Solar charging

[MCWilson64]

Hello, I'm new to the forum, and will be collecting a 2015 PHEV (65 plate, so updated shape etc) in a couple of weeks. I wondered if there was any way of trickle charging the drive battery via a solar panel? In an ideal world the roof would be a solar panel and would keep the battery(s) charged.
Thanks
Chris

 

[jaapv]

Welcome!
Given that you could fit a maximum of two Solar Panels to the roof, which would give you a theoretical maximum yield of 500 Wp, the wind drag would be more than the gain.

 

[minical]

Welcome!
Given that you could fit a maximum of two Solar Panels to the roof, which would give you a theoretical maximum yield of 500 Wp, the wind drag would be more than the gain.

Would drag be that much though? I would assume he would expoxy/glue the panels to the roof sheet metal, like how people do it on their camper van conversions.

For the trickle charging, would it be better to hook a solar panel setup to trickle charge a 12V battery/battery bank in the boot, which is hooked up to an inverter that you can choose when to charge your drive batteries? Instead of a very slow trickly to your drive battery all the time.

 

[TweeNeuzen]

Hi,
Apart grom the drag, which could be low with flexible panels, glued to the roof, you would still have to calculate the energy loss, from panel, management system, battery, inverter to 220 volts to get into the charging port.
Apart from this there would be the issue of the electrical connections..

If you would like to go solar, it might be more effective to have a home solar system, with or without battery.

Just my 2 cents

 

[AndyInOz]

I have 1.5 kW of solar panels on the roof of my house.

That's eight panels, about the size of a carport.

They take two days to charge the PHEV.

It is UTTERLY POINTLESS to put a solar panel on the PHEV to charge the battery.

 

[jaapv]

Welcome!
Given that you could fit a maximum of two Solar Panels to the roof, which would give you a theoretical maximum yield of 500 Wp, the wind drag would be more than the gain.

Would drag be that much though? I would assume he would expoxy/glue the panels to the roof sheet metal, like how people do it on their camper van conversions.

For the trickle charging, would it be better to hook a solar panel setup to trickle charge a 12V battery/battery bank in the boot, which is hooked up to an inverter that you can choose when to charge your drive batteries? Instead of a very slow trickly to your drive battery all the time.

At 500 Wp, which is a theoretical max value, it would be a VERY slow trickle. He is trying to charge a 12 kWh battery. Pointless. Even glued-on panels would create more drag.

 

[MadTechNutter]

500W with quality panels gives you a daily average of 2kWh over the year in a sunny country, however on sunny summer days 3kWh could be possible.
Considering that the PHEV uses only 9.6kWh of the battery and the older battery of a 2015 model would be less, having the car standing in the full sun with those panels for 2-3 days could make sense or even just extending the EV range for a few km a day if it is parked at work in the sun.

Bendable panels like those stuck on some yachts are 2-3mm thick and will increase drag only very little.
You will still need some kind buffer battery for the inverter and the problem is if the car will only accept at least 6A with 230V (I am working on that), you will need a fairly sizeable battery and inverter to deliver the required energy for the charge in bursts. LiFePO4 would be the best as sealed lead acid have
a poor cycle life which is useless in this application as they could be fully cycled 2- 3 times a day and then would last only 3-4 months.
I am seeing the LiFe's for $500-600 per kWh lately but still a lot of cost to recuperate.

I think the cost exceeds the benefit, those bendable panels are also not that cheap.

However if this is for bush camping and also running a compressor fridge, the cost might be very well justified, after all this is a SUV with off-road capabilities, so why not use them.
There is no way I am going bush without icy cold beer

 

[ThudnBlundr]

The EVSE standard won't start charging till you have 1.5kW, so that's 6 panels. To produce 1.5kW, they'd need to be angled perfectly towards a full sun at all times. So allowing for roof-mounting and the changes in angle, you'd need at least 12, possibly 24, full-size panels in full sun just to guarantee that it ran above 1.5kW for a few hours a day. That's the size of a garage roof.