how many kWh to fully charge?

I just joined this forum and have searched around a bit, but have not yet found enough info to figure out how many kWh does it take to fully charge the Mitsubishi i-Miev? I am trying to size a solar panel array on my house to accommodate a (near) future purchase of an all-electric vehicle (in addition to my usual lights and refrigerator usage). I simply want to know how many kWh per year I need to go 10,000 miles per year. I have seen a couple of people's estimates from actual driving of 0.242 and 0.199 kWh/mile, which does not match Mitsubishi's estimate of 0.30 kWh/mi (30 kWh/charge with 100 miles/charge) or a more realistic 0.48 kWh.mi (62 miles/charge).

If I had a good number for kWh/mi, I could then simply multiply by the number of miles I expect to drive in a year to get my yearly kWh needed. If anyone sees any errors in my math, or can point me to some more relevant data, that would save me some time, as I need to make the decision right away on the number of solar panels to install.

Thanks,
-Jeff

I think there are copious examples from Don, Joe, and others on consumption values. Here's a good post JoeS started:

http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=403

It's nice because he does a wall to wheels calculation that includes the charger inefficiencies that would be perfect for determining what you'd need to use for a solar array. Of course, it's all a bit of a guessing game anyway. My solar array is about 10% better this year than last due to the weather patterns, and my driving is a lot less (been biking more). My rough calculations (nowhere near as good as JoeS's) do put the i in the 250w-h/mile (or 4 miles/1kwh), which means to go 10,000 miles will consume 2500kwh in a year. Joe's real calculations show a bit less than that (2282 kwh to go 10,000 miles). If you use a lot of heat (we turned ours on for the first time last night - ugh, that was a range sucker) or air-conditioning, you could consume more. And, if you opportunity charge away from home (I can charge at work and do sometimes), then you won't draw as much from your home array. When I was sizing my array, I wanted to have it in the 80-90% of my current usage so I had room to grow. But, if you're sizing it just for a car, you might want to size it the other way - for a higher range car or 2nd EV (or PHEV) in the future.

Thank you, this is what I needed. I will post my data here after I get the solar panels installed, and after I get the car.
-Jeff

Hi, I think if you allowed for 5 hours good sunlight a day, to factor in for wet days where it produces less, than on sunny days, a 1. 6 Kw panel would work to run the imiev for 30 miles per day or 50 Km per day.

If finances allowed, now that solar panels are cheaper, I would consider buying the grid tie or stand alone inverter, and size it to match the load or greater, or get a model that will stack and allow more inverters to link together, thus giving back up in case the inverter breaks, and then buy the number of panels one can easily afford, then add more later as finances allow.

Often it is hard to allow for the whole cost of a system in one go.

So perhaps a grid tied or stand alone 2. 5 Kw inverter, and a few panels to see how it goes, then to size for the imiev and house hold gear, I think a set of panels to 2. 5 Kw would work in sunny days, and a 4 kw panel for allowing for less sunny days.

Our house is getting a set of two 4 kw inverters and a 7 Kw panel, with a 52 kw battery set, and a two 8 Kw diesel generators. The diesel generators used one at a time with the other for back up, also provide hot water for the house heating via radiators and for hot water for showers, in winter. In Summer we expect the solar panels will provide all the power we need for the imiev and the house.

The daily load for the house not counting the imiev, is currently, , 30 Kw / hours per day. We expect to travel about 30 km per day normally. This should add about another 5 Kw per day to the house load when we recharge the imiev each day.

Yes, we know it is unecconmic, only something we want to do for fun. Mains power is still cheaper.

Agreed - Unless you work nights (and sleep days) recharging directly from solar isn't all that practical. Better to grid tie and let the utility pay you for the juice during the day when your panels are most productive and that way you can buy it back from them at night when you'll usually recharge. If you live in an area which has reduced night rates, it could really pay off for you - Sell them your daytime juice for 20 cents (or whatever your daytime rate is) and then buy it back from them at night for half or less of what they paid you. You could then get by with an even smaller solar array

Don

My charger tells me how many kW it puts into the power pack each charge. From what i can tell there is some loss to heat but not a lot. The part that i don't understand is the dip after the first couple hours it happens on every charge.

The dip you refer to is actually a full power-off part of the charging cycle which lasts exactly ten minutes. I believe this is part of the battery state assessment by the battery management system wherein they're probably checking for individual cell voltage sag before continuing with the charging. Good feature.

makes sense i figured they were using it to balance the battery pack but that was just a guess.