[ausev] New to EV's

[Christopher Robison]

On Sat, 2007-06-09 at 08:55 -0500, Claire Sorenson wrote:
> solar.  I saw an email posting by someone in May about charging with a
> solar station while at work.  I would be interested in researching
> this further with anyone else who wants to do the same.  I have been
> getting bids to set up solar for my home and I am going to ask them to
> give me a bid on a system to recharge the car.  I

Probably the best way to look at this is that adding a solar array on
your house will help to charge the car, whether it's big enough or not.
A grid-intertie system uses the electric utility like a huge (and with
net metering, 100% efficient :-) battery, running your meter backward
during the day, and then drawing power back out at night to charge your
car. The system doesn't need to be "for the car". Obviously, charging
the car creates a higher demand for energy (though this is not as
significant as you might think) and you'll need a larger array on your
house to break even (zero net payment each month). However, you can grow
the system incrementally, adding panels as you can afford them. 

>  also met someone at the ZAP dealership who mounted a solar panel on
> one of his cars, but I have not had a chance to stop by to see how it
> went.  I look forward to meeting some of you in the near future.
 
For a typical highway-capable EV, and even to some extent for low-speed
NEVs such as ZAP sells, a solar panel mounted to the vehicle itself will
not provide enough energy to be useful for maintaining the main traction
batteries. It might be a good way to help maintain your 12V system
however.


-- 
Christopher Robison
chris at ohmbre.org
http://ohmbre.org          <-- 1999 Isuzu Hombre + Z2K + Warp13!