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Old 09-21-2017, 02:28 AM   #7 (permalink)
oldtamiyaphile
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: Australia
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UFI - '12 Fiat 500 Twinair
Team Turbocharged!
90 day: 40.3 mpg (US)

Jeep - '05 Jeep Wrangler Renegade
90 day: 18.09 mpg (US)

R32 - '89 Nissan Skyline

STiG - '16 Renault Trafic 140dCi Energy
90 day: 30.12 mpg (US)

Prius - '05 Toyota Prius
Team Toyota
90 day: 50.25 mpg (US)

Premodded - '49 Ford Freighter
90 day: 13.48 mpg (US)

F-117 - '10 Proton Arena GLSi
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Mitsubishi
90 day: 37.82 mpg (US)

Ralica - '85 Toyota Celica ST
90 day: 25.23 mpg (US)

Sx4 - '07 Suzuki Sx4
90 day: 32.21 mpg (US)

F-117 (2) - '03 Citroen Xsara VTS
90 day: 30.06 mpg (US)
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Images fixed

I have a factory 'smart' alternator so it automatically cuts back based on the panel input. If you have a 'standard' alternator, based on my previous panels installed on older vans, you probably won't see a measurable gain. My hope is with the second panel (360W) the alternator will only be providing a charge at night, lights on etc.

If that's not enough I have space to add a third panel across the front still.

I also have stop/ start, and with the panel it's able to activate about twice as often as it previously did. The second panel should mean stop start will work almost 100% of the time. I used to use an A/C charger once a week and that always gave me improved economy in the morning. Unfortunately the battery was already weak by the time I got into the city. I drive 90% city, 26km/h avg around 22km with 22 lights, so the stop start cops a beating. Renault say it's good for 400,000 cycles, I hope so. I do try to take the highway home once in a while.

Now when the engine switches off I can still see the battery holding about 12.6v with the A/C fan and radio, GPS, dash cams, drl's, stop lights etc running. Previously it would dip to 12.0 or slightly lower pretty quick.

The smart alt is pretty good, on a charged battery it will just sit on 11.7 volts while I cruise, only ramping up under braking, but as a hypermiler, there's not really much energy to recapture, so I find my battery is always pretty low. The solar panels seem to be helping at cruise I usually see around 12.0 now.
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Last edited by oldtamiyaphile; 09-21-2017 at 02:39 AM..
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