I get about 1 km per hour of top-down-noon sun on a 200 Watt panel. But that only works May to July and only for the center 5 hours of the day. The power drops to virtually zero in December due to the sun angle.
Having done it on two cars, It just make no sense once I went solar at home considering I have over 100 times more area on the roof of my house than the car, and my house panels are always optimally pointed at the sun and can get 100 times the power. http://aprs.org/APRS-SPHEV.html Its an old page, but those kind of non-glass flexible panels (about $10/watt) have only dropped 10% in cost in the last 7 years compared to the FACTOR OF TEN drop in solar cost for home roof top panels. (under 70 cents a watt). So if you like chasing 5% solutions when the 95% solution is just sitting there on your roof... go for it. But it's a waste of time on the car. Bob -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Peri Hartman via EV Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 4:31 PM To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List Subject: Re: [EVDL] Making solar work in a conventional vehicle. Well, it might make sense for the special-case commute where your pack isn't large enough to make a round trip but, with solar panels charging during the day, you "top off" enough to get home. Solves the can't-plug-in-at-work problem too. In fact, you seek the un-coveted parking space that gets maximum sun while everyone else is looking for the space under a tree :) Peri ------ Original Message ------ From: "Ben Goren via EV" <[email protected]> To: "Cor van de Water" <[email protected]>; "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]> Sent: 30-Mar-15 1:26:14 PM Subject: Re: [EVDL] Making solar work in a conventional vehicle. >On Mar 30, 2015, at 1:13 PM, Cor van de Water via EV ><[email protected]> wrote: > >> There is a case for cars that get used very little (infrequent or >>very short drives) and can be parked in full sun >> >> (like on a parking deck top floor, no trees or other buildings) so >>you can gain charge over time, about 5 hours >> >> (full sun equivalent hours that is) per day, for an optimal-max of 5 >>kWh harvested each day. > >...but...if you have the space you can permanently devote to parking >the car like that...you can do far better on every front by putting the >panels over that space, when they can generate power when you've got >the car out and about, and generate more power when the car's sitting >there, and power other things as well, and so on. > >The only really not-crazy practical use case I can think of for a solar >EV is for a nomad who's not in any type of a rush to get from one place >to another. (Of course, they make great project challenges, especially >for engineering students -- but they don't try to pretend that the >vehicles are useful general-purpose vehicles). > >...and, even if you <i>are</i> the nomad type...you're probably still >better off with the panels stowed away when driving, and setting them >up as a tent-like structure over the vehicle when you've settled down >for a couple days while you recharge for the next few hours of driving. > >Come to think of it, even that isn't exactly practical, either. > >You know...there's another way to look at it. > >All life (within rounding) on Earth is solar powered. Plants, >obviously. Animals eat the plants. > >Consider the acreage needed to sustain a person. People are very small >and low power objects compared to high-speed vehicles. > >b& >_______________________________________________ >UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub >http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org >For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA >(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
