diy solar

diy solar

New Solar DIY'er - Introducing myself

mikebergy

New Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2022
Messages
19
Hello!
My name is Michael, and I have recently gotten into DIY solar - electricity is expensive here in Califronia, and the sun is plentiful. I've just recently saved enough to purchase and start installing an 8kW system on the roof of my home. I also have plans to build a "squaredrop" trailer with 800W solar on the roof which will help slowly (120V, 8A) charge my Bolt EV when we are out camping.

Anyway, I may be posting questions related to these items as time progresses. My plans are nearly through my city building plan check, just a couple hangups related to Rapid Shutdown labeling and properly grounding at the array (I failed to explicitly show the grounding on the plans, not that I wasn't aware of the requirement), so I expect to be starting installation soon.

I'm looking forward to interacting on here, so much good data and ideas being shared. Thanks in advance for the help. I hope I can share my experience to help others.

Michael
 
slowly (120V, 8A) charge my Bolt EV when we are out camping.
Welcome.

I’m interested to hear how Charging the bolt goes.

I’ve had my Tesla for about a month. I think the Tesla program is giving me some incorrect or misleading math when it gives me charging stats. The Tesla may tell me its 250 wh per mile, but that seems to leave some things out like the battery heater it uses when it charges uses a bit of wattage, leaves out the parasitic drain where it loses 2% a day to sit there. My real wattage to charge the car comes to about 400 - 450 Wh per mile for the actual electricity going in the car.
 
Welcome to forum ?☀️

Camper with solar to charge EV for camping sounds awesome. Looking forward to reading about whatever you have to share??️

Good luck with your builds!
 
Welcome.

I’m interested to hear how Charging the bolt goes.

I’ve had my Tesla for about a month. I think the Tesla program is giving me some incorrect or misleading math when it gives me charging stats. The Tesla may tell me its 250 wh per mile, but that seems to leave some things out like the battery heater it uses when it charges uses a bit of wattage, leaves out the parasitic drain where it loses 2% a day to sit there. My real wattage to charge the car comes to about 400 - 450 Wh per mile for the actual electricity going in the car.
Bolt charging on L1 is like 90% efficient. I average 3.5-3.8mi/kWh on longer trips with AC. I fully expect that to go down to 2.2-2.5 with a small/light trailer. I only expect to get a few miles per hour with the lower charge settings, but it will be something. Most camping places have at least 15A 120V service, so this would mostly just be sizing for the sake of that 5% of the time shore power wasn’t available. I’m planning on a Samlex or Sigineer inverter/charger to take advantage of shore power when it is available without having to buy an extra component. The 1500-2200W units seem efficient enough to do a good job.
 
Welcome to forum ?☀️

Camper with solar to charge EV for camping sounds awesome. Looking forward to reading about whatever you have to share??️

Good luck with your builds!
Hopefully I won’t have to wait too long to post. Projects always take longer than expected when raising young children - my boys are 2 and 4, and they like to “help”
 
experimented with battery to car charging one time with a goal zero yeti 3000 and tesla model 3. had to bond neutral to ground for the vehicle to accept charge. scaled it down to like 800 watts and sure enough it charged. inverter fan on the goal zero sure woke up. only did it for a few minutes to see if it worked. haven't experimented again in that area since.

camping and charging seems like such a pleasant mode! with occasional shore power to fall back on, should be comfortable one way or another ☀️?
 
Bolt charging on L1 is like 90% efficient. I average 3.5-3.8mi/kWh on longer trips with AC. I fully expect that to go down to 2.2-2.5 with a small/light trailer. I only expect to get a few miles per hour with the lower charge settings, but it will be something. Most camping places have at least 15A 120V service, so this would mostly just be sizing for the sake of that 5% of the time shore power wasn’t available. I’m planning on a Samlex or Sigineer inverter/charger to take advantage of shore power when it is available without having to buy an extra component. The 1500-2200W units seem efficient enough to do a good job.
The other thing I suspect the Tesla app is not counting is the heating and cooling. If I turn the AC on during a ride, which in AZ I will, I suspect the environmental controls are not included in Tesla’s charge rate. The 250 wH per mile I suspect does not include the wattage for heating and cooling.

Do you suspect that with the bolt? I suspect 90% efficiency is great which accounts for a the Ac to Dc conversion loss.

To be sure, one of these days I’ll hook up a kilawatt meter.
 
Hello!
My name is Michael, and I have recently gotten into DIY solar - electricity is expensive here in Califronia, and the sun is plentiful. I've just recently saved enough to purchase and start installing an 8kW system on the roof of my home. I also have plans to build a "squaredrop" trailer with 800W solar on the roof which will help slowly (120V, 8A) charge my Bolt EV when we are out camping.

Anyway, I may be posting questions related to these items as time progresses. My plans are nearly through my city building plan check, just a couple hangups related to Rapid Shutdown labeling and properly grounding at the array (I failed to explicitly show the grounding on the plans, not that I wasn't aware of the requirement), so I expect to be starting installation soon.

I'm looking forward to interacting on here, so much good data and ideas being shared. Thanks in advance for the help. I hope I can share my experience to help others.

Michael
welcome and good luck on your projects !
 
The 250 wH per mile I suspect does not include the wattage for heating and cooling.
this has been my experience. 270Wh per mile is the lowest i've personally seen. this grows to about 320Wh/mi with light AC and 400Wh/mi or more with lots of heating.

there is a recent update that shows a break down of energy use between motor and climate etc. on the main screen
 
Do you suspect that with the bolt? I suspect 90% efficiency is great which accounts for a the Ac to Dc conversion loss.

To be sure, one of these days I’ll hook up a kilawatt meter.
The Bolt's energy usage screen breaks it down usage by "Driving and Accessories", "Climate Settings", and "Battery Conditioning", giving an overall usage in kWh and the number of miles driven since the last full charge. The cars UI does not account for any charging losses that I am aware of, but I am able to keep tabs on that through the Chargepoint app I have connected to my home charger. L2 is more efficient, maybe 93-95%, since it is able to push more juice in a given time; it is not really noticeable at home, but should be taken into greater account when planning for a battery/solar based system that is much smaller than the grid-connected system at home. It will be an adventure for sure.
 
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