Having an EV charger installed at your home is definitely the most popular method of charging for owners of electric vehicles who can afford the upfront cost of the installation. For high milage drivers having an EV charger on their driveway is a way to ensure their EV is topped up and fully charged every night without the worry and hassle of finding public that is available and not broken!
EV charging at home is cheaper than charging at publics stations, but charging your EV from the PV solar panels is free! Without battery storage you will need to charge your EV during the day while the sun is shining. Solar EV chargers like Zappi or Hypervolt monitors how much energy you are importing from the grid or exporting from your solar panels and divert any exporting electricity to your car rather then exporting it to the grid for a small amount of money.
Example:
Say you are generating 7kW of energy from your solar panels but using 1.5kW of energy for lights and sockets in your home, the EV charger will start to charge your car at 5.5kW so that you maximise the use of the solar energy and reduce the amount exported back to the grid. In this case you are powering your entire home and charging your car for free!
However, most people will need to charge their cars after work or over night when there will be little to no sun at all. This is when battery storage come into play. Again, rather than exporting any unused solar energy during the day for a cheap rate you can charge large battery cells around your home which can be saved up and used at night once the solar panels are no longer generating any energy. The EV charger of your choice will use the stored up energy from the battery rather than importing it from the grid, more free charging!
Solar PV, EV Charger and Battery Storage are three separate technologies that work together to create a sustainable home. They can be installed separately at different stages when affordable. Now EV in Aylesbury can help with your EV charger installation and also team with another local installer for PV solar and battery installations to provide a complete eco package!
See our other blog post all about the Zappi Solar EV Charger, the best in the game.
