Can I charge with a solar array?

There's really no reason to go through the complications of a separate battery bank that you have to maintain and pay for. Install solar roof panels as normal. The extra energy will go to the power company. When it comes time to plug in the PiP, you're just retrieving it back. Your PiP is still considered solar powered.

 

The PiP will charge only in AC, being 120 V or 240. No DC charging provisions.
I'm using my PV solar array in a daily basis to recharge my PiP. What a satisfaction!!!

 

On top of what was said … you'd need a bank storing about 3.5 KWh of energy along with an inverter. A full charge pulls 3 from the wall but the inverter won't be 100% efficient so that's why you need the extra buffer.

 

Joe, were you planning on putting in a solar PV system before you contemplated buying a PHEV? If so, are you going grid-tie, or off-grid? As far the PHEV is concerned, it doesn't care whether your electricity comes from the power company or an off-grid solar PV system. So long as you can supply the necessary electricity via an EVSE (120VAC/15A circuit, or a 240VAC/20A circuit), it'll be happy. The EVSE just looks like any other AC load in the house (lights, TV, appliances, etc).

Unless you need absolutely need it, I would skip an off-grid system these days. You basically have to spend twice as much money as a grid-tie system, and you also have the added expense of maintaining a large battery bank. I can understand it if you live in an area prone to frequent electrical outages, but even then it makes more economical sense to have a grid-tie system with a diesel or LP generator and a transfer switch for critical loads.

Or this a dedicated PHEV-charging only system? If so, I would really advise against it since the amount of money you'll need to spend to make this work will be way more than the electricity you will consume from the wall. You are talking at least 3 grand or more just for the batteries, plus another couple of grand for the solar panels you'll need to keep the batteries charged.

 

He mentioned in an earlier post that he wants to install the system in a remote location and that tying it into the grid is too much of a hassle for him
See post #3

 

It'll be way cheaper in the long run to do the trenching than it will be to build a custom system just for charging the car.

 

Especially since the car barely uses any energy anyway

 

I understand the need for grid-tie systems to disconnect from the grid in the event of a power failure on the grid, but why can't it still generate power for your home while electrically isolated from the grid?

 

Solar arrays are current sources, and the power you get from the utility are generally considered to be voltage sources. The amount of current that a solar array can supply can fluctuate wildly depending upon the time of day, weather conditions, etc. Which is why solar arrays are usually used in either conjunction with a battery bank, charge controller, and inverter. The arrays are used to charge the batteries, the batteries feed the inverter, which supplies power to the house. If the batteries get full, the array at that point appears to be directly powering the loads in the house, but in reality, the battery bank is acting as a voltage/current regulator. In the case of a grid-tied system, the local utility acts as the battery bank. Don't need all the electricity that your array is using? The neighbors end up using it and you get credited for the excess production. It would be possible to use a transfer switch to isolate a grid-tied inverter from the incoming utility feed, but grid-tied inverters need an AC source to sync to. There are people who have built hybrid systems that allow them to be grid-tied & still run when the utility power goes down, but it tends to be expensive to do, you have the hassle of maintaining a battery bank, and all sorts of funky wiring to get the grid-tie and off-grid inverters to talk to eachother. There are at least 2 inverter manufacturers who have designed inverters that are designed to work in this hybrid environment.

 

6 figure price for 3KW of panels? That is insane. Without rebates or incentives, it costs about $5 to $6 per watt installed. That includes retail purchasing of panels, inverters, mounting hardware, wiring, average permit costs, installation costs, labour, everything. A 3KW system would be 3000 Watts * $6/Watt = $18000. If you took no rebates or anything. Anything more than this is pure profit for whoever was trying to sell it to you. Add in rebates and incentives in my current area (Federal, State, County, and Utility Company), it becomes closer to $1.20 per Watt installed or $3600 for a 3KW system.

Whoever gave you the quote either was ignorant or blatantly lying to you.

It can. But it is not really ideal to have everything power cycle on and off when a cloud comes by. Solar panels produce sporadic and unpredictable power. A branch that blows and shades a cell could be enough to cut the inverter output off. A small fast cloud would be enough to cut power for 2-3 seconds as it passes through the sun's rays. Your house would be turning things on and off like some crazy horror movie. So you have to buffer it. Either you buffer it with a battery bank or generator, or the city buffers it with "the grid". If the grid is out, your buffer is gone. Hopefully power outages are not common in your area, but maintaining a battery bank for 0.001% utilization will never pay back.

I have a puny experimental grid tied solar that backfeeds into the grid. My servers and network equipment is tied into a 4.5KW battery bank UPS. When the power goes out, it keeps my farm up and running for a couple hours. That is really all you need unless you have frequent outages and frequent prolonged outages.

 

Puny? That would run my entire 2,000 square foot house for 18 - 21 hours. My average power consumption before the PiP ranges from 5 - 7 kWh per day (between Oct - May).

 

Re: solar efficiency, it really depends on how much electricity you're using. Having a solar array just to charge your Prius will never pay for itself. Powering your whole house with one will take on the order of 50 years if your current bill is under $30/month. So it really depends.

 

My battery bank is 4.5KW. My solar panels are about 1KW.

I use between 2KW and 4KW per hour depending on load, 24/7/365

 

Eh? He's talking about his UPS setup, not the size of his array.

 

Holy kWh! That power bill in LADWP territory would be around $335 per month. I pay $23.

 

Right. 4 kWh would power my house for about 18 - 21 hours.