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Old 05-16-2011, 05:35 PM   #15 (permalink)
California98Civic
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Charlie View Post
you could probably turn your whole roof into a panel without having to know too much about electricity.
"The General rule to calculate the average charge time:

"Take Amp/hour rating of the battery and Divide by the charger rating (in amperes) and then add about 10% for the extra time to top off the battery, i.e. Assuming You have a typical full size auto battery, it is about 50 amp hours.

"To Calculate how much time You’ll need to charge the battery with a 15 Watt solar charger You’ll need:
1. Calculate the Ampere per hour of the charger: 15 Watts /12 Volts = 1,25 Amperes
2. Calculate the division: 50 amp hours / 1,25 ampers = 40 Hours of direct sunlight
3. Add 10%: 4 hours"
(retrieved from here: How to Use 12 Volt Portable Solar Powered Battery Chargers)

Seems useful. Maybe use a 100 watt charger, like this pretty expensive thing:
100w 12v,Semiflex solar panel,thin 2.5mm,Waterproof ! - eBay (item 260771192187 end time May-18-11 20:59:20 PDT)

This panel would nearly cover my whole roof.
__________________
See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



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