Wife asked me: If we could have some form of Solar charging?

[Spots]

We have a place 60 miles out of St. Louis, and before I fixed the antenna, that got hit by lightning, We only had two channels, Religious and religious Energy conservation.
They are always talking about Wind, solar power. Cindy asked me why we cant get some of those Solar charger like at Harbor Freight and Charge the batteries on the EZGO while we run around the place ( and this is coming froma woman that said she would never drive such a dumb thing and now we get cold drinks brought out to us while we are cutting grass-she and her sister ride it all over the place)

Something tells me that this idea might be cost prohibitive?
Right wrong or is it possible- She just saw a protective tarp made for carts and she thought that was a good idea so it would get so dirsty in the barn over the winter- LOLOLO
thanks
Spots

[roady89]

A little one won't do much if anything at all. You need one abut the size of the roof to do any good, even then it will take a week to fully charge it. Theres companies out there pushing this type of product but its just not what they make it out to be. The solar thing is a good idea if you just use the cart for occasional runs, maybe once or twice a day.

The ONLY way to keep it fully charged while driving would be to pull around a generator the size of a large fuel driven welding machine.

[Loud & Lifted]

Check out www.solarenergygolfcarts.com I not sayin they work but it's worth a look.

[golfcarfixer]

Yeah Even The Ones That Are The Size Of Your Top Dont Do Much,i Saw Them At Star Car School And They Didnt Brag On Them Either,plus They Are So Expensive.

[K9Kev]

I'm glad somwone brought these 'solar chargers' up. I've seen the roof model and wondered about it but, at $1800 buck-a-roo's.....I think I could finish my gas cart and have a back up to my electric cart.

Thanks BGW

Now, I'm gonna go waste money on something else I probably don't need so that I can postpone finishing something else I started

Kev

[Spots]

thanks for the information- I talked to Grady this morning and will talk again- I was reading the specs and this could be kool if it works for the Hunting fishing market- My Radio Partner had a cart in Mexico hunting Gould Turkeys. The only problem they had, was recharging them.

[Monsterezgokid]

The ideal behind these solar panel system is great, and would work if you had a large feet of carts that were used on average once every 4-5 days.

Those panles.. which they dont say, put out about 1 amp at 42.6v to charge the 36v batteries. To charge an average cart, it would take almost a whole week to charge up.

They do say that the panels put out about 3.15amps at 15v.. but when you up convert that to 42.6v for charging the pack.. Your amps drop significantly. you would only get about 1 amp out of the system.. thats if the converter is 100% efficent.. which it isnt.

If you have the resources, the best way to charge your cart with solar panels is to set up a whole bunch of high efficency panels on your house, you should beable to get at least a 42v system with about a 15amp capacity if you put about 8 high efficency 44cell panels on your house. like these http://www.amsolar.com/am100.html and would be about $3200 just for panels.. which if you ask me.. is pretty cheap considering how much solar panels used to be about 10-15 years ago.

You can then charge your cart in about 6-7 hours.



The cart roof top panels are only good for keeping batteries toped up when the carts are waiting to go out on the course. not for complete charging.

Dont forget the sun only puts down on average about 120watts of energy per square meter of earth, and the best solar panels are only about 40-30% efficient. (so around 48watts per sq meter) Sanyo right now is the company that makes the most efficient panels to date.

[jauguston]

Just for a frame of reference here is what I have and what it will do. On my motorhome I have three 130w Kyocera solar panels and they are connected to a SB 2000e MPPT controller. This setup in bright sun high in the sky will put out about 18a at 12v. To get this to a cart you would need a battery bank (I use 4-T-105's) and then a inverter to power your charger from the batteries. That output will last at most 5 hours in the middle of the day and be less the rest of the day. If there are clouds the output will drop to near nothing.

Needless to say a gas cart would be a more practical answer as you would have $3000.00 plus in that setup.

Another option would be a Honda EU 2000i portable generator. They will put out 16a 120v so your charger would run off of one of them. They are available online (wisesales.com) for about $875.00. They are quiet and quite fuel efficient.

Jim

[DOOmsman]

Also if your cart was outside and the panel was making juice would it fool your charger into shutting down early or not fire at all?

[roady89]

If the panel is making juice and it has enough to fool the charger then you don't need to charge anyways.