Is this doable?

[CatCaretaker]

Check out this article: http://www.greenmatters.com/living/2017/08/31/ZHQvPu/solar-rv ...suppose one tried to DIY plastering solar panels all over your rig like this one, not necessarily to run the vehicle itself on electric power but whatever heat/AC/lights and appliances you wanted... Would it be legal here in the US to have the panels all over a vehicle like that, and what sort of setup would you need to handle, and store, that kind of energy?

 

[safarivan]

I dont see any harm at all with it. its completely lawful but legal is a whole nother mindfk.

 

[lenny flank]

Yow, I don't even wanna THINK about how much $$$$ that would cost.

And half of them wouldn't even be working at any given time......

 

[John61CT]

No legal issues.

Controllers, wiring infrastructure would take a fair bit of internal space, and you'd want an LFP bank for storage.

Biggest hurdle would be designing the PV-friendly skin, mounting techniques.

You'd be replacing a large percentage of the panels each year, will have huge amounts of waste heat needing venting away, so can't just glue them to regular bodywork.

Basically will need a few testing prototypes before you got a working production rig, very high costs involved.

 

[jimindenver]

Not only that but some of those cells are not even functional but rather decorative like above the door where the cell is cut in half. It would be neat to see a functional unit and how they overcome many of the issues that I could think of just off hand but this is a prototype, possibly only a concept. I use to go to the Detroit auto show every year and most of thos concept cars never ever made it to production but they looked cool. (I say concept because in watching the video they open a compartment door and there was no wiring for the solar panel on it)

So can you do something like this? Yes of course you can. There is a teardrop trailer covered in flex panels but many of those are not functional too. Can you cover a RV with regular panels? Sure you can ala PandaMonium. My trailer and truck has 1185w but rack the roof and get the right panels and I could have 2500 watts up top and easily that much hanging off the sides. There was a car hauler trailer at Quartzsite that had between 4 and 5000 watts doing just that. Neither would be completely functional running down the road but sitting still with all of the side panels raised it is a amazing amount of power.

Now in a cost efficiency point of view the panels, controllers, batteries, wiring, switches, fuses and such would be extreme considering you can get more than enough power out of a generator costing under $1000 and a more normal solar system

 

[Canine]

It would be soooooo hot in there. I would get license plates for it that say SLROVEN.

 

[tx2sturgis]

I wonder what the daily range is with a full charge. 228 ah that they mention won't power a 107 hp motor for very long. 

Cruising hp on level ground, for a rig like that, I'm guessing is in the range of 60-90 hp. 

Then also, you might travel half that range on overcast days, 1/4 that if you left the awning out on the sunny side that week. 

But I'm thinking there MUST be more than that for propulsion batteries...

Sure is interesting none-the-less.

 

[CatCaretaker]

If it is legal do you plan on building a similar system?

Guy

I was mulling over doing something like this over time, adding panels as time and money allowed. 

How much heat does having the panels on a vehicle add, though...? For that matter, how much hotter would the interior of a vehicle get with a couple of 50 to 100w panels get? Say, if you mounted them on a roof rack does it help some? A lot?

 

[safarivan]

I dont know about the stick on kind but mine are mounted on roof racks very low so I can still use the rack. the panels are about two inches off the roof. havnt noticed more heat, in fact, it seems cooler inside after the van has been sitting in the sun all day then it used to.

I guess because the panels shade the metal roof from getting as hot from direct sunlight.

Ive used up all the available space on my roof now so my idea to add more panels is to mount more on heavy duty drawer type rollers so I can slide them in and out. in on top of the existing panels for traveling then slide them out when setting up camp.

this would double as an awning sorta but havent considered the heat from them however it has to be cooler than direct sunlight I would think. also looking at ways to tilt them once they are slid out.

if done right, I figure you could stack the panels three high on a van or other flat surface then slide the top one to one side of the van and the middle one to the other.

on my Safari/Astro van I should be able to get 1500 watts worth on it this way. more batteries is another story that involves upgrading the V6 to a V8. lol

 

[Canine]

Keeping the panels an inch or so off of the roof will help a ton. It's when they touch or almost touch is when heat is conducted into the van. I've even seen people stick water-filled tubing to the bottom of a panel for heating water.