paying the hookup fee (currently $30/month) or a bit of differential in the cost of supplying vs. using power. But when they are wanting to pay me 2c/kWh and then charge me 10c/kWh it seems like highway robbery. Especially given the original agreement where I could "bank" my kWh and use them later. Also, NV is the only state (that I know of) where I cannot sell my renewable energy credits on the open market. The power company used to buy them locally, but has refused to do so the last few years, so I'm stuck with useless credits. Part of the economics (I know that's not the only reason to invest in alternative energy but...) of installing solar was being able to recoup some of the costs through selling the credits.
After several lawsuits were filed and the solar industry decimated, the power company "generously offered" to grandfather in those of us who installed solar early. Certainly only happened under the threat of the class action lawsuit by solar owners.
MtnDon - we are on a smart meter, but only smart in the sense that it is two-way so they can track inputs vs. outputs. To my knowledge there are no variable time-of-day rates in our area.
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groingo
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# Posted: 6 Mar 2017 12:07
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Have been reading how Arizona is penalizing solar to protect their dirty energy sector.
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