Excess Solar Production - Considering an EV

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99Saturn

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Feb 25, 2013
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Bought a new house a few months ago with a solar lease. Panels are producing a lot of excess energy versus our kwh consumption, so considering ways to use the extra energy.

I have never previously really considered an EV but I have seen a couple of threads about the depreciation on Nissan Leaf's because of their range and the way the battery degrades, which got me curious. I started looking around locally and seems like there are some in the $3K to $5K range, which I can sort of justify versus something new.

Being basically an EV novice I'm wondering what (if any makes/models) are worth considering if I am trying to stay in say the $5K range? (Not really looking to buy a beater, but can deal with, or at least consider, a shortish range for example.)
 
The excess electricity produced carries minimal value. I am in a similar situation and it has never made financial sense to “invest” in another vehicle just to use it.

Also, keep in mind that your production will fluctuate significantly with the seasons and you may find yourself in a very different position during winter months. The panel efficiency will also drop over time.
 
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If the solar is on lease it will be under warranty for the time of the lease me think. So capacity drop I wouldn't be concerned about.

I would still wait to close a full year of usage to see what the end result is. Or at least the critical months. Solar always looks sweet in spring and fall but once those aircons kick in things change.
 
Do you have to be there during the day to charge it or can you store your energy in the grid for later?

A plug in hybrid may also make sense. The break even point for my Prius Prime is gas at $3.75/gal with my electric rates of 22 cents/kWH. If your rates are similar you could switch to gas when your electric bill passes the magic zero number.
 
Unless the car will be home and plugged in during peak solar hours the solar won't do you any good unless you have a large battery bank.

One other thing to know, a Leaf takes a long time to charge on Level 1 charging with 120v (20 to 48 hours from depending on the model), so it may not even be able to consume all your excess power without a 240v Level 2 charger.
 
The Critic said:
The excess electricity produced carries minimal value. I am in a similar situation and it has never made financial sense to “invest” in another vehicle just to use it.

Also, keep in mind that your production will fluctuate significantly with the seasons and you may find yourself in a very different position during winter months. The panel efficiency will also drop over time.
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I agree with everything you said, and come ~June central air will be running too, so excess kWh will go down, or partially consumed, offset by the days being a bit longer too.

January as an example we only produced 492 kWh.

I should have been a little more specific up front. I'm not running out to buy something new, but I want to start thinking about it, and if I will get there. The other aspect is my daily driver is an '06 that has a couple of issues that are beyond my skill set or probably desire to fix/get fixed - regardless, rust is going to take it eventually in the next few years if nothing else, could be 2-3 years, could be 5, I'm not really optimistic I would make it to 5 years though.
 
eljefino said:
Do you have to be there during the day to charge it or can you store your energy in the grid for later?

A plug in hybrid may also make sense. The break even point for my Prius Prime is gas at $3.75/gal with my electric rates of 22 cents/kWH. If your rates are similar you could switch to gas when your electric bill passes the magic zero number.
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No. It's a net meter agreement. Basically, I pay for all power produced, regardless of it is consumed. Anything I don't use gets bought back annually. The buy back rate is at the day ahead hourly price based on what I read online. Buy back looks to be ~ $0.04 a kWh, current rate I am paying is around $0.17 a kWh for what I produce, so every kWh I don't consume costs me ~$0.13, not factoring in time value of money, etc.
 
99Saturn said:
No. It's a net meter agreement. Basically, I pay for all power produced, regardless of it is consumed. Anything I don't use gets bought back annually. The buy back rate is at the day ahead hourly price based on what I read online. Buy back looks to be ~ $0.04 a kWh, current rate I am paying is around $0.17 a kWh for what I produce, so every kWh I don't consume costs me ~$0.13, not factoring in time value of money, etc.
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What a raw deal!
 
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ripcord said:
Unless the car will be home and plugged in during peak solar hours the solar won't do you any good unless you have a large battery bank.

One other thing to know, a Leaf takes a long time to charge on Level 1 charging with 120v (20 to 48 hours from depending on the model), so it may not even be able to consume all your excess power without a 240v Level 2 charger.
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Here's why I was asking about a Leaf but also asking in general trying to think thru options/if it will even make sense. I can make a case for current use case of driving 20-30 miles a day max, and could figure out which car goes where to accommodate that. That could also allow for charging for 11 hours minimum at home. Only instance I "have to" go further is when I drive to a satellite office which is about 75 miles round trip. Probably too far round trip for comfort from what I read regarding Leaf batteries, but there is onsite charging that has been free up until recently, and is going to a minimum charge per kWh, something fairly low. I only go to this office because it is less time and less cost that getting on the train each day.
 
Depends on your use case and what you want.
If gas is expensive and you drive enough that your fueling costs are high, then it may make sense.
Do you have 220V in the garage?
Do you need another car?
What does your power company pay you for excess?

There's a reason the early Leaf is cheap. As @dogememe posted, I would consider a Bolt instead. My neighbors love theirs, but EVs make sense around here with our gas prices.
If it were me, I would try and find an earlier Model 3. Incredible cars.
 
ripcord said:
Maybe you can rig up something to consume the excess power. A couple of water heaters or resistive heating elements or something.
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Agreed. Basically my thought process has been, what would I be able to swap/move to electric that would be lowish cost of entry and not just be using energy to use it. Use case/thought about the car as I laid out in another post is I will need a car sooner rather than later. I'm not knocking EVs but I'm not really all in either. Some electric heating or converting the water heater happen to be on my list of maybes because water heater is on the way out, and heat is an obvious energy consumer here, but don't really want to spend large sums to "save" what the lease has me eating from a cost perspective either.
 
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