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Electric Car Charging at Home

Electric Vehicles require regular charging just like any gas-powered car needs to stop at the Servo every so often. Picture your phone, it needs to be charged to work, this is the same with Electric Cars.

 

Can you charge an electric vehicle with solar?

In a word, yes! Your solar inverter will ensure your home always uses your own solar power that your energy system generates first, only accessing additional energy from the grid when your own supply is not enough.

Instead of exporting any solar electricity that you don’t use to the grid for a small feed-in tariff, you can instead use the electricity to charge your EV. This is like how excess electricity is stored in a battery, except that you will use it to power your car instead of your home.

Conveniently with an at home charger there is no need to leave the house to completely charge your EV overnight, which takes away the stress of having to find a power station.

If you are like many Australians who do most of their driving during the day or will have their car at work during the day and plan on plugging in your EV to charge in the evening, your solar power system may not do much in the way of helping charge your EV. Potentially this is where a battery might be an option to have installed with your solar.

If you have a battery installed with your solar panel system this can store your power for when you’re ready to charge your EV at any time and in some cases, dependant on size of your system, can become credits on your electricity bill. Standard pricing (as of March 2022) for charging $0.15-0.30 per kWh wall box chargers work out cheaper than current petrol pricing.

Wall box chargers charge 3 times faster than standard electric sockets based off the number of phases. For Example:

Single phase power - 7.2 kW power

  • Around 40km range per hour of charging
  • For example, charge a Nissan Leaf in about 6 hours versus 20 hours on a standard power point

Three phase power - up to 22 kW power

  • Around 100km range per hour of charging
  • For example, charge a Tesla Model 3 in about 4.5 hours

EV’s can charge via Alternating Current (AC) or Direct Current (DC) – AC is initially what you get from your grid however generally, there are three ways to charge a plug-in EV.

Level One: Fast Charging
Fast Charging is done through a high-voltage DC charger at a public charging station. By supplying power directly to the battery, your EV can fully charge in just twenty to thirty minutes.

Level Two: Wall Charger
Wall chargers, commonly knowns simply as EV chargers, uses the AC power from your home's electricity supply provided either by your solar power system or from the grid. Your EV then converts this into DC power that is stored in the EV's batteries, ready for use. These types of EV chargers are commonly found in homes, restaurants, hotels, and shopping centres. Fully charging your EV with a wall charger will take around eight hours.

Level Three: Electric Socket
This way of charging can be the easiest or most convenient, where an EV’s mobile charge cable is simply plugged into a normal electrical socket or outlet, using the AC power from your home's electricity supply from your solar power system or from the grid to charge your EV. This is the slowest charging method and using a standard electrical socket to charge your EV will take approximately 14 hours to fully charge.

 

Driving your solar power further

Because your EV is like any other device in your home, maximising the savings your solar power system produces will depend on how smart and efficient you can be with your usage. By making smarter choices in how you use your energy, you can make the most of the carbon footprint reducing power of your EV.

Should you want to discuss EV charging systems and quotes, please contact us on 1300 182 678 for a no obligation free consultation.