Paseo gets a solar sun roof - Page 4 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

Daox · 09-25-2009, 12:22 PM

I just got off the phone with a tint shop. The guy there said its a huge pain in the butt for them and they don't even know how to remove it.

Christ · 09-25-2009, 12:39 PM

Get yourself a flap wheel and a drill motor, and try it on ONE DOT in an inconspicuous portion of the glass. You may have to polish it when you're done.

OTOH - if you never plan on using the sunroof as an air vent again, you can always remove it (and the weight of the mechanism, which is considerable) sell it for profit, and install a tin tray in it's place with epoxy sealant (under the roof line, not over it.) and then put your cells in there, with a piece of lexan over it.

I don't know if non-reversible is an option for you or not.

chuckm · 09-25-2009, 12:39 PM

Can you brush across it with a propane torch? Perhaps you can start loosening the grip with a little thermal shock.

Daox · 09-25-2009, 12:55 PM

I was just talking with Darin about removing it, opening the sunroof area up a little more, and filling it all with solar cells to get a little more output. That is much more work than I'd like to do haha.

When talking with the shop guy, he called it 'dot matrix'. I did some more googling and apparently you can sand it off! It looks like this might be the way to go. The one thing I am going to try before going that route though is I found one more way. The guy said to use 0000 steel wool, put it on a random orbit sander and go to town. So, I'll be giving that a try first as he said that that way doesn't scratch the glass.

The thermal shock idea isn't bad either, but I guess I'd be worried about cracking the glass?

Also, how bad would it be if I had to polish the glass?

Christ · 09-25-2009, 12:59 PM

Polishing glass isn't difficult, it's time consuming.

Daox · 10-02-2009, 08:26 PM

Well, the cells have arrived. I knew they were thin, but WOW they are thin. They feel like a slightly thick piece of aluminum foil.

Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to put the panel together.

Christ · 10-02-2009, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daox

Well, the cells have arrived. I knew they were thin, but WOW they are thin. They feel like a slightly thick piece of aluminum foil.

Hopefully I'll have time this weekend to put the panel together.

The silver line is the ground string?

Daox · 10-02-2009, 11:16 PM

The silver ribon is one of the leads. There is one on the front and one on the back. One is positive and one is negative. You connect them in series to get the voltage up to 18V. Each cell only produces .5V.

Christ · 10-03-2009, 12:21 AM

I don't remember exactly, but I thought they were always both on the same side?

gascort · 10-03-2009, 12:59 AM

Very nice start on this Daox. I have full faith that your solar roof will outshine mine. Pun intended

The leads on my cells were both on the top side, and I had to solder them to the back of each next cell.
Those cells are awesome - I can't wait to see them working!!!