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[HDaugus]

Hi, I've been waiting to post about this until I had them long enough to evaluated them fully, but I'm very happy with the solar kit I got from air1solar. I wanted to start this thread for anyone who is considering going solar. I would be happy to share my experiences.

Important Notes:

1)the solar kit is only for lead acid batteries and you need to squeeze 1" square pipe rails up in the ceiling to support the panels. The icon roof is too thin to support the panels without the rails.

2) You can still plug in once the panels are installed but should do it only at night or in strong shade during the day. I always take out the fuse in the solar line when I charge in shade.

3) It's 3-100 watt panels and in full sun it charges at approximately the same rate as plugging it in.

4) The panels do charge the cart while it's running but because you're drawing so much power it mainly just gives it a boost. It still takes as much time as it takes to charge plugged in to charge the battery. So in other words, you can't run endlessly while the sun is out. You need the cart to sit in the sun 4-8 hours to get to a full charge depending on how far you've drawn down the battery. However, for example, if I drive a little outside of my comfort range to meet a friend for lunch and the cart sits in the sun for an hour or two while we're at lunch, I have a much better likelihood of getting home than I would have had without the panels. On a daily basis, if I run my errands in the morning for an hour or so, the cart is recharged by approximately the same time the next morning as long as I haven't gone more than about 16 miles round trip. If I've gone further the day before I usually have to wait until the afternoon the next day to run my errands.

I work from home in Southern California and use the cart as my primary errand vehicle. I run errands pretty much every day and I have barely had to plug in since the end of February.

Heather

[robertmII]

Very cool!

[ATrain]

How much did it cost? Can you provide some links?

I have some friends in SoCal who don't have a dedicated charging spot so they're always running around with extension cords trying to "fill up".

[Hoosier_daddy]

This is very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

[HDaugus]

Originally Posted by ATrain

How much did it cost? Can you provide some links?

I have some friends in SoCal who don't have a dedicated charging spot so they're always running around with extension cords trying to "fill up".

http://air1.solar/solargolfcartkits.html

It is not cheap, but since I use the cart as my main vehicle the cost makes sense for me. Also our driveway is 100 ft from an electrical outlet so this is way more convenient than lugging an extension cord (which shouldn't even be used anyway). AND it keeps a regular charge on the batteries without gassing them, which I'm told should make the batteries last longer.

As a back up option if I happen to run down too far while I'm out, I've also purchased a Ecoflow delta 1300 which I keep in the back well all the time, locked with two short locks on the handles. It gives me one hour of strong charging which will get me home in most circumstances if the sun isn't strong that day and I've misjudged my SOC. It's not a full charging option but I've used it a couple of times when I didn't want to risk running my battery down too low before I had to head up some hills to get home. I also keep a dark cloth and some binder clips in the back with the battery and I cover the solar panels if I charge with the extra battery.

[ATrain]

I'm not seeing a price for the AS400W48V kit? How much was it?

[HDaugus]

Originally Posted by ATrain

I'm not seeing a price for the AS400W48V kit? How much was it?

Hi, I'm sorry, I don't want to be a jerk but given all the supply chain issues and everything going on right now whatever my price was may not be the price today and I don't want to mislead anyone. I think the best thing to do is write or call for a price and availability.

But to give you a ballpark a Tektrum Universal 200 Watt 200w 48v Solar Panel Battery Charger Kit For Golf Cart is currently listed for $914 on the Walmart site and the one from a1solar is 100w more of charging power, so it's at least 100w more expensive.

As I mentioned - not cheap!

[ATrain]

Oh so $900-1500 is my guess? That's not bad at all IMO if it comes with everything you need.

4-8 hours will actually charge the cart? I'm assuming it directly charges the batteries, so do you have any indicator or how do the panels stop charging?


Will Prowse (YouTuber) I think does a DIY home build system for a golf cart.

I have lots of friends who live near the beach, but don't have a parking spot with power to charge their carts and if solar could charge the cart, they'd get them for sure.

[HDaugus]

Originally Posted by ATrain

Oh so $900-1500 is my guess? That's not bad at all IMO if it comes with everything you need.

4-8 hours will actually charge the cart? I'm assuming it directly charges the batteries, so do you have any indicator or how do the panels stop charging?


Will Prowse (YouTuber) I think does a DIY home build system for a golf cart.

I have lots of friends who live near the beach, but don't have a parking spot with power to charge their carts and if solar could charge the cart, they'd get them for sure.

On the upper range of that is a good guess. The kit comes with a voltage meter. You know the batteries are fully charged when the voltage meter indicates the cart is at floating voltage and you can monitor how it's charging along the way as well. We installed the solar panels at the end of October, which wasn't the best time initially due to low sun. I had to plug in to supplement from October to mid-February, but since the end of February I have barely had to plug in, except when I've gone a particularly long distance and I need to use the cart the next morning.

In full sun, my experience has been that the cart fully charges in 4-8 hours of full sun, but remember that is 4-8 hours of sitting time, not running. If someone is driving it all day, it's not going to charge at that rate while driving. But for someone like me who needs to use it about once a day for an hour or someone who doesn't drive it every single day, or someone who wants to keep a charge on the battery when not in use, I think it works great.

I think the difference between air1solar's kit and most of the other's that are available is the extra solar wattage. The 100-200w kits you see out there aren't going to cut it. Mr. O of air1solar told me that he originally had 4-100w panels for his 48v kit but it was overkill. He said that 300w is the sweet spot and the amperage range matches household output conditions. I've found that to be true, not by measuring because I don't know how to do that, but just by experience with the charging times. In full sun it is really close to plugging in. Maybe a little slower, but I believe the controller is set not to gas the batteries so that could be a benefit.

You need to be a little handy to install air1solar's kit. It's not really difficult but you have to be careful and take it slow and methodical. You're drilling holes in the roof so you want to get that right the first time. My husband had some experience with a solar powered fountain rig that he set up himself so that was helpful. I'm not sure that it's a good idea for someone with zero solar experience to do by themselves.

The 1-inch square rails we installed in the ceiling do not come with the kit so those have to be bought, cut and painted separately. They are absolutely necessary. We tried it without them, but the roof is way too thin and showed slight signs of beginning to crack so we put them in.

The kit comes with the solar panels and hardware, the charge controller, a voltage meter, and the wiring. There is an option to wire the voltage meter so that you only see what's happening when you turn on the key, (I guess this saves some drain on the battery from the voltage meter itself), but we opted to run it straight from the battery so we can see what's happening without needing the key. We ran the wire out from under the cup holder and mounted the voltage meter using a window cell phone mount (not included). The black wrap around the wires that run down from the roof is NOT included in the kit but that's not expensive and it really makes a differnce in how everything blends in and looks finished, so worth the small expense IMO.

I'll take some additional pictures in a bit here to show the voltage meter and the rails in the ceiling.

[ATrain]

When you say that you see it's full by the meter...does this mean you have to switch off the charging or something?

I was imagining you hook it up, it charges until a certain voltage, then stops charging? Never worked with solar before though.