Electric cars and solar panels

WellKnownSid

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999192#Comment_81999192

Worth noting that the EON Next Drive Smart tariff will let you charge at any time - however it is only compatible with certain car brands and Renault / Hyundai are not yet supported.

facade

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999192#Comment_81999192

I like the Inster, I actually went to have a look at an Inster 01 long range yesterday, £22K. The 01 seems the pick of the bunch with the vastly superior 15" wheels with tall tyres, and doesn't have the automatic interior mirror that invariably leaks vile ichor after a couple of years. It also has replaceable bulbs in all the lights, not the £££££££££ LED units. I quite fancied a proper 360 camera set up, but that is only on the cross. The colours are a bit insipid too.

The only thing I noticed (from the outside) was that the 01 doesn't have gangsta windows. The seat seemed a bit firm too compared to the Kia EV2, but I'm put off the EV2 by the massive width (1.8m without the mirrors, you need a long stick to reach the passenger!)

Narc0lepsy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999366#Comment_81999366

Yes I tried the EV2 but thought it too big. I'm addicted to having a sunroof so it's likely to be the Inster Cross. Discounts are great at the moment as I'm a teacher.

Bluebell1000

We have a smart meter, EV, and solar panels on FIT. We are not on metered export. With the right charger (i.e solar compatible), it's possible to charge the car in the day on excess solar. For us, we tend to find that's approx April to Sept, with occasional overnight top-ups for the car if we have a couple of longer trips in quick succession. We also have an EV tariff. In winter we use most of the solar, and just charge the car overnight.

We also have a battery so we can fill it up overnight at cheap rate, then power the house with it in winter, or in summer it means we don't draw much from the grid at all as it fills up on any spare solar. Worth considering adding that as well...

Narc0lepsy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82002460#Comment_82002460

Thanks Bluebell that is helpful. We had a salesman come round to talk to us about getting a battery some years ago but we were such low users of electricity it wasn't considered worth the money. I can't remember the detailed whys and wherefores and it may be that things have changed now.

I hadn't heard of a solar compatible charger specifically; we haven't started investigating chargers yet and there seem to be a dazzling amount of types. Silly question but how does your charger know whether it's meant to use solar or mains? I've heard of some people getting household electricity from one provider but having their charger with another company, is that right or do they mean their charger is just made by another company? Our gas and electricity are both EoN/Next and they also manage the FIT payments.

I'm really going to have to get an idiots guide to all this but I'm learning bit by bit. The engineer is coming round in a couple of weeks to see if we are now able to have a smart meter, they've always said no before as the signal is poor.

Bluebell1000

Hi @Narc0lepsy, if you have access to a cheap overnight tariff for charging your battery in winter, it may well change the maths about whether it's worth it. Our 2025 usage was 4468 kWh, including heat pump and car charging - but that includes a month (in July, grr) when our solar panel inverter died, and so we had no solar input - and also we have a heat pump. I don't have specific figures on the saving, but we are using the vast majority of our electric at the cheap overnight rate now.

If your charger is set up correctly (this is for an installer to deal with), it will understand when you are exporting electric, and send it into the car, if your car is plugged in. We have to select either solar charging mode or charge off the grid in the app. Our charger is a bit old now, and has an annoying habit of deciding to try and drain our battery, but that's because of the way it's set up. A new charger, which is installed to 'see' the battery properly (I believe it's to do with clamps that detect power flow), shouldn't do that!

Some electricity suppliers do also sell chargers, but they are from a range of different brands, and you can get them installed by local electricians, or the various companies who make chargers, as well. The key term you are looking for is solar match - that describes the ability of your EV charger to make use of solar power:)

Bandy2023

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81999192#Comment_81999192

I've been in EVs 10 years, multiple cars and I take a very keen interest in the EV world.

The R5 isn't as economical as you'd think, lots of owners disappointed with the miles per Kwh (Mpkwh)

The Inster is a great little car, a friend has one - however, they do have issues with losing coolant ( they still use coolant for the battery ) due to a faulty T-valve - make sure any one you look at has this done.

I'd also recommend the BYD Dolphin - it's still a small car, but astounding value for money.

Our daughter just took the 60kw one on 2 weeks ago, zero deposit and £300 per month (8000 miles per year)

Lots of kit and good economy.

They also have the even smaller Dolphin Surf, which I've seen for under £200 a month.

chuffinnora

I have a Hypervolt Home 3 Pro EV charger, which has the ability to understand solar and allows you to decide how you charge your EV. The manufacturer are pretty good with support, and most of the suppliers support this model for tariff integration.

The detection of load and solar etc is achieved by the use of 2 x CT clamps attached in the necessary places for it to work correctly.

If you are exporting to the grid, you really need a consitent excess of minimum 1.4kw to charge the EV. That means a clear sunny day. A typical broken cloudy day causes the EV charging to start/stop a lot. Although it shouldn't damage the EV, I play it safe and ensure if I'm daytime EV charging with solar, to select supplement from the grid to avoid the start/stop. Having said that I dont like paying the high daytime charges for EV, so mainly use overnight cheap rates (i.e not use using solar for EV charging).

We have a home battery similar to the setup Bluebell1000 uses, so also use that to overnight charge for the house supply and achieve significantly cheaper supply bills (around 50-75% cheaper).

The problem of discharging the home battery to the EV battery is common to all similar solutions. Its down to where the EV charger is wired. There are various solutions, but our installer came up with quite a good method using a 3rd CT clamp, so we no longer have that issue.

Narc0lepsy

Well progress has been made.

• I now have on my drive the Inster Cross.
• A BG/Syncro charger is in my porch.
• EoN have installed a Smartmeter although they have to finish it off and actually make it readable to them (we can read it fine!). Pending that, we have done huge amount of maths to try and help us decide whether the Drive EV tariff would be best for us - thanks to Qrizb and others who have provided equations.

Our main difficulties in accurately working this out are:

• Using Qrizb's equations and percentage of day/night split, it looks as though we might just about be better off with the Drive tariff but Eon are doing some calculations for us too.
• 2500kWh/yr is generated by our solar + 1250 exported

Anyway thanks for all your helpful advice. So far I'm pleased with the car; I charged it after it had done 90miles (just to test the new charger) and it displayed as costing £1.94 so I'm happy with that. That was plugged in for an afternoon on a sunny day so whether it was using solar or mains is anyone's guess! I'm assuming a bit of both because of charging speed.

QrizB

That all sounds very promising! Glad it's working out for you.