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My New EUV and what powers it

3K views 37 replies 19 participants last post by  jefro 
#1 ·
Bought it off the lot just over a week ago. Had to drive 200 miles to get it, but so far I'd say it was worth it. The dealer has a couple of certified pre-owned Bolts if anyone is looking for one. A 2020 EV LT and a 2022 EUV LT.

Automotive parking light Vehicle registration plate Hood Light Car
 
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#11 ·
Are you grid-connected? If so, how do you route power among vehicle, grid, & home? I'd be interested in hearing more details.
We are still connected to the grid, kind of. We have a three position manual knife switch, solar - off - grid. Solar runs our entire house. If the batteries get depleted and there is not enough sun I can either a) switch over to grid power or b) let the propane powered generator come on and charge the batteries. I much prefer option A as I seldom use enough from the grid to get more than the minimum monthly charge. This August has been the worst month in the over one year we've had the system installed. My neighbors have electric bills between $300 and $600, mine was $72.

I only charge the car during the day when I have direct sun on the panels. We're retired so that causes us no hardship.
 
#8 ·
Curious why you'd put solar panels on the ground. Maybe there was no solar-viable roof nearby? I ask because I've seen more people lately put them on the ground just to make them easier to clean and maintain. Can't say I agree with that mentality: covering green grass with black solar panels instead of using already allocated build areas. If everyone did that, the albedo may end up worse for global warming than not having them: our planet is going to end up looking "black" from space.

Mike
 
#9 ·
Having grass is pretty bad for the environment with all the displacement of native plants and the all the mowing.
I don't know about the OP but I have my array on the ground because my house roof is shaded at all times and my garage slopes the wrong way. Not to mention it's much easy to clean the snow off when ground mounted vs on a 12 tall roof at the lowest point.
 
#10 ·
I've seen some of the massive solar farms where they've cleared out trees to replace nature with black panels. Not sure it's worth the footprint in the long run and I think we should be using existing structures and claimed areas! And I've got news for you: most ground mounted solar systems will end up needing more maintenance (mowing and weeding around them) than driving a mower over the grass patch that used to be there for 20 seconds.

Mike
 
#15 ·
And I've got news for you: most ground mounted solar systems will end up needing more maintenance (mowing and weeding around them) than driving a mower over the grass patch that used to be there for 20 seconds.
Ahhhh, but what about when it's time to replace your roof? You mention mowing and weeding around them, you're right, stuff still grows under them.
 
#17 ·
Bought it off the lot just over a week ago. Had to drive 200 miles to get it, but so far I'd say it was worth it. The dealer has a couple of certified pre-owned Bolts if anyone is looking for one. A 2020 EV LT and a 2022 EUV LT.

View attachment 47095
Nice, but what are all those spots on the front? I'm thinking a paint protection film is definitely something I'm going to have to look into.

Have you thought about documenting your experience with the solar panels? One of the biggest annoyances I have from people that hate renewable is how they claim that solar power is unreliable, and my first thought is "We LITERALLY set our clocks based on the sun". It would be nice to see someone with real world experience out there demonstrating what I learned a long time ago via a certain movie about a goofy looking little red headed girl..

 
#18 ·
Solar inverters usually have apps that allow you to control your system. Some have dedicated car charging ports in the inverter, I think solar edge has one.
My solar system is grid tied and I send power back to the grid and get a credit.
I sized the system to eventually charge evs. I have battery backup for power outages that I get a few times a year instead of putting in a generator. Hoping to one day be able to integrate a ev car into the system one day before I retire.
I put 38 kw in my bolt over the weekend just from solar and run my house. Solar is a lifestyle. You do your heavy use when the sun is out. If not I use the grid. But it's not much until I fire up my geothermal. Lol
I run the geothermal to cool the house but it's summer and I've got plenty. In Northern Michigan you don't cool much.
My house is totally electric, no gas or fuel because we don't have access to natural gas and propane will break you.
When charging my bolt I use a JuiceBox evse and I can control the amps in single digits to match the solar output and if s cloud comes over my battery backup will make up the power til the cloud goes away and I can set the JuiceBox to allow the home battery to charge and charge my car and run the house.
 
#37 ·
So my Roof faces East and West.... I have 37 panels grid tied (no batteries yet) My electric bill is a 500 dollar credit right now (Arizona)... had the system 1 year exactly. If designed right and no Tree / building shading it out , it can still work (Arizona type sun)
 
#20 ·
I did the same... 8.2KW on the ground but I'm on 5 acres. Being on the ground let me set the direction and angle to be the absolute max output I could get (average) in my longitude and latitude. I would have gone bigger if I'd known that my electric company would revoke net billing shortly after the install... :mad:
 
#28 ·
Any more solar photos, did you install on your own? What panels did you use, and what inverter/s?
Panels are REC (made in China, unfortunately). Everything excluding some of the wire, conduit and schedule 40 steel pipe for the main structure was purchased through... (don't want to advertise in case that is forbidden here, will provide info upon request). They sized the system and provided all the pieces and parts we needed to do it ourselves. Note: We are out in the country, no permit or inspections required. I did involve our electrician on the AC side just to be safe. Inverters are Sol-Ark 12K All in One (both inverters and charge controllers in one). Batteries are Fortress E-Flex (5.4 kwh each). Here is my blog post on the installation.


Since our initial install we have added two more batteries and one more Sol-Ark. Mostly because of the heat this summer. Our two stage air conditioner compressor spent most of the time this summer running in the second stage which meant we couldn't make it through the night on batteries alone. That upgrade also required we enlarge our "solar annex".

Here's a picture of the solar annex as it looks now. The front half is our well house, back half is for solar equipment. Far left in the picture you can see our manual knife switch for switching between grid and solar. Behind the tree (Beaver damage at no additional charge) you can just see a piece of the generator.
Plant Tree Building Land lot Wood



Here is the mess inside the solar annex. Now 3 inverters and 6 batteries. Third inverter is not yet hooked up.
Electricity Wood Audio equipment Electrical wiring Computer hardware


And just for grins, here is a picture of the passive solar water heater we put on the roof. It's a tank out of a water heater, painted black and under glass. The plumbing looks like something from a sci-fi movie but it allows me to bypass my electric water heater and only use solar or bypass the solar and only use electric. Normal is preheat the water that goes into the electric water heater.
Cloud Sky Wood Shade Rolling


I apologize for going way off track as far as this forum being for the Chevrolet Bolt. But as you might be able to tell, I'm proud of what we've done. And if it wasn't for all this solar, I wouldn't have considered an electric car.

Brian
 
#34 ·
Nice array. Thought I'd share this photo since appears there's a lot of interest in the solar aspect. My 2020 Bolt LT (Cajun red) is parked to the right of our barn.
Plant Sky Building Tree Natural landscape

House roof has 3.2kw, grid-tied with 42kwh of battery backup (21kwh usable from FLA battery). Barn has 2 systems, top two rows are grid-tied only (stop producing in event of a grid outage), 6.45kw. Bottom two rows are grid-tied, 6.89kw with 11.4kwh battery (LiFePO4) backup to barn essential loads (mainly a wood-fired hydronic heat system whose pumps need to be kept running in winter). Batteries are for grid outages only. Net metering agreement with my local utility supplier and my last electric bill was for $4.70 in May. Currently have a $79 credit. I'll use that up by year end as cloudy days are ahead here in NE Ohio.
 
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