Solar Cell Module?

[ichristopherg]

My leaf is equipped with the solar cell module, is there any way to see if its actually working? Or any way to monitor it like on the nav screen? For all I know it could be on the car for aesthetics... I have no idea if its actually providing any charge to the 12v battery.

 

[uwskier20]

The solar cell on the spoiler provides a trickle charge to the 12V battery. By and large, your battery is charged by the DC-DC converter while in "ready" mode.

You could park your car in the sun to get the most out of the solar cell, but I think the resulting deleterious effects on your traction battery (especially in high heat) would substantially negate any benefit.

The LEAF Spy app (compatible with Android phones, and requiring a cheap OBDII Bluetooth adapter) does give some indication of 12V battery voltage. You could take measurements in accessory mode, in and out of the shade.

I personally ignore the solar cell myself!

 

[ichristopherg]

The solar cell on the spoiler provides a trickle charge to the 12V battery. By and large, your battery is charged by the DC-DC converter while in "ready" mode.

You could park your car in the sun to get the most out of the solar cell, but I think the resulting deleterious effects on your traction battery (especially in high heat) would substantially negate any benefit.

The LEAF Spy app (compatible with Android phones, and requiring a cheap OBDII Bluetooth adapter) does give some indication of 12V battery voltage. You could take measurements in accessory mode, in and out of the shade.

I personally ignore the solar cell myself!

I guess I'll keep ignoring it too. Lol! It looks really neat but wish there was more to it than that... The manual is vague when it comes to the solar cell too... Oh well. I guess in 3yrs when my lease is up it'll be kool to see if they incorporate more solar cell tech.

 

[davewill]

It IS on the car for aesthetics. It puts out such a small amount that for all intents and purposes, it does nothing.

 

[ERG4ALL]

What's funny is that my wife ran into a nut that was adamant that the solar cell powered the car. :lol:

 

[ichristopherg]

What's funny is that my wife ran into a nut that was adamant that the solar cell powered the car. :lol:

One day hopefully! :mrgreen: I don't think we are too far from seeing solar powered car!

 

[johnrhansen]

What's funny is that my wife ran into a nut that was adamant that the solar cell powered the car. :lol:

One day hopefully! :mrgreen: I don't think we are too far from seeing solar powered car!

I can see it now... a cloud covers the sun and all the cars on the freeway suddenly stop. :roll:

 

[joewaters]

You guys are kidding, right? I've already ordered the skylight for my air conditioned garage to keep the 12v safely topped up. Guess I should have checked first. :roll:

 

[planet4ever]

You guys are kidding, right? I've already ordered the skylight for my air conditioned garage to keep the 12v safely topped up. Guess I should have checked first. :roll:

I hope you're kidding. It seems to be agreed here that the panel produces no more than 10 watts in direct sunlight. A skylight will produce only diffuse lighting, so you'd be lucky to to get 3 watts. It's only values are aesthetics and bragging rights.

Ray

 

[johnrhansen]

I suppose if you really wanted to you could take off the negative terminal of the battery and read the current that goes in with an ammeter.

 

[ERG4ALL]

When displaying the car many people have asked why don't they cover the car in PV panels to charge it. So I don't lose them I just say there isn't enough room to generate enough power. For the gang here that is into EVs, the math goes something like this and I'm sure there are a good many out there that already know this so forgive any redundancy.

The sun on a clear day bathes the earth about 1,000W per sq. meter. That is roughly 1,000W per 10 square feet. The best laboratory PV cells are about 44% efficient. Thus, we would only be getting 44W per square foot. If the car were designed to have a PV array of 5' x 20', the entire array would generate 4,400W (just imagine what that car would look like).

The LEAF when cruising uses about 20,000W and at full power the motor uses 80,000W. So there's no way the car could be propelled real-time by the sun. Even if the intent was to charge the main battery by parking in the sun, it would take 4.5 hours under optimal conditions to charge 20 kWh and that assumes that we have the best, most costly PV array. Affordable PV panels are less than half that efficiency so we would have to at least double that charging time, and given sun angles that would take up the entire daylight hours.

 

[toasty]

If the car were designed to have a PV array of 5' x 20', the entire array would generate 4,400W (just imagine what that car would look like).

it would look like this.

 

[TomT]

A real good real-world consumer PV module is less than half that - 20% is considered excellent and 15% to 18% is typical...
And the power generated for a given sun loading assumes an optimal angle to the sun, something that is almost never the case on a car...
When it is all said and done, you'd likely be down to a total effective efficiency of about 10 percent, about 100 watts per square meter at high noon......

The best laboratory PV cells are about 44% efficient.