This makes a solar panel system for your home the ideal accessory to accompany your electric car.
How many solar panels to charge a car uk.
Based on current technology you ll find that anywhere from 6 12 solar panels will produce enough power to support your vehicle s daily needs.
Based on current technology you ll find that anywhere from 6 12 solar panels will produce enough power to support your vehicle s daily needs.
After all anyone who has solar panels and an electric car probably cares a lot about the environmental benefits of renewable energy.
And until there s as many charging stations as there are gas stations solar panels with a home charger are the best option for charging your car battery.
Also even this is a conservative estimate that s based on the use of low output solar panels.
Remember this is also a conservative estimate so if your solar panels are high efficiency the number of panels may drop even lower.
However the more important thing is to determine the power requirements of your home to determine the best suitable components for your solar system.
On a sunny day the panels on his roof can generate upwards of 40kwh of electricity enough to charge the 40kwh battery in his car.
Identifying how many watts is needed for a solar panel to charge a deep cycle battery is a difficult task due to the dynamic factors involved.
So a more realistic number would be 12 solar panels.
Charging up your electric car isn t completely free though as you have to factor in both the cost of building your new car port or installing the solar panels on your roof then installing the special kit needed to turn your home into a charging point which costs around 1 500.
This obviously depends on the amount of sunlight and the type of panels on your roof as well as the type of wallbox charger you have.
In this example you ll need about twice that to power your electric car a 2 kw 1 896kw to be exact solar array 8 4 kwh per day 4 43 kwh to get this level of solar panel output from your installation you ll need about eight 250w solar panels to generate enough juice to power your electric car every day.
With that in mind a much more realistic set would require approximately 12 solar panels.
However since the average driver will travel approximately 37 miles a day this translates to roughly 12 kwh of electricity.
Our sister title auto express visited one electric car owner warren philips of shoreham on sea who uses solar panels to charge his renault zoe.
A lot of people who have an electric car and solar panels want to charge their cars using as much solar electricity as possible rather than grid power.