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Old 08-04-2011, 08:38 PM   #11 (permalink)
oil pan 4
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To charge a lead acid battery you need at least 16 or 17 OCV (open circuit volts). I hooked up 15.5 OCV worth of panels to a battery last month and it pushed almost no power into the battery.

Quote:
Originally Posted by dieselbeetle View Post
Ok, now that we've established the fact that it CAN assist, how much?
How much roof you got on your car and how deep is your wallet?
Those are the only limits I can think of.

I plan on building two 8 amp 17v panels to put on the roof of my suburban and if I get enough power out of them during day light hours I will experment with running with no alternator belt. I have all the materials, just need the time to do it.
If (not very likely) that the solar panels work good I am going to look into building a tool-less alternator belt quick relase system.
If they don't work they will be serriesed up and put to work running a grid tie inverter.

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