Has anyone replaced their golf cart roof with a solar panel?

[Linguolizzard]

Friend of mine buys old roof solar panel for cheap and uses them to power things when he camps and to charge batteries on his camper. Some of them seem very close to the size of a golf cart roof. Was curious if I am the only one who thought of this swap. Highly unlikely I’m that unique.

[DaveTM]

I think it's a good idea on one hand......then OTOH I dunno if a "constant" charging would be a good idea.

It's my understanding that a battery, FLA or Lithium, should be "used" and power drawn down to a given voltage and then charged back up.

In other words, a constant "topping off" may not be the best for battery life. But I suppose with a simple on\off switch you could have it charge when the batt's run low.....then again, I dunno how many amps a solar panel can "put out".

(Random thoughts from an old guy)

[Volt_Ampere]

Yes - a guy here was selling "solar" golf carts for a few years. They have a solar panel on the roof with a charge controller to charge the 48V FLA batteries. It increases range if you are playing golf since the cart sits as much as it drives but IMO it's not worth the hassle. If you store your cart outside and don't have charge access most of the time, then it might be a good idea but I keep my cart in my garage out of the sun when I'm not driving it. I forget now much power the panel puts out on his carts but it's probably 300W or so.

[bronsonj]

If you think about your cart it is probably pulling 75-ish amps when running at a constant speed (far more when accelerating or going up hill). If your cart is a 48v cart, that's 3,600 watts continuous. If you go through the hassle to put in a solar panel that is used it may be producing 200 watts. Assuming no losses or inefficiencies (HA!), then if you run the cart for 30 minutes at a steady speed using 75 amps, it'll take the panel 4.5 hours (of perfect sun) to replenish that energy. In reality you will be varying your speed and using more amps, you will have clouds and off-angle solar radiation so it'll be far worse than that.

In my mind the only way this makes sense is if you have the cart in a remote area where you can't charge it. If you live off-grid and don't use your cart every day but leave it outside, then sure.

Actually, 2 ways it makes sense. The other way is if you add more panels and make the roof bigger. There was something I saw online where a guy had a Cushman industrial cart 48v that he put 5 or 6 panels on. He also had a trailer he'd pull behind with another 4 panels on. Using his 48v pack and a big honkin inverter he could run the window air conditioner and clothes washer at his cabin at the same time and provide all the power from the sun... That was actually pretty cool.

If I could get panels on the cheap and I had a lead acid battery pack, I'd probably be looking at making an extended roof and seeing if I could get three panels up there. But again you'll have to leave it outside a lot.

[Pat911]

I think you will find that it takes a 200W panel 9 hours to replenish 1800Wh (3600W for 0.5 hours), not 4.5 hours. Otherwise, very good points.

[DaveTM]

It's likely just me.....but the Hoo-Haaa about solar and those HUGE windmill looking gizmos being the "save all" for clean energy is just that.....Hoo-Haa.

But for small applications they work very well.

Some things are just excellent when "small" is wanted\needed.....like bikini's. But it can turn ugly when you try to take that small excellence and large scale it.....like bikini's.

[Linguolizzard]

I was actually thinking of it powering my accessories battery. I installed a phone charger and moved my lights to a secondary battery system because I have access to free used glass Matt batteries. I am setting them up to have multiple running 12 volt still. They work pretty good and so far have no real need for it. But I do have s small trickle charger solar panel to top it off. I had a friend who was buying used roof solar panels to power and charge his telescope batteries for his star gazing trips in remote areas. He only paid like 30 bucks for the panel and it still has 80% capacity. I think it’s pulling like 280 instead of 300. The cost of the plastic roofs is like 500 and mine is cracking from sun exposer and age. The panel looks about the same size. Thought I might get a two for one deal with s new roof and a giant trickle charger for my accessories battery system.

[bronsonj]

Ah, ok. That makes more sense. You'll still need a frame to mount the panel to, but some angle aluminum and pop rivets will make short work of that. Glad you can find deals like that on used panels, I haven't seen anything like that around here.