How much solar charging are you getting while driving?

Why would it be any different than when you are sitting still? Maybe even better, because the roads have no trees to block the sun. When I travel, I still don't travel faster than the speed of light.

Mike

Because of shadows from semis, buildings, bridges...etc hitting the PVs, and because of less tree cover. Also because of rapidly changing direction of illumination and most likely little tilt. But especially the very rapidly changing illumination/shadow pattern, and what different controllers might make of it. Many factors. If you look at the solar race cars, they have much more advanced control strategies than most stationary charge controllers.

I imagine PWM would run effectively the same.

But I am curious in what people here actually observe with their set ups.

Jim

Yeah, kinda an empty question ? It would depend on a lot of different circumstances. And w/ the alternator holding the system at + 14 volts, I wouldn't expect solar to put out much at all anyway.
But my solar doesn't put out much at all while driving, because the panels are in a storage comp :)

I have two of these.

This is the controller I use.

Battery bank is two 12 volt group 24.

When towing, I don't know how a person would tell how much power was coming from solar and how much was coming from tow vehicle, unless the tow vehicle provided no charging at all.

Length of time a person could expect for boodocking, depends on power usage, hours of sunlight, angle of sunlight, size (and condition) of battery bank, size and type of panels, type of controller, and wire size used to hook it up.

All my interior and exterior lights are LED, and my television is (low watt) 12 volt. No inverter to run any 120 volt appliances. We have boondocked for up to 5 days, with no noticeable drop in battery power. The solar panels kept up with a couple hours (daily) lights and television, and, all the parasitic draws from gas detector, refridgerator, etc.


I also have a panel on my TC. It is a single 135 watt with PWM controller.

Just out of curiosity, one sunny day, I disconnected the battery and connected the cables from the controller, directly to the converter. I was able to watch television and turn on a couple lights (also LED), with nothing but solar power.

HiTech wrote:
Because of shadows from semis, buildings, bridges...etc hitting the PVs, and because of less tree cover. Also because of rapidly changing direction of illumination and most likely little tilt. But especially the very rapidly changing illumination/shadow pattern, and what different controllers might make of it. Many factors. If you look at the solar race cars, they have much more advanced control strategies than most stationary charge controllers.

I imagine PWM would run effectively the same.

But I am curious in what people here actually observe with their set ups.

Jim

This would be another fine study project that would give loads of usless information if one had nothing better to do but watch a solar panel monitor while traveling.
After gathering all this information, what would you do with it that would be benificial?

Enough to run my 2-way fridge on electric through an inverter.
So at least 28 amps. OK maybe some comes from the truck but I don't think very much.

I would expect better performance when rolling as the 60 mph breeze will help cool the panels.

A lot in my case.
I have never data logged it, but I know for a fact that before I installed solar, my batteries wouldn't fully charge while traveling. After adding the solar, they are always fully charged early in the day. My panels (300 watts) are flat on the roof. Solar charging while traveling is such an under considered reason for adding it.

Steve

i have the blue sky 2000e
one my best days solar was on a drive back to LA from San Diego in july of 2011
'air cooling' from the moving air , on shore breeze no smog no clouds

an the alternator, seems a little low according to my digital at the dash
13.6v
need to check it at the batteries with engine running

smkettner wrote:
Enough to run my 2-way fridge on electric through an inverter.
So at least 28 amps. OK maybe some comes from the truck but I don't think very much.

I would expect better performance when rolling as the 60 mph breeze will help cool the panels.

Wow! I thought I remembered you getting substantial charge while driving.

On my setup with the Watts Up I will be able to isolate output from the solar controller so it will be pretty easy to see what it contributes.

Jim

SteveAE wrote:
A lot in my case.
I have never data logged it, but I know for a fact that before I installed solar, my batteries wouldn't fully charge while traveling. After adding the solar, they are always fully charged early in the day. My panels (300 watts) are flat on the roof. Solar charging while traveling is such an under considered reason for adding it.

Steve

Exactly what I am looking into here. There is benefit even for people who camp in shade, depending on how much time is on the road vs dug in.

Jim