3 ms·

It’s such an impractical option, starting with incredibly long charge times, that even for backcountry there would be better and more reliable options. For one,

It’s such an impractical option, starting with incredibly long charge times, that even for backcountry there would be better and more reliable options. For one, it won’t work in the woods because no sun. So the market consists of those crossing a remote desert. Those six people won’t even cover the cost of tooling. I mean, the math isn’t hard. 200W out of a panel (at best), multiple by 5 hours to get a kilowatt hour. How many of those do you need to get back to civilization? Our Leaf gets 4 miles per kWh. The hypothetical desert overland vehicle probably gets half that. You’re better off bring extra water and walking back for help if it comes to it.

moffkalast 4y ago
Fair enough, might as well chop some wood and burn it in a generator lol.
- rhino369 4y ago
  Don't give GM any ideas. The Tri-Volt coming soon.
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    Well they already made gas turbine engines back in the day, wouldn't be much of a stretch jumping to a steam turbine haha. There's also woodgas.
- egberts1 4y ago
  Or put a banana peel into the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor.
Retric 4y ago
Where are you getting that 200W from when cheap 450W solar panels are common? Assuming say 60% of a 2m * 4m vehicle + some side panels @ 22% efficiency. You might get 6 hours * 220w/m2 * 2 * 4 * 60% = 6.3kWh that’s 25 miles at highway speeds and a fair bit more when your doing the equivalent of hypermiling. I don’t see anyone trying to overland an EV but people do occasionally mess up and run out of gas on roads in the middle of nowhere.
- mikestew 4y ago
  Where are you getting that 200W from It is my estimate of what will fit on a passenger car. I could only squeeze 410W on the roof of a 26’ RV. I doubt your 450W panel is going to fit even on something like a Land Cruiser. And “side panels”? Ignoring the impracticality and inefficiency, no one with taste will be driving that. :-) Besides, if you run out of juice, and if AAA will come get me in the Yukon 180 miles from Whitehorse (flat tire on the bike I couldn't fix), meaning 180 miles from anywhere, then they'll come charge your car anywhere in Wyoming. A AAA card is lot cheaper and more practical silly solar panels.
  - Retric 4y ago
    That must have looked tiny on your RV. I know people with a 3kw system (edit: 2940W) on a 28’ RV and they had an AC unit blocking some space. Now they don’t actually see that much power because the roof is a flat surface, but it’s enough he never carried through installing solar on the side panels like the initial plan was. Of note, flexible panels are easy to install but have worse power output per square meter.
- rightbyte 4y ago
  You get about 113 kWh per m2 solar panel per year where I live. For 8m2 that's 911 kWh. So at an average 2.5 kWh per day. I guess 6.3 kWh a summer day is not unrealistic. (I thought your number was way too high but it seems to check out ...)

moffkalast 4y ago

Fair enough, might as well chop some wood and burn it in a generator lol.

rhino369 4y ago
Don't give GM any ideas. The Tri-Volt coming soon.
- moffkalast 4y ago
  Well they already made gas turbine engines back in the day, wouldn't be much of a stretch jumping to a steam turbine haha. There's also woodgas.
egberts1 4y ago
Or put a banana peel into the Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor.

Retric 4y ago

Where are you getting that 200W from when cheap 450W solar panels are common? Assuming say 60% of a 2m * 4m vehicle + some side panels @ 22% efficiency. You might get 6 hours * 220w/m2 * 2 * 4 * 60% = 6.3kWh that’s 25 miles at highway speeds and a fair bit more when your doing the equivalent of hypermiling. I don’t see anyone trying to overland an EV but people do occasionally mess up and run out of gas on roads in the middle of nowhere.

mikestew 4y ago
Where are you getting that 200W from It is my estimate of what will fit on a passenger car. I could only squeeze 410W on the roof of a 26’ RV. I doubt your 450W panel is going to fit even on something like a Land Cruiser. And “side panels”? Ignoring the impracticality and inefficiency, no one with taste will be driving that. :-) Besides, if you run out of juice, and if AAA will come get me in the Yukon 180 miles from Whitehorse (flat tire on the bike I couldn't fix), meaning 180 miles from anywhere, then they'll come charge your car anywhere in Wyoming. A AAA card is lot cheaper and more practical silly solar panels.
- Retric 4y ago
  That must have looked tiny on your RV. I know people with a 3kw system (edit: 2940W) on a 28’ RV and they had an AC unit blocking some space. Now they don’t actually see that much power because the roof is a flat surface, but it’s enough he never carried through installing solar on the side panels like the initial plan was. Of note, flexible panels are easy to install but have worse power output per square meter.
rightbyte 4y ago
You get about 113 kWh per m2 solar panel per year where I live. For 8m2 that's 911 kWh. So at an average 2.5 kWh per day. I guess 6.3 kWh a summer day is not unrealistic. (I thought your number was way too high but it seems to check out ...)