|
I have a 13W panel and an 18 Watt panel hooked up to my 92 VX and keep the panels in my hatchback area. When I park at work, I park so the back of my hatch face the sun in the morning. I open the hatch during this time and position the panels so they are facing the sun optimally for the next 3-4 hours. It always charges my stock battery fully within a few hours. In the colder months, I put my alternator belt back on and turn my switches back on that interrupt the alternator circuit. This has been very effective and my mpg's instantly start climbing when the alternator is out of the picture. I haven't done A-B testing, but as I said, my mpg's very noticeably increase. Probably 8-10% gain.
My drive to work is about 7 miles. I have driven my car a long as 90 minutes, but that gets into the battery being at a voltage that I feel could start damaging it. I don't let it go below 12.2 volts. Most of the time it doesn't go below 12.4 volts and typically I stay above 12.6 volts. I do have LED lights all around including the headlights. In the not so often case that I drive for an hour or so and can't charge by sun later in the day, then I'll hook up my car charger. I rarely use the fan in the car, NO AC.. never has had that.. manual crank windows,,,very basic car. MPGuino is hooked up as well. I have that thing calibrated so well it's impressive. Solar works great for me.
|