DC Input for Portable Solar Panels

[chris san diego]

When I go camping, I usually put out a portable solar panel with a charge controller to keep my old Scout II Traveler battery at full charge. It would be great if I could connect a regular external solar panel to the direct current (DC) input on the new Scout Traveler. Is it possible to trickle charge the DC? Maybe we could add a low input socket?

 

[ID_ENG]

I'm curious on what the energy amount could be on a summer day. Is it worth it? Or are we talking about 1-2 miles a day?
If that's the case I'd probably opt to save the extra costs associated with it.
Upvoting to give it some thought.

 

[Logan]

Interesting idea.

Small folding solar panels that connect to an external hookup and directly charge the battery. Its basically the same thing as the "solar roof" idea, but making it modular, and something you use separately if needed/desired.

I just checked, and the first solar panel I checked was ~31in wide, and 102in long, and provides up to 350w. I presume that is per hour? Which means... 3 of them would be about... as fast as a 120v trickle charger (~1050w/hr, or 1.05kw/hr).

BLUETTI PV350D Solar Panel | 350W

www.bluettipower.com

Since we know the maximum, and minimum ranges (350miles for largest BEV version, 150EV only range on harvester), and can guess on the efficiency (~2miles per KW, between a Rivian, and a Hummer) that means we know the rough effective battery sizes (~175kw for the BEV, and ~75kw for the Harvester).

Which means for the Harvester, you could gain ~1.4% (1.05/75) of charge per hour? And the BEV would gain 0.6% charge (1.05/175) of charge per hour.

So on a summer day parked in an idea location... you could get a handful of %% (maybe 3-5%?) for the Harvester.

Now, I don't know tons about solar, and its possible my maths are way, way off. But I think that is an interesting option, particularly if you're going to be camping for a few days.

 

[pwrofgrayskull]

It’s definitely worth exploring. Upvote added.

 

[chris san diego]

Sometimes I leave my Scout parked and go hiking for days, leaving a 25 watt solar panel (through a charge controller) to maintain the battery. Other campouts, I stay at the truck with a Starlink, using up juice, so I bring two 150 watt solar panels. A place to plug in a solar panel would be swell.

 

[J Alynn]

I'm curious on what the energy amount could be on a summer day. Is it worth it? Or are we talking about 1-2 miles a day?
If that's the case I'd probably opt to save the extra costs associated with it.
Upvoting to give it some thought.

If asking for a connector port I think that’s a valid request. Nuilt in units however aren’t worth the cost or the amount of warranty issues SM would likely deal with after sales

 

[Albal]

I also think that having it “solar ready” would be great.

 

[offroadelectric]

This is exactly what I've been hoping for on the Terra...

Probably wouldn't add much range but would be great to negate any range loss from fridges, and other camping gadgets while providing some minimal range for when in a pinch.

Could be mounted on a pop-up tent to charge at all times or while camping and parked you could set out a bunch or solar if you need more power

 

[BeerParty]

According to the EcoFlow website, the EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 has a battery capacity of 4096Wh - so just over 4KWh. A single 400W solar panel will charge it from 0 to 100% in about 37 hours of sunlight. That works out to about 0.1KW per hour.

• The rigid 400W solar panel is 67.8×44.6×1.38 inches and 48.1lbs.
• The portable 400W solar panel is 41.7x24.4x1.0 inches (folded), 41.7x93.1x1.0 inches (open) and 35.3 pounds.

We can confidently assume that the BEV will have at least a 100kWh battery. So, with a single 400W solar panel and 10 hours of sunlight the solar panel will add less than 1% charge to the BEV battery. Assuming the solar panel can generate enough voltage to add power to the battery at all (spoiler alert - a single 400W panel can't).

if you search YouTube, there are a couple of videos of people using a EcoFlow Delta Pro to charge a Tesla, I believe the results were that a fully charge Delta Pro could add 3% to the battery of a Tesla in about 90 minutes. These were an earlier model of the Delta Pros, so not quite 4kWh, but pretty close. So, from a single 400W solar panel it is 37 hours to charge the Delta Pro, from the Delta Pro it is 1.5 hours to add 3% to the Tesla (which has a smaller battery than the Scout).

It is not worth the complexity to add a direct solar feed into the vehicle, the math just doesn't work out. If you want to carry around a bunch of solar panels to try and charge the truck, I suggest you use a small power station with solar input. Run the solar into the power station and then plug the power station into the truck.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

When I go camping, I usually put out a portable solar panel with a charge controller to keep my old Scout II Traveler battery at full charge. It would be great if I could connect a regular external solar panel to the direct current (DC) input on the new Scout Traveler. Is it possible to trickle charge the DC? Maybe we could add a low input socket?

I started another discussion about something similar.

Thread 'Solar-Ready package (especially for the Traveler)'

Tuesday at 3:42 PM

One of the great things about taking an EV camping is the silence. You can run all the things-electric from the vehicle without having to listen to a generator.

But, one of the challenges of camping with an EV is that some trips are more difficult when you’re going out boondocking far from “civilization.” When I used to drive a gas vehicle, I’d put a 5-gallon can in the bed so we could get up to 30 miles (60 round trip) farther from everyone.

With a decent solar system and auxiliary battery, the same can be accomplished with an EV. When camping and on road trips, I carry a 5.1 kWh...

• SpaceEVDriver
• Replies: 20
• Forum: SUGGESTION BOX

• 

Solar that’s portable cannot generate enough voltage to charge the high-voltage battery of a BEV directly. But carrying an auxiliary battery can help with that. And I that’s what I do.

I carry a 5120 Wh power station that can provide Level 1 charging rates. I also carry 600-1200 Watts of solar.
I charge the power station at home. It powers our fridge while we’re driving. At every DCFC on our way to camp, I recharge the power station. It’s a tiny amount and doesn’t measureably change how much time the truck takes to recharge.

Once we reach camp, I plug in the portable charger and start recharging the truck. I also set out the panels. The power station provides about 1.2 kW to the truck. I let the battery discharge to about 10-20% depending on the weather. This adds about 4 kWh to the truck. On the Lightning, which has a 131 kWh useable battery, that’s a little over 3%, and accounts for about 12-15 miles of range. More if we’re driving slowly on forest service roads.

The next day, the solar panels start recharging the battery. With 600 watts, it takes 4kWh/600W ~7 hours to recharge, at the fastest. In our camping season, that starts at around 05:00 and ends around 12:00. Once the auxiliary battery reaches 100%, I start recharging the truck again. For the next 7-8 hours, the Sun is putting in ~500-600 watts and the truck is taking ~1200 watts, for a net of about -600 Watts leaving the auxiliary battery. By the evening, the auxiliary battery is at its ~10% lower limit and the truck has regained about 1.2 kW * 8 hours = 9.6 kWh. That’s approximately 7% of the 131 kWh battery. So in the first night-day of camping, I’ve added about 10% back to the battery. For a 4-night, 3-day camping trip, I get about 15-25% battery recharge. That’s an extra up to 80 miles range, which lets me get an extra 40 miles away from civilization.

But it requires a big auxiliary battery and a good 400-1200 watts of solar. The small 12V accessories battery used in most BEVs isn’t long-lasting and doesn’t hold enough capacity to manage that. And you don’t want a critical component being used for this sort of option.

We have a couple of very long camping trips coming up and I’m looking for a larger inverter and larger battery to dump energy into the truck faster, along with more panels to generate more power.