Vehicle solar panels to grid

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

I should mention that large efficient traditional glass topped aluminum sided mono crystal panel

FYI ... they make semi-flexible panels out of the high efficiency Solar cells.

Link
Peak of ~23.5% Efficiency
~$2.165 / Watt

But ... they don't come with the long warranties of the traditional rigid panels.

[oil pan 4]

Those were the kinds of panels I was originally looking at.
The main problem with those panels is the big plastic blister on the underside where the MC4 connectors tie in.

That 120 watt panel is about 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. That is kind of big for a regular car, it might work for a hatch back car and I could see it working on a mini van, regular van or SUV.

Then I saw something to the effect of this when researching what panels to use:

Be advised, this panel is a laminated polymer and when it heats up in the sunshine, it will EXPAND. If you have glued or screwed it to a flat or curved surface or frame, expect it to buckle or sag when it heats up. Some flexibility in mounting is required.

That is why I did not use these big flexible ones. Plus the price, they are typically around $5/watt. I don't know what the shipping on those panels looks like but if its under $2.50/watt then its a fire sale.

[oil pan 4]

I spent the last 3 days looking at every flexible solar panel I could find and I think I stumbled upon the best way to attach low profile panels to the top of a vehicle 4 years ago when I RTV'ed those 5 watt fiber glass backed panels to the top of my suburban.

Just in case I am wrong, I bought a 100 watt and a 30 watt semi flexible solar panel like in the link: http://afp-power.com/collections/sem...le-solar-panel
Don't think it will end up on top of a vehicle but I will test and evaluate it for such an application.
They seem kind of neat, I figure it will end up as part of my backup power contingency plan.



Should be here before Dec 2.

[oil pan 4]

The panels arrived.
The 30 watt appears that it may be suitable to vehicle use.

The 100 watt panel seems like it may not want to conform to a convex surface. It seems like it needs real flat or a flat curved surface.

The only thing I don't like is the hump where the wires tie into the panels.

[oil pan 4]

The grid tie inverter is up and running.
I wired the grid tie into my vampire load circuit. I tested the vampire circuit and power inverter back feed setup with my fluke325 amp clamp attached to the main where it comes into the house between the meter and 200 amp breaker, it was drawing a steady 1 amp with the grid tie disconnected.
With the grid tie going it was pumping 50 watts into vampire circuit, cutting the amount of power drawn by that line through the power meter in half.

So I am grid tied but not really. The last thing I want to do is produce more power than I use because my dumb smart meter will detect any power flow, doesn't matter if its coming or going and count it as consumption.

[oil pan 4]

At peak the panels put out around 50 to 60 watts to the grid tie.

So far it looks like during the winter with the vehicle battery charged, the grid tie will pump about 1/4 to 1/3 KwH per day into the grid.

Not much but its better than nothing.

This low production is mostly because the grid tie inverter uses between 12 and 28 volts DC. These panels only produce 15 to 17 volts under load.

[DragBean]

This could totally make sense if you have an RV covered with 1000+Watts

[freebeard]

http://store.evtv.me/products.php?cat=22

There was some discussion in a EVTV episode about how these panels use an edge-connected cell that IIRC don't need the 'lump' connector. 120 watts for $245. Maybe it's the same cell.

[oldtamiyaphile]

I use my excess solar power to run a vent fan to try and keep the vehicle a bit cooler. On the next van, I'll go for one on each side, mounted in the flow through ventilation exits.

I already have the panels, so what's the payback time if I added an inverter? I also suppose that most days the vehicle isn't parked at the house? I would like to run *something* off the excess current once my car batteries are full.

[oil pan 4]

Yeah I plan on figuring something out to try and cool it off a little bit during the summer.