smkettner
Well-known member
An engineer would test the output to make their own decision. School lab should have some meters and such to discover the partial shade effect.
Mobile Solar Charging
- Thread starter theleafer
- Start date
Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:
Can anybody think of a good way of mounting the panel to the top side of the bars without to much drilling? My bars are 1 inch diameter and there is enough space for the panel to fit between the towers. Currently, it is mounted up as shown below. This was what an employee at ACE Hardware came up with after some wondering around the store and thinking about it. The metal mounting tape is rated to 25 pounds, my panel is about 40 pounds, and I have one at each tower, so four strips. These are bolted to the panel and have Locktite on all the bolts and nuts. surprisingly the panel is very secure with close to no play on the suspended mounts.
smkettner
Well-known member
ACE should also sell some aluminum stock. Maybe 1" wide, 1/16" or 1/8" thick, and 4' long and cut to length as needed.
If you plan it right you should be able to use the same holes in the panel.
If you plan it right you should be able to use the same holes in the panel.
The problem with partial shading is more than just reduced output, you could even damage the panel.
Here is a good article describing the issue in detail:
http://solarprofessional.com/articles/design-installation/q-a-bypass-diodes-improve-system-performance-and-safety" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We (my employer, in the PV industry) have found that even that little bit of dirt that builds up on the "bottom" of rooftop panels just above the frame, obscuring even the smallest portion of a single cell in each string can have a massive performance impact.
Here is a good article describing the issue in detail:
http://solarprofessional.com/articles/design-installation/q-a-bypass-diodes-improve-system-performance-and-safety" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
We (my employer, in the PV industry) have found that even that little bit of dirt that builds up on the "bottom" of rooftop panels just above the frame, obscuring even the smallest portion of a single cell in each string can have a massive performance impact.
wwhitney
Well-known member
The outer diameter of 3/4" iron pipe or rigid metal conduit is a hair over 1". There are a wide variety of clamps designed for those pipes. So try a google image search for 3/4" conduit clamp or 3/4" iron pipe clamp, and see which type of clamp would work for you.theleafer said:
Cheers, Wayne
I have tried mobile charging with approximately 3kwhr 24 volt battery pack, 1500 watt inverter and chevy volt evse set to 8 amps. The system will run for about an hour before low battery shutdown and add at most 4 miles of range. I think adding about 600 watts of solar could double this range. The problem is my employer, us federal govt. does not allow workplace charging and the commute is 10 miles further than the winter range of the 2011 Leaf. I need a round trip range of at least 55 miles. I was thinking of carrying the solar panels in the back seat during the commute to reduce drag.
VoltWagon said:
My Idea came from a similar situation. I enjoy skiing and in the winter there was no way the LEAF would make it to the mountain and back, and if it was possible, it wouldn't be pleasant due to the lack of heating. 250watts was the biggest I could go, there were panels form yosisun that would have allowed me to get three and maybe squeeze on a fourth to allow 400 watts on the roof but, they went out of stock and never came back in. Right now, with current commercial panel efficiency and size it is hard to get anywhere near enough watts on the roof without hurting range somewhere else like from drag or weight.
Could you make use of ~100watt flexible panels on the roof and hood and maybe the doors?
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy®-Monoc...03836924&sr=8-1&keywords=flexible+solar+panel
http://www.amazon.com/Unisolar-Flex...03836924&sr=8-3&keywords=flexible+solar+panel
I really like the idea of the panels on the car. If there was a way to make your own flexible panels, you can panel the entire car with custom fitted panels.
I love your idea. Please keep up the efforts!
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy®-Monoc...03836924&sr=8-1&keywords=flexible+solar+panel
http://www.amazon.com/Unisolar-Flex...03836924&sr=8-3&keywords=flexible+solar+panel
I really like the idea of the panels on the car. If there was a way to make your own flexible panels, you can panel the entire car with custom fitted panels.
I love your idea. Please keep up the efforts!
DougWantsALeaf
Well-known member
Very cool project. What would it take to have the panels feed directly into the traction battery? What % efficiency are the panels?
LeftieBiker brought up an interesting idea at the thread: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=16690" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
about replacing the OEM battery with a larger deep cycle battery.
I am wondering if I replaced it with two of these wired in series for 12v:
http://www.amazon.com/VMAXTANKS-Volt-225Ah-AGM-Battery/dp/B009MOR58A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1403960667&sr=8-4&keywords=6v+deep+cycle+solar+battery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
could be harnessed somehow to give you some more range?
That is 450amphours of juice. I don't know what the amphour rating of the OEM battery is. But if it's a big difference, could that be used to supplement somehow? Would it even be enough to consider? I think it's 450 x 6v = 2700 watts
about replacing the OEM battery with a larger deep cycle battery.
I am wondering if I replaced it with two of these wired in series for 12v:
http://www.amazon.com/VMAXTANKS-Volt-225Ah-AGM-Battery/dp/B009MOR58A/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1403960667&sr=8-4&keywords=6v+deep+cycle+solar+battery" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
could be harnessed somehow to give you some more range?
That is 450amphours of juice. I don't know what the amphour rating of the OEM battery is. But if it's a big difference, could that be used to supplement somehow? Would it even be enough to consider? I think it's 450 x 6v = 2700 watts
theleafer said:
I remember reading about people using electrically heated coats, designed for motorcycle riders and people who work outdoors in the winter, that are powered for a few hours by a relatively small battery that fits in a pocket of the coat. That leads me to wonder if you couldn't provide some sort of system that supplements the heating system to remove the heating load from the main battery rather than trying to supplement the main battery. I know diddly about solar heating but is there any chance you could use thermal solar to reduce heating load rather than PV to charge? Just thinking out loud...
fooljoe
Well-known member
Have you considered using a separate charger or at least DC/DC converter (preferably with MPPT) connected directly to the DC traction battery? This way you wouldn't require any extra lead-acid batteries or inverter (which should help a lot with efficiency) or EVSE, and charge could be added while driving (actually the car would probably have to be on, but perhaps that could be worked around.) You could also use much smaller wire, as once the voltage is stepped up to the traction pack voltage the best your panel could do is considerably less than 1 amp. The guys at evseupgrade.com or emotorwerks.com might be able to help with setting up something like this.
If I were crazy enough to try this I might start by connecting my panel to something like this, then connect the output of that to 5 of these with inputs in parallel and outputs in series and tuned to appropriately match the pack voltage, then figure out a way to connect that directly to the traction pack.
If I were crazy enough to try this I might start by connecting my panel to something like this, then connect the output of that to 5 of these with inputs in parallel and outputs in series and tuned to appropriately match the pack voltage, then figure out a way to connect that directly to the traction pack.
LindsayNB said:
The seat warmers barely pull any power. That's how they can work with a small battery for things like motorcycle jackets. Because of the extremely close proximity to the user (imagine if your key stuck out and penetrated the seat), they run on 12v.
The climate control heater can pull ~6kW. Not something you could even consider powering with solar panels.
DougWantsALeaf
Well-known member
I think the goal should be finding a way to get a 1kw/h system on the car and have it feed the traction battery. At full Sun, driving 2 hours at 55 (5 miles per kw), would get you 10 miles of range. City drivers without garages could get very usable range via the sun.
Likely you would need to look at satillite grade panels, dual or triple junction.
Even then, at 30-40% efficiency, would it fit on the car?
Likely you would need to look at satillite grade panels, dual or triple junction.
Even then, at 30-40% efficiency, would it fit on the car?
TomT
Well-known member
At high noon in a fairly southerly latitude in summer, appropriately 1000 watts per square meter falls on a surface square on to the sun. With a 20 percent efficient panel (which is very good), you would get approximately 200 watts... For 1Kw of output, you would need appropriately 5 square meters (and that assumes a perfect system). Good luck finding that much usable space at the correct incidence angle on a Leaf...
DougWantsALeaf said:
TomT said:
Actually, that's not too far off from possible.
The Leaf has a length of 4445mm, and a width of 1770mm. This is about 7,867,650mm^2 = 7.868sqm, or ~84sqft.
Edit: Used car length instead of wheelbase.
Edit 2: Soitec achieved 44.7% efficiency in Sep 2013
Just doing some more mathing…
Since maximizing the footprint of a Leaf is critical to this idea, I don't think there are any prebuilt panels we could make use of.
Using 5" (125mm) cells, we could make custom panels of 7x7 cells. This would come out to 2 panels wide, and 5 panels long for a near-exact footprint match of the Leaf. 490 cells in total, with a 2.8W rating each. 1372W of DC power.
At high noon, you could cruise around at 10MPH without a battery. Probably the fastest you should drive with that panel bolted on the roof too…
Since maximizing the footprint of a Leaf is critical to this idea, I don't think there are any prebuilt panels we could make use of.
Using 5" (125mm) cells, we could make custom panels of 7x7 cells. This would come out to 2 panels wide, and 5 panels long for a near-exact footprint match of the Leaf. 490 cells in total, with a 2.8W rating each. 1372W of DC power.
At high noon, you could cruise around at 10MPH without a battery. Probably the fastest you should drive with that panel bolted on the roof too…
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