Charging via solar panels

PiP draws about 12 amps from 120v so it takes about 1.44 kW. The charging takes about 3 hours but it slows down after about 2 hours. In total, it takes about 3 to 3.2 kWh.

Say, you have 6 hours of sunshine per day, you will need 500-700 Watt solar panel. The biggest they have is 45 Watts so you'll need 11-15 of those.

 

Harbor Freight cheap PV panels are not powerful enough to recharge the PiP by themselves.
You will need a means of storing all that harvested power in to a bank of batteries with a combined output of 120 VAC that will be capable of recharging the vehicle.
Only for that purpose, will not be cost effective the total investment.
I do harvest about 40kWh daily in a sunny day in winter time.

 

Grid tied works pretty well if you consider the big picture.
It allows you to not worry about storing the energy.
You typically will be sending energy into the grid during the day when it is in high demand (at least in the summer).
You will be drawing energy from the grid when there is lots of spare capacity.

 

Here is a decent self install kit.

Solar Panel Kit with Enphase M215 do It Yourself for Home 1000W 1kW Complete | eBay

I think you can still get a 30% federal tax credit as well.

 

I don't understand the need/desire to "specifically" charge a car from solar panels. If you are going to buy and install solar panels I think you would want them to maximize their usefulness over their years of useful life. The optimum thing (but not practical) to do is to buy them and have them installed in the sunniest part of Arizona or Southern CA (for example) and have them track the sun east to west and adjust the elevation throuhgout the year...and then to use grid power to charge your PIP. Of course this makes no practical sense since you probably have no access to land or a roof top in the optimum place.

But whether you "install" the solar panels 1000 miles away from your car or 50 feet away from your car the same principal applies. Make your solar panels maximize their kilowatts and feed it to the grid for someone who needs it right now...then just charge from the grid. (This eliminates the idea of extra costly batteries to temporarily store the "solar watt-hours."

The only exception to this optimization strategy is if you really wanted to be able to charge your car in a remote location for some reason. But this is why you have a gas tank.

Mike

 

There are many unknown facts from the OP.
I think we should wait 'till he/she replays with more info.
I'm grid tied and enjoying my overage solar electrical power production if it helps to the general idea.

 

I have 4,200 watts of solar voltaic on my roof here in the Finger Lakes Region of NYS. I would just chime to say that the amount of power used per month and the amount of the bill stays exactly the same no matter what time the PIP is charged at home. At least it would here as we have Net Metering. Any excess power produced during the day goes out to the grid so the Kws of power used to charge the PIP would either go to the car or out to the grid depending what time of day it is being done. I usually try to charge at night (plug in right before I go to bed) that way the electricity I am using comes from the excess (fossil fuel) power being produced at night that would have otherwise gone to ground and been wasted.

By doing that the charge is pollution neutral in that the pollution would be produced whether I am using it or not.

My electric costs are the same either way. Now for someone who is off grid, that is another story...

 

$189 for 3 15 Watt Panels is NOT cheap.

Cheap is $1 per peak watt or less. Keep looking.

 

There is excess capacity but no excess electricity...all power is generated on demand.

See How much electricity is created but unused at night by power utilties? - Yahoo! Answers

Mike

 

I think SRR is refering to the coal being burned to keep the steam up in the boilers so they will be ready to produce if needed.

We need better seach on this site. This pv charge topic and the winter tire tpms topic have been much discussed but when I tried to search to help out a newbe (winter tire ?) I couldn't find post or threads I know are here.

 

Actually it is a bit more complex than either Mike or James have stated. At least here in the Northeast it is. There are 3 levels of power plants operated, Base Load, Intermediate, and Peak. The base load around here is typically 35 to 40% of the peak for the season. Base load plants are typically Coal fired and Nuclear, with hydro and geothermal sometimes filling in. The first two are far more efficient at full power, and when cut back are very wasteful of energy. There are times during the year (particularly in summer) when the base load plants are producing more power than can be used on the grid and have to cut back or the excess electric goes to ground (or blown off as steam, etc.). At any rate there is likely a lot of excess pollution being created that serves no useful purpose. By charging when the consumption is at its lowest, you are getting power where there would be basically the same amount of pollution created even if you didn't use that electric.

That is what I was referring to. And it still really doesn't change your electric bill a bit if you have Solar Panels by charging at any time of day due to net metering.