Solar Energy and Electric Cars Working Together
Buying a solar energy system has been the most popular solution for homeowners to break their energy paradigm, reduce household environmental impact, and save thousands of dollars for decades. Lately, people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are looking towards electric vehicles as a way to further reduce emissions and save even more money over time.
Why EVs?
Exact Solar encourages customers to consider whether an EV is an attractive transportation alternative while studying your solar options. Should you also choose to invest in an EV, we will work with you to make sure any current or future EV charging addition works in perfect symphony with your solar energy system. That’s because we appreciate people’s efforts towards a more sustainable lifestyle. Our own local activities and our business allow us to be proactive, too. And much of the recent news about the EV market excites us as much as it does customers.
Adding Electric Vehicle Charging
To learn more about conventional solar energy for a home, visit our Solar Electric pages.
Once you buy an EV or decide it’s in your future, the impact to your solar energy system is simple. Exact Solar will work with you to make sure every design detail in the following three phases meets your needs.
Buy/Plan Your EV ✸ Design/Install Your Solar Energy System ✸ Install EV Charger Now or Later
❶ Buy or Plan Your EV
The EV market is growing fast creating more options across a bigger price range. Just like their gasoline counterparts, EV models are designed to satisfy many tastes around economy, luxury, and convenience.
You may purchase an EV at the same time as you lock down a solar energy system with us. Or, the EV purchase might be postponed by a short time period. Planning your exact purchase or limiting it to a few model options allows Exact Solar to properly consult with you on a solar energy system design to ensure your EV charging is a clean energy charge.
EV model diversity means small differences in charging, too. Here are the important factors to keep in mind:
There are differences in charging requirements across the various manufacturers. Plugs may differ. Frequently, the car size and battery design mean the charging rates differ. A small economy oriented car like the Nissan Leaf requires less energy to travel a distance and recharge than a premium or luxury model such as the Jaguar I-PACE SUV. The good news is most EV charger makers offer product variants to match.
Generally, all cars are charged at two levels:
Level 1 – Operates at house voltage, 120V. To fully charge a depleted battery bank typically takes most of a full day (20 hours or more). Because it is compatible with existing circuits, some makers offer portable charger models.
Level 2 – Operates as a higher voltage, 240V. These faster chargers require a part of a day, such as an evening to fully charge (6 to 12 hours typically).
It may work fine to charge the small Nissan Leaf at Level 1 overnight, while you may choose Level 2 for a larger car or SUV in order to make sure you charge fully overnight.
❷ Designing a Solar System for EVs
As you can see, charging rates and voltages vary. The more Exact Solar knows about your current or future plan, the more precisely we design a solar energy system to meet your needs. Besides your EV choice, your ability to charge at work or through public facilities may also be a factor to consider in sizing both your chargers and the solar energy system to make sure you always are clean energy charging.
❸ Installing an EV Charger
Exact Solar employs skilled and experienced electricians in order to provide the most reliable solar energy installations. These craftsmen will install any EV charger make the customer provides when that time comes. Of course, adding the EV charger during the solar system installation will be the most economical choice for the buyer.
