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I'm driving on sunshine (whooah)!

the_amazing_raisin

And don't it feel good 😁

For those of us with solar panels and EVs or PHEVs, I thought it would be interesting to try and track some data on how much free energy we're able to use in our cars

Might help others weigh of some of the merits of how solar and EVs complement each other, and there's always something we can learn from each other

I figure we should track things like kWhs from solar and from the grid, distance driven, how many "free" kilometres you got and how much money you saved

So to start things off, for the month of April I charged 118kWh from solar PV and 17kWh from the grid.

Didn't track mileage but I've been running around 19kWh/100km and that results in around 620km on solar

Money saved was €16.26 at €0.1378/kWh

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eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058294549/im-driving-on-sunshine-whooah

I cannot give you any figures, don't have them. Plugged one of our two EVs in many days last summer, but only got system in end of June. Finished car solar charging about end Sept or early October. Most was about 70kms, often 50kms or less.

Our system is modest, 4.1kWp with an Eddi and a 4kWh battery. But amount of grid electricity usage by day has been low since we got system, even during the winter. Even with 2 cars each doing about 18K/year we are still in credit of about €90 as of the last bill at start of April. Granted, like everyone we got the €600 Government giveaway. Almost all our car charging has been at home on a great night rate, rarely needing to fast charge except on odd England and Belfast trips.

veryangryman

Well thank you for sticking that tune in me head

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120537213#Comment_120537213

It's literally been in my head all afternoon 😂

If I must suffer, then other must share my suffering 😉

silver_sky

Past month of charging at home has been 32% from Solar. That works out at about 64kWh. My cars usable battery is about 57kWh so it's a bit more than a "full tank". Not bad going. Based on my night EV rate it's just over 8 euro saved.

Black_Knight

How are you tracking solar charging, Vs night rate charging? We've a 3.8kWp system, though split between East and South so peaks aren't massive for charging the car. Couple that with a 5kWh battery needing charging before the car gets anything, and what seems like an endless supply of washing, it can be hard to get more than a few kWh into the car on good days.

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120538827#Comment_120538827

If you go into charge log on the Zappi you can see the amount of kWh from the grid and from solar.

You might need a Harvi on the output of the inverter so it can see the solar generation output

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120538863#Comment_120538863

On the zappi itself, not the app I guess?

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120539058#Comment_120539058

Yeah you need to check it on the Zappi, unfortunately the app doesn't have that information

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120539172#Comment_120539172

App seems to do that a lot. I'll take a look later

NTC

I have 151kWh loaded into the cars this month (1 ev and 1 Phev).

No charge from the grid this month. Happy Days.

I am based in Galway. I wonder will location impact kWh's.

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120539393#Comment_120539393

Location I would think makes a huge difference. I live about 20kms from the coast as the crow flies in the South East. While we have better weather than a lot of the country, down at the coast you often have wall to wall sunshine all day when we don't. The fair weather cumulus clouds and unsettled cumulo nimbus clouds usually build up over land by day, so on the southern coast the sun being on the south of land is not obstructed by clouds.

I would guess if living on southern or South eastern coasts I could add a fair chunk to my production..

NTC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120539681#Comment_120539681

I think we need a spreadsheet :)

the_amazing_raisin

I'd say location has an impact to total generation, but for EV charging I would imagine daily habits have the biggest impact

For example if there's no car at home most days to plug in then it doesn't matter how much excess solar you get, there's nowhere to send it

Black_Knight

This year, only 8% of my charging has been from solar. Today could have been a good charging day, but we used almost 8kWh on laundry alone. Guaranteed tomorrow will be cloudy when we're home, and beaming sun if we go somewhere.

Water John

I think overall the south of the country would have about 10% more irradiation than the north, but I understand local variations.

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120538827#Comment_120538827

In my case I'm tracking it through the Tesla app. I've got a tariff setup with the EV night rate, regular night rate, but day rate is set as 0 (well 0.01). I'm just looking at the percentage of charging using the day rate which is solar as I wouldn't charge from the grid at 50c+. 😂

I could prob do some sort of calculation in homeassistant but not sure the point.

Mine is a 4.5kWp~ system with 5kWh battery, Eddi, and Zappi. I have a switch setup in homeassistant to flip the Solis inverter to grid feed-in priority which stops it charging the battery so it exports - which Eddi or Zappi can capture. It saves waiting til the battery gets to 100% before water is heated or car charged. I'd bring the battery to 70-80% and then set to export. Once the power drops back down later (below car charging) I can push back to charge the battery. It's manual for now but I could automate it.

eagerv

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543329#Comment_120543329

Great idea about the tracking..

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543329#Comment_120543329

Oooo, this sounds like something I want. I find it quite annoying having to wait for the battery to reach 100%, as it only charges at 1.1kW from 90%, and 500w from 99% which means plenty goes back to the grid while that's waiting to fill up fully.

Pretty sure I need a different wireless module though, right? From what I've seen the wireless module I have cannot be reached locally, and this solarman can't talk to it.

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543878#Comment_120543878

It's the DLS-W stick that I have. I had the newer S3 one but you can't do this. Have a look over at the automation thread on renewable energies.

The beauty in grid feedin priority is that the battery will still discharge, so if the solar drops down or you need some additional power it will work as normal.

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543933#Comment_120543933

Thanks! I'll have to see can I find one of those. Seems they're tough enough to come by. Can't see any for purchase to Ireland.

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120544557#Comment_120544557

It's an old model. Put a post up on the buy & sell thread over there or have a look for a used one.

graememk

Yeah I was able to swap my gen 3 with someone who had a gen 2, (the gen 3 has solis app control)

Mr Q

For me I am rarely home during the day so most of my charging has been on night rate in April.

I should be able to get a little extra in the evenings soon with the longer daylight hours.

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120543329#Comment_120543329

A bit of OT, but what are the operating principles of grid feed in priority? I have same setup (minus Eddi), and also haven't gotten around to integrating Solis (control) into HA, but keen to understand what the inverters decision tree is in Grid Feed...

TIA

silver_sky

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120550320#Comment_120550320

It's in the manual on page 38-39. See here - https://www.ginlong.com/uploads/file/Solis_Manual_RHI(3-6)K_5G_ENX_V1,5.pdf

Load - Grid - Battery

vs Self-Use which is

Load - Battery - Grid

slave1

Just punched in some numbers, taking 8% losses car AC side of things, I've got 2,576kms to end of April from PV, aiming for 12,000kms for the year

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120555583#Comment_120555583

That's amazing, you've two EVs right? Are you powering both from solar?

It's a bit of a struggle for me to charge the Leaf off solar since it uses the dumb charger and is a bit more manual.

Still, managed to get 6kWh into it a few days ago by just starting the charge when the solar was over 3kW and the house battery picked up any momentary dips in sunlight

I ended up draining about 2kWh out of the house battery, but made it up quickly enough

I'm keeping ahead of my driving for now, but we'll see what the rest of the month brings

One interesting thing I've noticed is that charging from solar will affect my usage of the car. For example if I'm heading out for a coffee and the car is charging I'll just let it charge and walk down instead. Bit of an odd side benefit

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120555695#Comment_120555695

Car was charging from solar yesterday and I needed to nip to the shops quick over lunch. Hopped on the electric scooter instead. Barely use the car now sure.

Brutal day today though. Couldn't even keep the house going on today's solar

the_amazing_raisin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120555754#Comment_120555754

Likewise, luckily battery was still at 60% in the morning so it was able to keep pace with usage

Black_Knight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120555826#Comment_120555826

What!? How much battery storage do you have? We've 5kWh, but after a good day I'll wake up with ~30-40% battery at best. Our battery emptied (20%) at 4am last night