Have you installed solar panels on your home? Great. It's time to reap the maximum benefits from the new electricity you are generating. You can quit fossil fuel consumption and go solar with your cars too. Still nervous about driving an electric car? We have the answers to your questions:
Why Should You Switch to Electric Cars?
Electric cars are discussed often as a sustainable energy solution. With an electric car, you won’t have to pay for fuel for the next 18-20 years. Since petrol and gas prices increase over the years, home solar will provide you electricity without the additional charges.
How many solar panels does it take to charge your car?
It doesn’t take too many solar panels to charge your electric car. On average, a vehicle requires around six to eight 300 watt solar panels. The electricity generated through them will give you around 1000 miles per month. For every 1000 miles, make sure that your solar panel generates at least 250 kWh of electricity per month.
What’s the average kilowatt per hour consumption rate?
Every car’s average distance covered for a battery pack charge varies. To protect the batteries from deterioration, the manufacturers never let the battery go completely flat. So at times, the distance covered is shorter for a fully charged battery - quite opposite to manufacturer’s claims. US Environmental Protection Agency has given us an estimated range per kilowatt-hour of battery storage for different cars:
- Tesla Model 3: 7 miles
- Chevrolet Bolt: 6.4 miles
- Mitsubishi i-MiEV: 6.3 miles
- 2016 Nissan Leaf: 5.7 miles
- Tesla S sports car: 5.3 miles
How much charging can be lost?
Most of the losses occur when AC power is being converted to DC power. Note that charging with the help of a home charger is an excellent option since it provides you an estimated efficiency of about 90%.
To prove that home chargers are a good option for charging your cars instead of standard power points, let’s refer to a study done in 2014. The study suggested that an ordinary Nissan is 84% efficient when charged with a powerpoint and about 86% efficient when charged with a home charger. That’s a pretty convincing statistic.
Let’s assume that if you’ve bought a car which promises to take you 7 miles per Kilowatt hour for a battery pack charge, you should keep a realistic estimate of about 6.3 miles per kilowatt hours of electricity.
We hope that the article was resourceful enough for you to answer all of your questions. We wish you all the best for your investment in the electric cars and the right mediums for charging as well.
