How much rooftop solar do you need to charge your EV, too?

One Step Off The Grid

So you’ve got rooftop solar, and you’ve got an electric vehicle. But can you power both your house and your car with the one PV system?

The answer, of course, is complicated. It depends on the size of your rooftop solar system, the time of day you want to charge your car, the battery size of your EV, and how much you drive around every day.

The short answer, however, from solar brokerage company ShineHub, is that it is possible to get extra panels and batteries to cover most if not all ordinary commutes – as long as you “top up” each time. It will be hard to charge a car battery from near empty to full with only rooftop solar.

“Instead of aiming to recharge a completely flat battery, households should endeavour to be able to recharge the car from a typical day of driving around your community,” says ShineHub CEO Alex Georgiou.

“This is much more achievable and won’t break the bank.”

But it will still mean adding extra panels, and possibly a battery storage system, depending on when you are most likely to need to charge your car.

To read the full story on RenewEconomy sister site, One Step Off The Grid, click here…