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Old 06-11-2019, 03:06 PM   #7
coosa
Gone Wild
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 407
Default Re: Solar Panel Charging

Quote:
Originally Posted by geoffarias View Post
Is that 2 AH in one hour? And that doesnt account for any random cloud cover etc. So hypothetically in 8 hours in perfect conditions Id be adding 10% of the bank capacity back in? so another way of saying is if my range is 15 miles and I drive the 2 miles to my in laws Id have to let it sit for 8 hours in perfect conditions to recover that lost charge? Def not worth it.

Guess that answers my question why these Teslas don't have solar roof options lol.
You have a good idea, but the technology just isn't there yet to make it practical.

But maybe it will happen eventually. When I bought my first panels, I bought 4 of them at 15 watts each to give me 60 watts going into the pack at ideal conditions. I have my pack wired to produce 12 volts and run the lights at that voltage, and have an inverter for everything else. That was in 2007 and the system cost about $400 with the controller.

I got another panel a couple of years ago and added it in. It is the same size as the other panels, but produces 60 watts by itself, and it only cost $100. That is a lot of improvement in 10 years, so who knows where solar panel technology will be in another 10?

Still, I doubt that solar is ever gonna be a real good way to charge a cart. You need to charge a cart in a relative hurry compared to solar for a home. I'm not sure it's possible, at least not any time soon.

Solar seems to be a good way to make a pack last a long time. I have a couple of 12 volt marine batteries added on to the pack that I pull off for farm work, then hook them back into the pack to charge when I leave. I didn't know how well that would work, but those 2 batteries are now 8 years old and seem to still have full power.
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