Before buying an electric vehicle, we face a wide range of doubts about feasibility, costs, quality, autonomyand above, about ease and comfort when recharging their batteries. It must be said that we can produce in our house the energy needed to use an electric vehiclegiven that if possible charge it using solar panelsAn option profitable and sustainable.
For this we will only need to have an installation of photovoltaic solar panels and generate in this way in our own house most of the electricity that our car will need to move.
This option represents an integer novelty and a revolutionbecause we will be able to produce with our own means and in a clean waythe energy or fuel our car needs to run, a great contribution to the environment. In this way, it breaks the chain of residues left by traditional electricity production, which is based on coal, oil, nuclear energy or natural gas, which are the most common methods of generating electricity.
Previous issues to consider
Before deciding whether we can charge our vehicle with a photovoltaic installation in an optimal way We have to consider two fundamental aspects which will affect the electricity bill: contracted power and energy consumption.
The most normal thing is that to charge a vehicle we need to increase the power contracted at home. But this level of increase will depend on the characteristics of the vehicle, the different charging speeds it has, the kilometers we are going to do daily and the rest of the energy consumption needs of the house. For these reasons, the contracted power is directly related to the time we have to charge and the kilometers we want to travel with the vehicle. The more kilometers of autonomy we need, charging in the shortest possible time, the more energy we will need, that is, we must have a higher contracted power.
Charging an electric vehicle with solar panels
Because of the boom that the electric vehicle market is experiencing becomes more and more necessary increasing total electricity production to meet this increased demand.
It must be taken into account that a large part of electric vehicles have different charging speeds ranging from 1.5 kWh to 7 kWh. This means that by charging the car at home for an hour, it will be possible to make trips from 12.5 kilometers to 35 kilometers, respectively. If we want to charge to travel 200 km (or 40 kWh) with our electric car, we will therefore need a few hours of charging. For example, if we have more than 4 kW contracted, we must have ten hours to charge 200 kilometers in the car at a rate of 4 kWh, and so on. Our electric car will be like a new appliance, i.e. with a new consumption added, so we will have to contract more power at home, at least 2.5 kW more…?
Coward photovoltaic solar panels generate electricity during sunny hours and this energy is added to the power contracted at home, but it is an energy which it is subject to the solar cycles of day and night and climatic conditions. For this reason, the contracted power cannot always be reduced by installing a self-consumption photovoltaic system, but it is certain that We will always save a considerable amount of electricity by generating power for our home car.
A photovoltaic solar installation serves to provide electricity for all electrical consumption in the home, whatever they may be. Having a photovoltaic installation solely and exclusively to charge an electric car and isolated from the rest of the consumption, does not make sense.
Accumulation systems for an electric vehicle
A question we usually ask ourselves if we have an electric car and a photovoltaic installation for self-consumption is if it makes sense to store energy in a battery system to be able to charge the car overnight. This assumption would consist of charge one battery to charge another battery in turn. This system is quite inefficient due to the transformation losses if we consider the isolation of the batteries from the house to the car and vice versa, although it is very interesting to achieve greater savings on the electricity bill.
Through an accumulation system with lithium batteries in the photovoltaic installation, we will be able to take advantage of the surplus energy produced by the solar panels and not waste the excess energy, using it in the hours without sunlight. However, it should be noted that currently the cost of storing energy in lithium batteries is high, and the battery may have been discharged before the vehicle was plugged in at night, as it is plugged in to cover any electrical consumption from home.
As a conclusion we can say that it produces the energy needed for our electric carin your own home and by your own means, through a photovoltaic installation, it is an extraordinary option from an economic and environmental point of view. In this way we will save electricity, taking care of the environment at the same time. Switching fossil fuels for cleanly produced solar energy is a real option within our reach.
