Off Grid Solar and EV Charging

Jezbiker

Greetings

So I live offgrid and by that I means I have no access to mains electric etc.

I finished building my barn last year and I have solar panels on the roof , and inverter and 20kw of batteries - these are backed up by a very large generator. In the summer months I do not use the generator at all but during the Winter the generator is used daily to top up the batteries.

I would like to get my wife and EV and there is a very good deal on the new Ford Puma EV so I am looking at my options for charging at home.

Some of the EV deals offer free home EV Charger installation but this is not open to me as they normally insist on being connected to the grid.

Does anyone have any experience or suggestions ?

Many thanks
Jeremy 

QrizB

You can buy and fit (or get an electrician to fit) your own home charger. They start at about £250. Note that it'll usually assume that there is 7.4kW (32A) of power available on demand, so if you're off-grid system can't support this you'll need to pick a model that lets you set limits.

Or you can use the plug-in "granny" charger. This only needs 2.4kW (10A) and, depending on model, you can often set it to draw less.

Nore that the car will have a larger battery than your barn does, and you might want to check that your PV system can supply another ~2000kWh/yr without causing problems. Public charging is relatively expensive (but probably still cheaper than running your generator).

Keep_pedalling

QrizB said:

You can buy and fit (or get an electrician to fit) your own home charger. They start at about £250. Note that it'll usually assume that there is 7.4kW (32A) of power available on demand, so if you're off-grid system can't support this you'll need to pick a model that lets you set limits.

Or you can use the plug-in "granny" charger. This only needs 2.4kW (10A) and, depending on model, you can often set it to draw less.

Nore that the car will have a larger battery than your barn does, and you might want to check that your PV system can supply another ~2000kWh/yr without causing problems. Public charging is relatively expensive (but probably still cheaper than running your generator).

DiYing this is not an option. You need something like a Zappi that can be integrated with your solar and batteries.  

QrizB

Keep_pedalling said:

QrizB said:

You can buy and fit (or get an electrician to fit) your own home charger. They start at about £250. Note that it'll usually assume that there is 7.4kW (32A) of power available on demand, so if you're off-grid system can't support this you'll need to pick a model that lets you set limits.

Or you can use the plug-in "granny" charger. This only needs 2.4kW (10A) and, depending on model, you can often set it to draw less.

Nore that the car will have a larger battery than your barn does, and you might want to check that your PV system can supply another ~2000kWh/yr without causing problems. Public charging is relatively expensive (but probably still cheaper than running your generator).

DiYing this is not an option. You need something like a Zappi that can be integrated with your solar and batteries.  

I disagree about the DIY-edness. If OP has built his own off-grid barn then he's capable of fitting an EV charger; if he got a sparky in to do the barn electrics, the same sparky can fit the charge point.

Zappi-style integration is entirely optional.

Ectophile

Chargers will usually let you set the rate at which the car charges.  But that won't change the problem that the car battery will be bigger than your house battery, so it will easily run the house battery flat.  You could end up running the EV on diesel for much of the year.