How to charge a Chevy Volt?

balee123
balee123 Solar Expert Posts: 86 ✭✭
Hello all,

I currently have a backup system for powering our house using a Chevy Volt as the power source.

http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?17809-Can-I-connect-Prosine-1800-to-home-breaker-panel-for-backup-power/page3

http://forum.solar-electric.com/showthread.php?17852-Mobile-inverter-quick-disconnect-question

(Thanks again to all who helped get my 12V Prosine 1800 set up for this, btw, both breaker panel legs can now be powered).


The nice thing about this is that with a full tank of gas and a full battery charge, I think we can probably last ~ 1 week with our current loads (~500W average per hour). I'm sure we could cut our usage in half if we had to in a serious outage situation.

*********

I've been thinking about how to charge the Chevy Volt off grid, and use it's battery storage capacity if we have no access to gas and the grid was down for an extended period of time.

I understand that it is probably more efficient to store more gas, rotate it over time, and use the Volt's internal generator, but I'm also wondering if the following would work:

I currently have a grid tied system:

Inverters: Xantrex STRX2500 and STRX1500 wired in parallel.

Panels:
100W AP-100
Voc 20.1V
Vmp 16.1V
Isc 7.2A
Imp 6.2A

Panels are set up as 4 in series, 5 paralleled into STRX2500 and 3 paralleled into the STRX1500.

Power consumption while Volt is charging is 1440W @ 12A AC, or 960W @ 8A AC to charge the Volt (two different charging rates available).

I was thinking I could rewire the PV's DC output into a Midnite Solar Classic 150, hook the Classic up to 2 (bear with me) fully charged 12V batteries wired in series for 24V, then plug the Chevy Volt's EVSE ("charger") into a 24V/120VAC inverter to charge the car. Since the batteries would be fully charged, all the DC output of the panels could go to power the 24V inverter and charge the Volt, and hopefully have some left over to power the house during charging. The Volt would only be charged by the PV output and not the tiny battery bank.

(I'm assuming a 12V battery bank with a 12V inverter would not give me enough power with the Classic 150 to charge the Volt).

I understand that this is an extremely small battery bank and cannot really be drawn on. I'm thinking they will just be used to buffer the charge controller's output. I also understand that this system would require some serious monitoring so that charging only occurs during strong/peak daylight hours without clouds. I'm also not concerned about matching loads to getting a full charge everyday. In this kind of situation, one would just use whatever electricity they could generate and/or store. I understand that I may not get a full charge during the day depending on previous usage.

I figure with 5 hours of usable sun, we could generate and store about ~5kWh on days with no clouds. The Volt charges and stores at a rate of about 1kW per hour.

Will this work? Any suggestions?

If this will work, what would be a reasonable quality/reasonably priced 24V inverter to use. This inverter will likely sit idle and never be used, however, it would be nice if it could be counted on if the time ever comes.

Comments

  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: How to charge a Chevy Volt?

    what size inverter is needed?
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • balee123
    balee123 Solar Expert Posts: 86 ✭✭
    Re: How to charge a Chevy Volt?

    I'm thinking a 2000W inverter as the Volt charging at its 12A AC rate uses 1440W.
  • westbranch
    westbranch Solar Expert Posts: 5,183 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: How to charge a Chevy Volt?

    Look at the Cotek/Samlex line.
    http://www.cotek.ca/
     
    KID #51B  4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM
    CL#29032 FW 2126/ 2073/ 2133 175A E-Panel WBjr, 3 x 4s 140W to 24V 900Ah C&D AGM 
    Cotek ST1500W 24V Inverter,OmniCharge 3024,
    2 x Cisco WRT54GL i/c DD-WRT Rtr & Bridge,
    Eu3/2/1000i Gens, 1680W & E-Panel/WBjr to come, CL #647 asleep
    West Chilcotin, BC, Canada
  • mtdoc
    mtdoc Solar Expert Posts: 600 ✭✭
    Re: How to charge a Chevy Volt?

    I believe solar_dave here on this forum has 2 Volts he charges off grid. He may have some reccomendations.

    Also, have a look at Doug Coulter's forum He charges his Volt with off grid solar. I think solar_dave posts there as well.

    Add: I think Doug Coulter is working on being able to charge his Volt battery directly from PV which would really be the way to go since it would eliminate the losses going from PV to battery to inverter to AC charger to battery...

    I'm not sure if anyone is doing that reliably yet but that would be ideal.

    I'm still thinking about getting a Volt.....:roll:
  • solar_dave
    solar_dave Solar Expert Posts: 2,397 ✭✭✭✭
    Re: How to charge a Chevy Volt?

    Actually my charging is grid tie, but Doug's is truly off grid. He made a bang bang controller with some timers that only operate after his house batteries are topped off, using the electrons that would normally fall on the floor. He uses a standard SPX AC charge controller as the on board charger is an AC charger. It may be possible to do much the same with a small battery for a buffer, but realize you have to be there and have the charger attached while the excess electrons are available.

    In the last 15 years I can't remember an outage here of more than a few minutes and then I can't remember the last time that happened. My utility is super reliable and the odds of a major disaster outage are pretty slim.