Solar Panels for what?

[Phase]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

If there's a way to add solar charging to the traction battery, there's a way to add a plug-in option. I wouldn't bother, personally.

Running the 12v battery down even a single time does irreparable damage. It will never have the same capacity as before that occurred. Running a lead acid battery repeatedly down even to 50% will greatly shorten the lifespan. These like to remain fully charged, unlike lithium ion batteries. That's why everyone is telling you that if you must add solar, to add it as a means of topping up your 12v battery. If you size it correctly, you don't even need any charging circuitry because lead acid batteries can accept continual trickle charging, unlike lithium ion batteries which must terminate charging when full.

Well the Ioniq hybrid doesn’t use a lead acid battery. Just saying

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a1...arter-battery/

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Drifter

A lot of people are car camping these days and small solar setups allow you to run a laptop or small cooler without the engine. #vanlife


Possible? Of course. Worth it? Probably not for 99% of people given the DIY wiring, controllers/inverters you would need and the much higher risks you'd be assuming. OEM plug-in hybrids and EVs occasionally catch fire from defects & bad designs - are you going to do at least as good of a job as them? And for what? An extra 1/4 mile of EV range after parking it all afternoon?

On the other hand, I could see trickle charging your 12v being beneficial. You'd be able to use off-the-shelf components and, while you wouldn't boost EV range, you would increase your mpg - especially at low speeds.

Here is a graph of the calculated mpg of a gen1 prius at different speeds:



Notice how the 511watt load of just running the car's computers affects slow-speed mpg (pink mpg curve is with no fixed load, red is with). You might be able to squeeze 500 watts of solar panels on your car in which case your mpg gains would be like going from the red line to the pink line when driving under the midday sun. Negligible at 80mph, but significant at 20mph...

I wonder how I could set that up in an easy way

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Phase

I don’t have a plug in hybrid. Just a basic HEV. There’s no way to plug the battery in

Now that you can buy a plug in hybrid as far as I can tell there is just about 0 interest in charging a non plug in one.

[RedDevil]

For a car with a lead-acid battery and significant draw on it a small solar panel to keep it topped up makes sense.

Just remember to unplug it when you take it in for service though.
When the grease monkeys detach the battery for whatever reason the panel would still feed the electrical system if it catches light; enough to throw error codes in the system that they did not know how to deal with.
I needed one extra trip to the dealers to get it sorted...

[freebeard]

What you call 'second-order effects'.

[hayden55]

A guy at work used to have one at work that was 20w that plugged into his cig lighter. Seemed like a neat idea. Keeps old batteries useful for quite a bit longer. Past that thats about it. No roi or payoff on solar panels on cars besides extending 12v battery life.

[freebeard]

I've got one but neither car has a cigar lighter.

[Phase]

My car has a cigarette lighter. But it doesn’t use lead acid for its 12v. So idk what to do

[hayden55]

It would still benefit. Just not as much for each deep discharge. Starting batteries may get a dozen deep discharges over their life, deep cycle lead acids maybe 400, and lithium iron maybe 1200. Maybe keeping a solar charger on the 12v lithium in your car would extend its life so that it lasts longer than the car does. lol

[Phase]

Originally Posted by hayden55

It would still benefit. Just not as much for each deep discharge. Starting batteries may get a dozen deep discharges over their life, deep cycle lead acids maybe 400, and lithium iron maybe 1200. Maybe keeping a solar charger on the 12v lithium in your car would extend its life so that it lasts longer than the car does. lol

idk how id set that up

i just wish i could use some type of solar panel for any benefit in my ioniq during the summer