Solar panels and batteries for charging. Or a really long cable.

7kw is not fast charging - it's more like medium charging considering if you're charging how some ev's will charge at only 1 KW - while others can charge at over 100 KW. Manny ev's only charge at 3.5KW - but 7 KW will certainly future-proof your situation. Now - as for the distance to your power source ... we just ran power for a hot tub that uses 7kw & the run was over 30 meters. No big deal.

 

the longer the run, the heavier the wire gauge. then there are all sorts of codes for burying cables.
it is certainly worth getting an estimate from an electrician.

do you folks have 240v standard, like europe?

 

7kW is AC Level 2. Maybe Level 1 for DC.

Don't know anything about Australia's electric utilities.

In the US, the charger(EVSE) would come off the main panel between the meter and house. Unless you have an older service feed, you wouldn't need to mess with the meter. Considering the house's age, that might be the case. The EVSE you want for those charge rates is going to be 40 to 50 amps, so you want the main coming into the panel to be 200 amps.

Our 1910 era house had only 60 amps service when we moved in. With the meter just being on the other side of an exterior wall, upgrading was easy. In your case, if the cable from the meter needs to be upgraded, it gets expensive. Hope things were upgraded when the apartment block was put in.

Solar panels and a battery also sounds like a hassle/expensive. Maybe you avoid having to deal with the committee. Some home owners' associations here have rules against solar panels. I'm sure you can have a system that can handle the faster charging, but for higher cost. Going that route, look into a "slow" DC charger. Won't need an inverter, and will be more efficient. Likely not an option on the other hand.

Depending on your drive cycle, you may not need that Level 2 EVSE, at least not right away. The Level 1 EVSE that plugs into a basic outlet here can supply around 4 miles of range per hour for most EVs; about 30 to 40 miles a night. With the BEVs you looking at having over 200 miles of range, you could still drive 10 to 20 miles more than that range charged overnight during the week, if you can let the car fully charge over the weekend.

 

Most people in the North America region use the old SAE levels. 1 is just using a standard outlet. 2 is AC charging faster than what that standard outlet can do. 3 is faster than what a home grid can support. Here it means DC, but Europe had some AC chargers early on.

The kW numbers are generally used for the charger's rating here. The DC units are actually stand alone chargers, so it applies to them. When using AC, it is the car's onboard charger doing the work. Plug ins like the Prius Prime only have a 3.3kW onboard charger. The cord with the car, and the wallbox for your home are a EVSE. They are just a minicomputer that monitors the connection and charging for lower fire and electrocution risk.

You can check the service level yourself at the panel. The circuit breakers should have their amp rating visible. The big main one you'd flip to shut off all electricity to the house is the max amperage that can be supplied to the house.

Could be worth it without the car, or if you don't need them for the car.

Neither have I
Was thinking the PV panels and home battery are DC, why switch it to AC for the car to just switch it back to DC for its battery? If a slow 7 to 11 kW DC charger was available for home use, the cost is likely only worth it for an off grid house.

 

In North America, we have split phase, a center tapped single phase transformer, or commercial three-phase. So typically we have

• 110 VAC commercial - one phase of commercial three phase power. Typically circuit protected to 15-20 for 1.7-2.2 kW. However, usually limited to 80% of the peak current so as low as 80% * 15 A * 108 VAC = 1.3 kW
• 120 VAC residential - one side of the center tapped power pole transformer. Typically circuit protected to 15-20 A for 1.8-2.4 kW. The same 80% rule applies.
• Level 2 commercial, 208 VAC - two phases of commercial three phase power. Typically limited to 40 A after the 80% rule, 8.3 kW.
• Level 2 residential, 240 VAC - both phases of split power transformer. Typically limited to 40 A after the 80% rule, 9.6 kW.
• Fast DC charging - typically rated by kW maximum which I've seen as low as 50 kW for CHAdeMO up to 250 kW for Tesla V2 chargers. Electrify America and others claim 350 kW but I've never experienced those levels.

What is maddening are the AC converters in the cars. Our 2017 Prius Prime was 15 A limited to ~3.3 kW; 2014 BMW i3-REx is 30 A limited, and; 2017 Tesla Model 3 at 31 A. To save a few bucks, our vehicle converters are hobbled to lower currents than the charging stations can provide.

Bob Wilson

 

i would think pv and battery would still be much more expensive, but amortized over x years, perhaps not.
any government incentives?

how did a greenhouse get all the way up on to your roof? sounds like the wizard of oz

 

I got a quote for solar two days ago for $50k but the places they would have to put the panels to get the efficiency they were citing was so asymmetrical and ugly that it was a non-starter. The places I assumed they would put them were much less efficient and it made no economic sense to install them there.

So get the angles analyzed before you go down the solar path.

 

The SAE dropped the Level 1, 2, & 3 designations for AC Level 1 & 2 and DC Level 1 & 2.

The AC Levels are pretty much the old Level 1 & 2 as far as most people are concerned. DC Level 1 is up to 80kW, which much higher than I guessed. The DC Level 2 is up to 400kW. I think Tesla has a few Level 1 Supercharger locations in major cities. They are intended for local use, as oppose to for long trips like the Supercharger network was intended for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAE_J1772#Charging

I was thinking a DC charger around the speeds of AC Level 2 might be worthwhile for a PV installation from a technical perspective. Very likely the economics make it a non-starter.

For a PHEV of the PP's capabilities, a slower charger is fine. Between the smaller battery and its air cooling system, the effective charging time likely doesn't get much better. You always have the engine to fall back on.

The manufacturers have realized faster charging time are better than saving a few bucks. The standard charger on the Leaf was once no faster than the Prime's. This is balanced by the fact that the public AC Level 2 EVSE's might have lower amp limits than the standard allows. That top limit is also more than an owner will need for home charging. For fast charging on the road, the makers are putting in DC charging connections. Is there a BEV available today that doesn't have DC charging standard?

 

If the Bolt could DC charge at 100-150 kW, it would be a candidate to replace our 2014 BMW i3-REx. But a 50 kW limit I too slow.

Bob Wilson

 

When the Bolt came out, CCS was only an option.

 

interesting. american pergola:

best-pergola-ideas

definition:

pergola

your neighbors looks more like a skylight:

commercial-skylights

that is a major bummer though, they ought not let wizards wiz

 

Yeah, your grid gives you an advantage when using 'Level 1'. The 4 miles an hour is with 12amp 120V going into the car.

I'd say it's a gazebo, but an odd one. You put those up for a shaded spot, but this thing has a 'glass' roof.

Which reminds me of something unrelated that has been passed around in certain circles for decades.

The Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo
In the early seventies, Ed Whitchurch ran "his game", and one of the participants was Eric Sorenson. Eric plays something like a computer. When he games, he methodically considers each possibility before choosing his preferred option. If given time, he will invariably pick the optimal solution. It has been known to take weeks. He is otherwise, in all respects, a superior gamer. Eric was playing a Neutral Paladin in Ed's game. He was on some lord's lands when the following exchange occurred:

ED: You see a well groomed garden. In the middle, on a small hill, you see a gazebo.
ERIC: A gazebo? What color is it?
ED: [pause] It's white, Eric.
ERIC: How far away is it?
ED: About 50 yards.
ERIC: How big is it?
ED: [pause] It's about 30 ft across, 15 ft high, with a pointed top.
ERIC: I use my sword to detect good on it.
ED: It's not good, Eric. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I call out to it.
ED: It won't answer. It's a gazebo.
ERIC: [pause] I sheathe my sword and draw my bow and arrows. Does it respond in any way?
ED: No, Eric, it's a gazebo!
ERIC: I shoot it with my bow. [roll to hit] What happened?
ED: There is now a gazebo with an arrow sticking out of it.
ERIC: [pause] Wasn't it wounded?
ED: OF COURSE NOT, ERIC! IT'S A GAZEBO!
ERIC: [whimper] But that was a +3 arrow!
ED: It's a gazebo, Eric, a GAZEBO! If you really want to try to destroy it, you could try to chop it with an axe, I suppose, or you could try to burn it, but I don't know why anybody would even try. It's a @#$%!! gazebo!
ERIC: [long pause. He has no axe or fire spells.] I run away.
ED: [thoroughly frustrated] It's too late. You've awakened the gazebo. It catches you and eats you.
ERIC: [reaching for his dice] Maybe I'll roll up a fire-using mage so I can avenge my Paladin.

At this point, the increasingly amused fellow party members restored a modicum of order by explaining to Eric what a gazebo is. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. It could have been worse; at least the gazebo wasn't on a grassy gnoll. Thus ends the tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo. A little vocabulary is a dangerous thing.
Eric and the dread gazebo — Experience Point