Can I charge with a solar array?

PG&E charges me a $13 to $15 fee every month to be connected to the grid. I pay this whether or not I have produced a surplus of electricity. So I know I'm gonna have to pay them at least $160 to $180 over the course of the year, plus any consumption charges. Hopefully my production credits will outweigh my consumption charges so that I'm only paying the minimum meter charges, but I won't know that until next July.

 

Build your own EVSE if you can. You like to tinker. This a project right up your alley.

The cost for me to have an EVSE put in was $500 for the EVSE, and about $2000 in permits, fees, and the electricians time & materials. However, a bunch of that $2000 also covered the installation of a new ceiling fan, fixing a ceiling fan, a new kitchen light, grounding some plugs in the house, and installing a dedicated garage-door opener circuit in the garage for two openers. I figure the EVSE-only portion of that was about $800.

 

If I get a quote like that, LADWP may well pay for the whole thing.

 

I didn't have a separate meter put in. Just the EVSE.

 

[quote="DLee, post: 1691293, member: 94622"Do you say this because only AC is specified? Or, do you have charger schematics or have tried and failed to charge with DC?[/quote]
That's right, the PiP electrical recharge is specified to AC electrical power.
DC recharging can't be safely fallow with out bypassing many protection circuits and all of them regarding the LiPO battery assembly.
But you can be the first to try, and NOT recommended, and taking the risk of the magical smoke fallowed by few explosions and rendering your NEW vehicle out of warranty......

 

I am not too sure about this. The first thing the charge controller will do, is boost and rectify the AC to form high voltage DC. Then it will buck that down to charge the battery as CC/CV. If you feed in a DC value similar to the RMS value of the AC line, it should work fine. This is how many SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply) devices work. Almost anything plugged into a wall today that is not a motor/compressor can be run off of equivalent higher voltage DC, because one of the first things it does is make it into high voltage DC. The only time this would not be true on a SMPS is if the bean counters decided to shave money by making the rectifier diodes too small to carry the constant load assuming only 2 of the 4 full bridge diodes would be on at any time, at a 50% duty cycle. That way if there was a 10A load, they spec to 6A because it is a 5A load on each pair, 10A at 50%. By running DC, you are running continuous through the 2 diodes, which could heat up. But I would be more than surprised if anything other than cheap junk pulled this trick.

 

I hope that your technical explanation will NOT being fallow rendering catastrophic out of warranty examples.

 

The input power may connect directly to the rectifier. The resulting DC voltage is pulsating DC that may be filtered to a steady DC, or it may directly drive the switcher. The switcher may not be very voltage sensitive. It may operate over a broad DC voltage range. A 4:1 ratio achievable

The charger limits the load, thus the current through the regulator so that may not be an issue.

And MRBigh is right, this should not be tried unless you know and understand the circuitry inside the charger, and you are willing to suffer if the experiment damages the car.

Can anyone get a schematic?

 

Joe Solar,

I did not build my panels. I bought panels with a 20 year warrantee, Sun Power. There is no other install company that will compare to there install or products, period. $5,000 to install, that includes everything, turn key. I just enjoy the free electricity. This is the complete install with video's. New Page 1. Sun Valley solar Solar Panels Installers Arizona| Solar Panels AZ Took care of everything, except building the 30' x 30' Ramada. I found an out of work young carpenter, single dad. Got some Mex-Workers to dig holes for pillions, they had a great day, ice water, good food and money.

Vern

 

Solar panels are CHEAP. I don't think I could buy the raw materials for what I can buy entire panels for. Currently, I can buy a complete system for less than $4.70 per peak watt, which in my circumstances is the price point at which it is cheaper to pay to service a loan for solar panels, than it is to pay the electric company. In other words, the 'payback' is one day. See if you can find another cheaper solar company.

 

My suggestion: use commercially available panels. They'll be more reliable, carry a warranty, & cost less. Go for a grid-tied system which eliminates the need for a battery bank & charge controller. If you are so determined to make your own panels as a learning experience for yourself and your kids, find a more suitable project that costs a lot less to do. Like maybe an outdoor landscape lighting system. You can do that a lot more easily with a small battery based setup.

It makes little financial sense these days to invest in a large-scale off griid system if you have easy access to reliable grid power. If your grid-power is a bit unreliable, it's way more cost effective to invest in a genset with a transfer switch than to invest in a large battery bank. I understand the desire to be more self sufficient and green, but if you have to spend 6 figures to do that, your lifestyle is not well suited to achieve that.