Did you know that Sunlight Solar Energy is authorized to install some of the most popular in-home electric vehicle chargers? Well we are! If you drive an electric vehicle, adding a charging station to your home may be a good option to consider.
Level One or Level Two? What’s the best option for you?
The majority of EV charging occurs at home. If you are using an outlet that was built into your home to charge your car, you are likely using what’s known as a Level 1 charger or a 120 volt outlet. Level 1 outlets offer the slowest charge times for electric vehicles (approximate 4.5 miles of range per hour of charging). For example, if you drive a Nissan Leaf with a capacity of approximately 80 miles of real life driving on a full charge, you’re looking at 17.7 hours of being plugged in to fully charge your battery. According to Nissan’s website the 2017 model can go up to 107 miles on a fully charged battery which would require almost an entire day (23.7 hours) to fully charge from an empty battery. Upgrading to a 240V outlet can almost triple the miles of range you get per hour of charging time. For the new Nissan Leaf with (107 miles of range), a 240 volt outlet could fully charge your car overnight (8 hours). See the table for a comparison of fully electric vs hybrid and levels of charging.
How Sunlight Solar Energy can help you upgrade to a Level 2 charger.
- We work with the top EV charging manufacturers: When you are ready to upgrade to a Level 2 charger, Sunlight Solar Energy has experienced professionals to help match you with the correct charger for your needs and budget. Currently we offer EV chargers from 3 of the most popular manufacturers listed below:Chargepoint
Aerovironment
Tesla’s Wall Connector
Your System Designer will help you navigate the various options available and help identify which charger makes the most sense for you.
- We’re professionals. You will have the peace of mind knowing that your home charging station is installed by licensed Journeyman Electricians that have completed training and certifications for each of the above manufacturers.
- We can help you take your environmental goals further by coupling your EV charging stations with a solar electric system on your roof. Sunlight Solar Energy is one of the oldest solar electric installers in the state and one of the first solar trade allies of the Energy Trust of Oregon. We’re your local experts when it comes to residential solar. Our System Designers will customize your home solar installation with the anticipation of the extra load incurred by your electric vehicle charging needs. This way your car will also be solar powered!
Don’t take our word for it! Here’s what one of our solar powered home and charging station clients is saying.
“We are enjoying driving on sunlight. Our 14 kW Sunlight Solar generating system produced about 21MWhr of electricity in 2016 of which about 8 MWhr was consumed by our household. The remaining annual surplus production of approximately 13 MWhr was available for charging electric vehicles. Our current electric vehicle can travel about 3 miles on 1 kWhr of electricity. An annual surplus of 13 MWhr of solar electricity production can provide about 39,000 miles of electric vehicle travel. Our garage vehicle charging station (installed by Sunlight Solar, Inc) allows us to “fill up” our electric vehicle at home with solar generated electricity providing our family with virtually unlimited, free, petroleum free transportation.”
Check out the video below of the above client’s Sunlight Solar Energy installed Tesla Wall Connector in action!