How to Charge 240V Electric Vehicles with Offgrid Solar Power 

The links to Watts24/7 are loading slowly, but they work. Just takes a few seconds. Btw I love Watts24/7! Great prices and they sell some great stuff. Have not heard a single complaint from anyone, and they offer really great customer support for their inverters. Check them out. They never beg me to make videos about their products (most companies do, and it drives me nuts), and I have known them for years. They also have the lowest prices for MPP. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Does off-grid solar confuse you? Check out my DIY friendly website for solar system packages and product recommendations, and so much more! www.mobile-solarpower.com Join our DIY solar community! #1 largest solar forum on the internet for beginners and professionals alike: www.diysolarforum.com Check out my best-selling, beginner-friendly 12V off-grid solar book (affiliate link): amzn.to/2Aj4dX4 If DIY is not for you, but you love solar and need an offgrid system, check out Tesla Solar. Low prices and great warranty, and they can take your entire house offgrid with their new Powerwalls: ts.la/william57509 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My solar equipment recommendations (Constantly updated! Check here first): 12V/48V Lithium Batteries: www.mobile-solarpower.com/solar-batteries.html Solar System Component Directory: www.mobile-solarpower.com/solarcomponents.html Plug-N-Play Systems: www.mobile-solarpower.com/full-size-systems.html Complete 48V System Kits: www.mobile-solarpower.com/complete-48v-solar-kits.html DIY Friendly Air Conditioner/ Heat Pumps: www.mobile-solarpower.com/solar-friendly-air-conditioners.html Complete 48V System Blueprint: www.mobile-solarpower.com/48v-complete-system-blueprint.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Favorite Online Stores for DIY Solar and Coupon Codes: -Current Connected: SOK, Victron and High Quality Components. Best prices and warranty around: currentconnected.com/?ref=wp -Signature Solar: Cheap Server Rack Batteries and Large Solar Panels: www.signaturesolar.com/?ref=h-cvbzfahsek -Ecoflow Delta Official Site: My favorite plug-n-play solar generator: us.ecoflow.com/?aff=7 -AmpereTime: Cheapest 12V batteries around: amperetime.com/products/ampere-time-12v-100ah-lithium-lifepo4-battery?ref=h-cvbzfahsek -Rich Solar: Mega site and cheaper prices than renogy! Check them out: richsolar.com/?ref=h-cvbzfahsek -Shop Solar Kits: Huge site with every solar kit you can imagine! Check it out: shopsolarkits.com/?ref=will-p -Battery Hookup: Cheap cell deals bit.ly/2mIxSqt 10% off code: diysolar -Watts 24/7: Best deals on all-in-one solar power systems, with customer support and distribution here in the USA: watts247.com/?wpam_id=3 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Contact Information: I am NOT available for personal solar system consult! If you wish to contact me, this is my direct email: williamprowsediysolar@gmail.com Join the forum at diysolarforum.com/ if you wish to hang out with myself and others and talk about solar FTC Disclosure Statement and Disclaimers: Every video includes some form of paid promotion or sponsorship. Some links on this youtube channel may be affiliate links. We may get paid if you buy something or take an action after clicking one of these. My videos are for educational purposes only. Information is subject to change/update at any time. Electricity is DANGEROUS and can kill. Be smart and use common sense :) DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, An affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

I'm really grateful for this channel. Learning a tremendous amount about solar.

Excellent video Will, as an engineer by trade, you covered all of the right talking points. Cheers.. :-)

nice work Will, I love your show! You're helping a lot of people out here I hope all the best to you. Thank you for your time.

Thank you soo much for this 6548 video Will. Now all I need is an ecar!

I don't think any of your ideas are bad, you know your work, that's why we watch you, that's a powerful system

I’m pretty excited about this. I have a build date for an F-150 Lightning in May. Im going to pay an electrician to run a 50a line to my driveway where I will charge my new EV. But, I don’t want to rely on the grid, so I’m going to install solar on the roof and run it to what you have shown me here and do most of my charging from this. Also can run a 30a from my Lightning to a nema outlet in front of my house and use my Lightning as a backup generator for my home.

This is very helpful Will. I have a lowly 2016 Leaf with the 30KwH battery and have two level 2 chargers. One I was using early on out of a dryer plug and it only draws 16 amps. Since my EV battery is not very big, I could get away with using the 16amp level 2 charger with one of these units and be pretty happy!

Wow this is great Will, and I just recently bought my first hybrid plug in. My stepping stone to an eventual Tesla. lol

That's what I needed thank you so much ❤️

To limit the current draw from your EV, make sure the EVSE is configured for the maximum current available. Most EVs don't let you set the max current from the onboard charger.

Wow this is what I was looking for!! So excited 😆

Love your vids dude

Thank you soooo much Will. Great video

I always appreciate your enthusiasm in these videos Will. Keep doing what you're doing. 3 of those inverters for a home is overkill isn't it? I look at my wattage per month on my bill and it is no where near what that kicks out. Maybe I am just not normal though. What is the math on sizing a inverter?

Great video. I like to see a complete project from solar panel to EV charger construction. 240V, greater than 30Amp.

Awesome tutorial! Thank you!

Thank you for this excellent info. I subscribed! 🙂

Thanks Will... 240v out of a single unit. 👍 Nice...

Great video, Will.

Hi Will, Lots of great ideas. Very new at Solar. So watching your videos has really helped. Thanks for the links to all websites on your page as well. Looking at building an enclosed structure on our patio. So the Pioneer or Mr Cool video has helped as well. Looks like the LVX6048 or LB6048 is what I’ll need. The solar array will be my biggest question. I’ll keep watching videos. But any info would be helpful. Thank You. Keep up the great work.

I like it. You should have thrown some sample pricing for all the parts, the minimum practical kWh of batteries, that sort of thing.

Nice video bro & I always wonder how people keep their stuff clean & clear I mean it always get messy when we done making video on it 🤪👍

I don't believe I can set the volts on my electric car, not easily anyway, an alternative might be to hook up a socket to the inverter and have a charger that plugs into that. I have a cheap 16 amp portable charger for my car and an adapter for campgrounds. Thanks for all your work Will, an inspiration.

As usual, thanks for the great content. Quick question, recommendation on a simple retrofit add onto an existing old system ?

thank you! great ideas

Thanks Will!

Nice! Very helpful!

Will, you did it again! A home run. Thank you. I want to set up a solar charging station for my EV that is wife friendly and this is perfect. Clean and simple. You are terrific!

Cool stuff 👍

That’s awesome I like those all in one inverters. I am currently taking a electricians course through a college online. I am looking forward to not relying on the grid. :)

Good day Will! I bought a weize 12v 10ah lifpo4 battery to be a drop in replacement for the SLA in an UPS. However I am unsure after reading the instructions that came with it. I am concerned that the charge circuit in the UPS will damage the lifepo4 battery. Do you think the built in BMS board is sufficient protection, or would wiring in a DC-DC lifepo4 battery charger be required. I did do a teardown of one of them and can give you pictures and details of the inside. Thanks for your time.

Amazing information and videos, appreciate all the links and more! Looking to setup a small system to charge a Kona EV entirely off the grid this summer so that I can run it completely free. Feel like there will be layover in the evenings where I might be able to get 3 or so hours of sun but then have to pull the rest from a battery rack. At 24amps, I'm guessing it would take close to 10 hours for a full charge so maybe 3-4 batteries could do the job for the rest, I wonder...

Thank you for your videos! They are super useful! How would you go about sizing the battery back up to accommodate a full charge on an ev? I’m in the process of a rv/trailer build, 30’ rv and 24’ toy trailer. Trailer will hold my 18’ sailing kayak, my Ford Escape Phev (14kwh bat) and solar generator hopefully with enough charge the car while holding a few days energy for the rv. I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the electrical system I need to create. Oh I have on hand 860 a123 cells (3.3v 2.5ah) which I plan on welding into a 16s53p battery which holds 6kwh at 48v. Problem is also weight. Thank you!

Great video Will. What was the efficiency of these units and the idle/overhead? I have been trying to buy an efficient unit.

I was hoping this video was going to be about the Growatt 12k. I'm hoping to move most loads to it and a server rack 48v batteries. Then use solar and the grid tie feature. Also set at battery priority.

SMART BOY! THANKS BRO 🤝

Excellent, but I’m curious about using the growatt inverters for this. Thoughts?

I find it interesting that you also seem to have gravitated to the simple and value based MPP solar inverters. My setup is also two LV6548's, but I have switched from DIY LiFePo4 to server rack based batteries from Seplos. I also use SMA inverters for grid tie at another house, but will be augmenting those with the new MPP LVX6048WP inverters once available, as they have 600V inputs!

Nice video .

Best way too go is as you point out with the Tesla Wallbox directly to the inverter if you can afford two wallboxes one off grid and one connected to the grid as a backup if the batteries are empty.

Wouldn't using this inverter (48V SPF 12kW DVM MPV 250VDC Off Grid 120/240V Inverter with 120A Charge Controller by Growatt) bring us much closer to the maximum charge rate at level 2? Other than being a little more expensive and putting the panels into groups what are the downsides? Thanks!

heya yes those all in 1 inverter are great. I have the MPP solar HV 5048 hybrid inverter with 6K solar array, really want it to install it

I'd love to get the independence of an EV and Off-grid charging system soon.

Ciao amico ben tornato 🤝🔋😁

I’m kinda torn about an offgrid setup like this (unless you’re off grid anyway). Advantages - it’s simple, with only some basic building and tech skills needed and relatively inexpensive. Disadvantage - you don’t have the grid as backup and you’re potentially letting solar go to waste. Especially if you’re just using it for EV charging. When the batteries are full you could be supplementing the grid and powering your own loads. Still an excellent video as usual from Will.

Awesome !

I've been thinking about doing this for my Tesla. Would love to charge off-grid. I typically only charge at 25A anyway from my 40A home circuit. The wires of the Tesla mobile connector just feel much cooler and safer to me since I usually charge overnight while I'm sleeping.

The transfer switch method is what I'm going to use to give backup power to my house and perhaps run a couple circuits full time in order to cycle the batteries.. As I won't be charging from solar initially (maybe not at all) I'm curious about charging from AC. Basically the reverse of the AC output method. AC output will be L14-30 cord (female half) wired directly to the inverter and plugged into the generator inlet box. Can I also wire the other half (male half) of the L14-30 directly into the AC input and plug it into an L14-30 receptacle?

Beat guy out there thanks

Dynamic rate changing with an OpenEVSE charger might be a good idea. The EV charging spec allows the charger to change the charge rate during the charge session by changing the duty cycle of the pilot carrier. This could be a method to prevent discharging battery banks during an EV charge session when solar output declines during cloud covered or at the end of the day.

Thank you

Will thanks for all this information in solar systems.....Kindly of the many LIFEpo4 batteries you test do you or any of this battery companies ship to kenya? Our market is saturated with SLA batteries at most

Will question ???? do I have to have two systems if I want to run Solar power and wind power? Thank you, your videos are easy to follow keep up the good work..

I would love to see the different model names of various inverters with an explanation of their naming conventions. What to the letters ir numbers tell us and how do we compare their capabilities.

Actually, the wiring should be able to handle 220A. That specific inverter does provide 160A (2x80) from solar, but it ALSO can charge from utility (or generator) at 60A, so in total 220A. Unless you're never using the utility charger you have to wire for the maximum amps (thus, charging from both utility and full solar, even though this isn't likely to happen very often). Also, make sure the battery can handle this, lots of them only handle 100A charging, so you might need to configure the charger for lower amps (or run multiple batteries in parallel)

Hey Will or viewer I have a similar setup to your milk crate off grid small inverter setup, running 2 awg cable to bus bar then 2 inverter I’ve noticed shorter cable 150mm is getting hot and hanging around 45 to 50 celcius when pulling 90 amps on my fan heater just wondering if that normal or should I add another cable to make thicker to reduce heat? It runs pretty good anyhow 135ah lithium phosphate (100ah discharge 200ah surge) atlas lithium aus made battery 1200watt 12v Inverter Only gets hot if I run fan heater on low setting pulling 95amps

Great video!! Can an EV charger similar to this be setup with a battery less inverter?

I power my house with one I love it

Will, could you do a video on transfer switches?

hey Will I did see one other comment along the same idea as mine but what about DC charging. Have you had a chance to look into it at all. If you think about it it should be more efficient to use a DC to DC converter right off the battery bank to the car I would think could still use a all in one charge inverter to charge and for back up power. It might also be a useful setup for power outage if you could also back feed from the car but im not up to speed on how the DC on cars equipped with DC charging work but I would Imagen that what makes it more efficient is that there is almost a direct line from the bat main terminal so might be a simple way to feed in or out?

First off, thank you for your great DIY posts. I have learned so much. I am interested in building a solar carport to charge my Bolt ev. The idea of reprogramming the car to charge at a slower rate is discouraging especially when we also want to use our level 2 charger. I'm thinking of just setting up for a level 1 to start with and not have near the investment. Would you possible want to cover that? The panels on a carport might be close to matching the power output to the car so battery storage might be minimal. Thanks

Impressive! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼🤓

Can you do a video about paralleling batteries (same chemistry) of different capacity?

Will would you please do a video on 24v systems for beginners using 12vx100 batteries?

Thanks for the video. I have just started researching to use my solar panels to charge my PHEV. I have 4.2 kW solar panels on my roof and need to hook up a level 2 EV charging station. Any tips will be much appreciated

If we could only get Will into wind and hydro now 👌🏻

My EBike just uses 250 watts to charge it in 6 hours at 2 amps per hour using 110 volts for its 48 volt battery. 👍

Will, why do you recommend a T-Class fuse and which piece of the installation is it protecting? Is there a breaker that could be used instead? Thanks.

Exciting

I really enjoy your videos. If I have a e transit ford, could i help my battery by installing an array similar to yours? I will be mobile on the road.. but how many panels would it take to even make a meaningful dent?

A very useful system, I wonder how much it would cost for

Will can u show us how to use a EV system handle to charge a plastic crate system u showed us how to build. This would be very helpful for your battery bank system as these car chargeing stations are becoming more plentiful about the USA. tanks for ur pics and Carpe Diem young man!!

hey Will, looking for information on schematics for solar off grid level 3 and level 2 EV charger, like the Beam system

What if you also want to use 120v appliances while charging at 240v? Would you just wire the inverter to a breaker box and use both 240v and 120v breakers? How would dynamic load balancing even work, assuming you want to prioritize 120v devices?

Question: in a past video you stated lithium batteries really like to be charged and discharged at 75° F. For maximum cycle life. I'm planning to convert my prevost bus from flooded to lithium. I have a spot inside the interior of the bus that has AC and heat instead of next to the hot engine where the flooded batteries are now. My question is while I'm not using the bus, the lithium batteries will reach outside temps of 100° F. + but the batteries will not be cycling up or down because everything will be OFF. will this shorten the life of the battery ?

Wow this is really great information I just purchased my first EB last weekend although it is only a 16 KW hour battery in a Mitsubishi I-miev my goal is to charge it as quickly as possible on the level one port .. So tell me If I have a 24 KW hour battery that is charged by my solar system and I come home from work in the evening and I plug in the charger to my 16 KW hour battery will the power from the 24 kilowatt hour battery charge to 16 kilowatt hour battery to full capacity and wait for the sun to come up the next day to recharge itself?

So In reality this could be mounted inside an EV that has solar panels and batteries on board and have endless power on the go! Thanks Will! You might wanna hide though!

Can you provide a video with a schematic to put together an off grid charging system for 3 Teslas. I really like all your information.

What are the chances of you using the utility trailer as an extended battery or on the go charging for a Tesla. Pretty much have it hooked up as you pull the trailer.

I'm sure this is the wrong place, but it's really the only thing I've seen RE:240. I was thinking about using 2 Bluettis & batteries to make 240. Is it possible to then run it to a separate breaker box for 2 legs, 1 - 240 circuit for mini split and 2-120 circuits to run my TV/Computer room? Then I'd run 240 to charge the Bluetti when there's not enough solar. If there's a better place for this question just point me in that direction and I'll get out of your hair. Thanks!

When using multiple parallel inverters, do they have to connect to the same battery bank or can each have its own bank? Why / Why not?

How are MPP Soalr Inverters quality and noisewise? They're very expensive around here, often more, than a similar high end brand high voltage system. What about the MPI Series?

I have a 72v utility electric truck I need to use as a backup power source. The problem I have is that these split phase inverters are 24v or 48v. What do I need to be able to use my truck to power my house?

"Please let me know if my idea is bad" Me: "Has Will ever had a bad idea?"

If you were going to do this today would you use the same equipment?

I have a Renault Zoe but it doesn't work at the normal outlet without grounding, do you think that it will only work with the inverter grounding

Very cool. Can this be used for a combined 120/240 say for off grid cabin and allowing the occasional Tesla charging?

Will, is there an inverter that you’d recommend that would have the ability to charge a Tesla (or in my case a Rivian) at full Level 2 capacity?

I don't plan to charge an EV, I just like watching your videos because each one spurs ideas and thoughts about the projects I am working on. I have a very specific solar project that I would like your input on. Are you available for consultations?

I would add to check your EV’s charging parameters. My 2013 Leaf doesn’t have ability to change the charge current so the MPP would not be enough for level 2 charging.

To charge the average EV , how many watts/panels would you need ?

Do you need to hook up a battery for storage also or does this inverter act as a storage bank also?

Could you do a video on dc charging ?

What would you recommend as the smallest W/hr bank size for charging an EV?

Will, is there any way to direct DC charge these dc EVs?

Is there a newer model of this that can do level 2 charging today?

How many solar panels would you need if your goal was to charge your tesla?

Does anyone know approximately how many panels would be needed for this system? I'm wanting to build one or two Off-Grid Chargers for my EV's. Thanks!

Will, have you done much research into what, at home wind turbines would produce as either an add on or supplement to a solar system. Is it even worth the investment for cloudier climates to supplement w turbines. Like on the Oregon coast for example. Thx.