Transitioning from a Commodore to an EV

[Paul Smedley]

How many kilowatts of solar do you have? I’m getting 7.2kws of solar installed tomorrow with an 8.5kw inverter so a bit of headroom to upgrade.

I‘ll probably consider getting an EV at some point and hopefully I’ll already have sufficient solar installed to charge it without drawing grid power.

We have 5kW solar + a Powerwall2. Remember - charging from solar isn't really free - you're giving up FIT - in my case $0.10/kWh - so still damn cheap

 

[Drawnnite]

Not sure about SA, but there has been issues with other states with Solar causing network issues.
Basically to put onto the grid you have to push it in at a higher voltage, thus network volts in some areas have been going up (can't regulate it).
So by being able to utilise it yourself then it's possibly better in the long run as some stuff is coming or already installed to limit ability to feed the grid when certain scenarios occur.

Nothing against solar, just get to see alot of stuff in the background and know of a few areas (suburbs) where reverse power flow is quite common from solar.


Fair point on the regen braking reducing brake wear. I'd still be interested to see other maintenance schedules/recommendations on bearings/suspension and condition monitoring requirements.
Still very surprised that they say "maintenance free" when coming from a world of doing maint on elec stuff.

 

[Paul Smedley]

There *IS* a maintenance schedule - see https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_au/GUID-E95DAAD9-646E-4249-9930-B109ED7B1D91.html - what I probably should have said is that there is no set/annual servicing costs.

 

[StrayKiwi]

BYD is that the brand that keeps catching fire in China?

BYD must stand for Burn Your Dollars then

 

[Immortality]

China seems to have a real issue with fires but one has to wonder if it has anything to do with their charging infrastructure coupled with their climate?

If you look at the issues Boeing had with the 787 and battery fires in the early days it's all about thermal control and charge rates. I don't expect to see those problems here.

 

[Paul Smedley]

Just did my first charge. I installed an app 'ChargeHQ' which lets you configure your electricity plan and block charging during peak energy times.

Plugged the car in when we got home last night, but charging didn't start until off-peak energy started at 1am. Added 35kW of charge (over half a charge) for about $9. No chance of any excess solar this weekend given the weather forecast!

 

[Batca]

Just did my first charge. I installed an app 'ChargeHQ' which lets you configure your electricity plan and block charging during peak energy times.

Plugged the car in when we got home last night, but charging didn't start until off-peak energy started at 1am. Added 35kW of charge (over half a charge) for about $9. No chance of any excess solar this weekend given the weather forecast!

Not sure if you know this yet or answered this anywhere else mate. Do you know how much of the solar production is consumed by charging the car? So other appliances can be run etc at the same time and still not draw from the grid?

 

[Paul Smedley]

Not sure if you know this yet or answered this anywhere else mate. Do you know how much of the solar production is consumed by charging the car? So other appliances can be run etc at the same time and still not draw from the grid?

I haven't specifically answered that - but the answer is it depends

Depending on your setup, there are apps (like ChargeHQ) which can interface with (for example) a Powerwall 2 - and adjust the charging current of the car to only use excess solar. During sunnier seasons, I would put more effort into this, the weather forecase for this weekend is pretty shitty, so I just used off peak power (we have a Time of Use tariff).

Hope this helps....

 

[J_D 2.0]

Not sure if you know this yet or answered this anywhere else mate. Do you know how much of the solar production is consumed by charging the car? So other appliances can be run etc at the same time and still not draw from the grid?

A dedicated single phase EV charger will pull 32 amps, which is 7kw. Unless you have a system that will clip the charging rate to keep it under your solar production then you will most likely use some grid power.

My 7.96kw system was outputting around 5kw at its peak, which only lasted about an hour or so. I would expect that my system could contribute maybe 50-70% of the power required to charge an EV if it was just used on a simple timer or by plugging in manually.

I expect that a proper computerised charging system that makes best use of the solar could probably cover 100% of the charge using solar on a system of my size but you would have to be using SFA electricity for anything else or you would have to spread it over a couple of days.

 

[Batca]

Yes it does cheers. I have a Huawei inverter, no battery, but from some quick searching looks like this has something similar to Charge HQ.
Better not look too much more or I’ll be in the garage assessing where the charge point will go and whether the Commodore goes on Car Sales (l’horreur!)