Charging via Solar & Powerwalls LIVE

[Mark_AZR1T]

Received my R1T yesterday and thought I'd do a quick recharge via my Tesla panels and 2X Powerwalls to see if 100% short term off the grid charging at 12kW was possible. It is...

Powerwalls were at 98% , panels producing 6kW... coupled together 100% off the grid to top off the battery from 181 miles to 220. Level 2 charging for free...Fun....

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[Tim-in-CA]

Nice. Wish there was a way to charge from excess solar generation. I like to charge my Tesla after my powerwalls are full and only use excess generation. Only way to do this is to adjust charge rate from the vehicle real time.

 

[Harvest]

Mark, thanks for this information. I'm interesting in installing a similar setup once I get my R1T. I assume you have 5.9 kW of solar panels, is that correct? How long does it usually take for the solar panels to recharge your two Powerwall units if they are completely drained? Also, was the R1T pulling simultaneously from the Powerwalls and the roof panels or just from the Powerwalls, which were the being "backfilled" by the solar panels? Have you got a sense of how long it would take you to do a larger amount of charging, such as 20-80% with the R1T?

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Nice. Wish there was a way to charge from excess solar generation. I like to charge my Tesla after my powerwalls are full and only use excess generation. Only way to do this is to adjust charge rate from the vehicle real time.

Exactly. There is quite a bit of leeway remaining for intelligent solar EV charging solutions via hardware/software. My solar production history is readily available, as is my Powerwall charging/consumption history...if you coupled this with solar weather forecasting and had the ability to set some thresholds you could readily charge from excess solar only and/or a combination of solar/Powerwall with software intelligence and still have plenty of energy intact for day-to-day household operation....

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Mark, thanks for this information. I'm interesting in installing a similar setup once I get my R1T. I assume you have 5.9 kW of solar panels, is that correct? How long does it usually take for the solar panels to recharge your two Powerwall units if they are completely drained? Also, was the R1T pulling simultaneously from the Powerwalls and the roof panels or just from the Powerwalls, which were the being "backfilled" by the solar panels? Have you got a sense of how long it would take you to do a larger amount of charging, such as 20-80% with the R1T?

I have an 8kW Tesla panel based rooftop system. You never quite get to max panel efficiency with the sun this far away from the earth, so I've peaked today around 6.3kW (not bad). Recharging of the Powerwalls is of course dependent upon time of year, local household load depending upon ambient temperature (using AC in home or not), location in the world and weather constraints (sun and clouds). I live in suburbia and in the AZ desert so prime for solar generation, but also we have a large household demand in the summer (pre and post as well) for AC use. Our central air system is only used as a back-up, as our house is all running on DC inverter 20 SEER+ mini-split AC units, so they draw comparatively low amounts of power to run and cool our home.

This time of year we never get to 0% on the Powerwalls and we usually wake up with around 40-55% and in that case it's at 100% by around 1230PM or so. 0-100 for 2x Powerwalls in this weather (80 deg. F), we can get them fully charged on our 8kW system the same day or close to it. Last year we were 95% off the grid for the entire year and I hoped that I could do 33% of my R1T charging for free on average.....it's fun to play around with......on my EV plan with my energy provider we're charged (now) 6.22 cents per kwhr (off peak), so it's low cost to charge the Rivian.......

 

[RivianDeac]

https://www.solaredge.com/aus/products/ev-charger#/

I am currently planning a solar panel upgrade with one of these bad boys.

Probably the closest thing to direct PV to vehicle charging on the market right now.

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

https://www.solaredge.com/aus/products/ev-charger#/

I am currently planning a solar panel upgrade with one of these bad boys.

Probably the closest thing to direct PV to vehicle charging on the market right now.

I've looked into them....slick...don't know anyone running one and I have a Solar Edge inverter system now....

 

[MoreTrout]

Mark, thanks for this information. I'm interesting in installing a similar setup once I get my R1T.

I'm in the process of installing solar in my new home. This website is a good tool to estimate how much you are actually going to produce based on your system size. https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/pvwatts.php

 

[Mark_AZR1T]

Done with this test.....went from 181 mile range (current settings) to 218 mile range in 2hrs 07 minute...all for free......Powerwalls went from 98% to 61% as the sun is dropping and the draw from panels to Powerwalls increased.....very happy. A free 37 miles........

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