Solar Electric Club

17/09/2025

Our black Nissan Leaf Tekna started life in the UK in 2013 as a smart state of the art electric car with a 80 mile / 128 km 24kWh battery. Things rapidly moved on with Teslas quickly taking over with great styling and 3-4 times the range / battery size. Nevertheless for city driving, the Leaf is still a very impressive car to this day. We acquired our Leaf from a salvage auction in 2020 after receiving a nasty rear end crash, but no damage to the main mechanical and electrical components. It's amazing how quick insurance companies are at righting off vehicles. Thankfully there is a thriving repair industry that saves decent cars from being crushed and we happily used the Leaf for day to day driving. The biggest problem was the depleted battery. At around 60% it was still a usable run around and chose it as a guinea pig for making a V2H Vehicle to House hack via a 4kW grid-tied inverter hooked up to our main house 28kWh battery. It worked but it required bypassing the proper leaf plugs which was not so convenient plus it became tempremental with a number of error codes appearing than needed to be cleared in Leaf Spy. Clearly the Leaf on-board computer knew something was 'Strange'. In late 2023 the computer finally told us the game was up. I believe there was a fault with the pre-charge resistor and main contactors in the main battery pack. So hard to know for sure but trawling through the on line Leaf community gave this impression. It's hard to know if our 'Hack' had caused the problem or not. So what to do? Remove the main battery, open it up and inspect? Or get a new larger 62kWh battery from China? We chose the second option but a risky one. At over 8,000 euros it was a significant investment but nothing compared to the OEM Nissan battery at over twice the price for the same original size. With great relief the Leaf computer accepted it's new battery and we now have a 379km range on full charge, which is absolutely fine for us. It's an extra 200 kg or so heavier so its not quite so quick like having 3 extra passengers on board and I dont expect the same economy. For anyone thinking of swapping a Leaf battery it's not so difficult, it really is plug and play as the manufacturers say but you do need to find a friendly local garage with a lift, a palette truck and a rising table....those batteries are crazy heavy. Next question is what to do with the old battery. Here in Greece there is nobody who recycles and in any case 60% may be rubbish for a car but its great for certain static applications so we'll hook it up for some experiment or other. Because of the suspect contactors inside we will probably convert the 400V battery to a far safer 48V without the need for contactors. Or anyone out there looking for a DIY home set up let me know.

19/03/2025

Having open days and giving training seminars is great, not only do we get the chance to influence so when Volvo asked to come to Helios Eco Lab as part of a training programme run with Dimitris Vintzilaios at PPP Learn we of course agreed. We showcased the whole solar electric ecosystem in order to give the Volvo EV team an immersive experience showing the opportunities and benefits of sustainable practices and in particular demonstrate how solar home charging for example is so very convenient and cheap. Volvo EV communications currently revolves around the vehicle attributes, purchase cost, low running costs, charging, range, performance and so on but the sustainability story is much bigger and Volvo felt, and we agree that there is more to say including the considerable effort made by Volvo to use recycled materials within their supply chain.

The message we have for Volvo and ultimately Volvo customers goes much further than just financial savings and technology. EV and solar EV in particular opens a whole new paradigm where cars are able to power a house or grid and vice versa. Embracing the whole spectrum of solar coupled with EV, customers can see what unshackling from the major energy and fuel networks means. Sounds good on paper but coming here the team were able to see the full extent of the possibilities of the transition to decentralised clean energy.
The environmental perspective we provide here in full too from the use of recycled materials for doors, stairs, furniture, lights and power banks to home grown pumpkin soup for lunch and using repurposed scrap cardboard refrigerator boxes instead of throw away flip charts. Plus of course lots of brainstorming, discussions topped with a Climate Fresc workshop facilitated by Dimitris.

24/01/2025

SHINE BABY SHINE, BLOW BABY BLOW, this is the new mantra I propose for those of us who refuse to accept a future defined by the new USA administration. The photo shows the Helios Eco Lab off grid solar system comprising 54 panels on the roof and outside pergolas providing year round energy for the house and electric vehicle charging meaning after the initial investment and around a 7 year payback because we have batteries, we dont spend a cent to energy companies and oil companies, sounds good eh? Not everyone loves wind turbines but located off shore and combined with solar and a decent amount of energy storage then Greece blessed with sun and wind could reach it's target of 82% renewables by 2030, already (2023) it is 57%. For me it's too slow but it's moving, so too many other countries including by the way the USA. In reality, despite the rehetoric, renewables are too big to derail, not least because its cheaper than fossil fuels but it would help if we the people stood up and demanded better from their governments and better still, just put solar on your roof and take back control.

16/06/2024

Solar Power Europe, representing the EU solar industry came to Helios Eco Lab earlier in the year as part of a series of promotional videos. For those interested next 21st of June, mid summers day, there is a European Solar Day celebrating the virtues of solar see

Join us as we embark on a new energy era for Europe, one powered by the sun.Together, we are securing our energy, boosting our economy, and safeguarding our ...

13/02/2024

10/07/2023

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Yamaha Chappy city motorbike (see image 1) we invite you to help us launch an electric conversion. With the help of AI we created some interesting options 2,3 and 4. Image 5 shows a discarded Chappy we found for 100 euros and replaced all the broken petrol engine components for a hub electric motor, 72 volt battery, controller and new throttle. We had most of the components from previous projects so it only took us a day. This 'Proof of concept' Africa style bike easily climbs our steep hill at Helios. Unfortunately Greek law does not allow conversions so we cannot ride on the Greek roads and can only offer conversion in the UK and America where they are more relaxed. This is a shame we feel because the conversion does not burn fossil fuel and reuses the frame of the original bike which will last another 50 years. This example of the circular economy is labour intensive and would support the excellent local Greek car repair industry. So in effect by not allowing conversions Greece is protecting the prolific Chinese bike industry at the expense of its own.

25/05/2023

Today we installed our latest 1kW balcony solar system with a 1kW grid tied inverter. It's a true game changer because it's so cheap (1k euros for the hardware) and very easy to install. Not exactly plug and play but nothing as difficult as a regular rooftop system and very easy to uninstall if you decide to move apartment. The inverter comes with a CT clamp that connects to the main input cable from the grid that enables the inverter to not allow energy to be exported and therefore safe and legal. It's not net metering and therefore no additional contract is required. The system just lowers your grid use. You may have to notify the landlord of the apartment block but not the other tennants which was always the problem with making rooftop solar PV on an apartment block in Athens. On a south facing balcony without shadow you may harvest 1,400 kWh per year and therefore the payback should be around 3-6 years. Batteries can be an added option in order to reduce nighttime grid use. So to conclude per kWp it's at a very cheap price and very simple to install assuming your house/apartment block has a reasonably modern and well wired electrical system.

26/11/2022

Just installed a 3 phase 4.95 kWp solar hybrid system. The advantage of hybrid for our client was 1) Avoiding the bureaucracy of a 25 year contract with DEH, 2) Long term ROI better than net metering because of avoiding DEH transmission costs associated with net metering 3) Having a guaranteed electricity supply during power cuts courtesy of a battery being an integral part of the system and 4) Having DEH as a back up for times of high loads at night or cloudy days. 5) Much more green because of minimal use of the dirty grid (currently the Greek grid is around 75% oil/gas/coal and 25% renewables) Overall equipment and installation costs are similar to net metering apart from the battery costs. In this case the client had limited funds and went for a small reused lifepo4 48V battery from an electric car but will upgrade as funds become available. See the phone app image to see how hybrid works with a load (house icon) drawing 2.2 kW supplied by solar 0.8kW plus battery1.5kW. The grid icon is dormant without green arrows but may be activated automatically should the load increase dramatically. We used 3 x high frequency transformerless hybrid 5kW Growatt inverters, one for each phase. High frequency inverters are being sold in their thousands globally and were on sale by dozens of companies at Intersolar in Munich this year but there are very few in Greece and as far as we know this is one of the only 3 phase installations. We went for 18 x 275W PV panels meaning we were under the 5kWp threshold requiring a license to build. The panels fitted perfectly on the flat roof next to the solar thermosyphon for hot water. During the summer with the house full they were consuming a mammoth 50kWh a day but economised down to 10kWh a day which we think the 5 kWp system should be able to manage as long as the client uses the high load items such as heat pump and cooking during the sunny hours. The grid as back up will be there of course but the aim is to minimise its use.

03/10/2022

The Solar Butterfly visited us yesterday, we have them some solar generated energy to charge their batteries to set them on their way around the world

09/08/2022

It's holiday season and many of our northern friends come down to Greece loking for public solar charging and found Helios Eco Lab. Our visitor today from Norway gained some free solar electrons for his Tesla Model S P 100 D. The car is 7 years old with 250,000 km on the clock with around 480 km of range in his battery which equates to just under 80% of the battery intact. We think that's a fair deal. Note the plywood base and mattress in the back for sleeping on the road.