Do you or anyone you know have any information on Solar Powered Panels? Specifically to power accessories, heat or a/c while sleeping without wearing down the batteries or to power reefer units without using diesel fuel to do so. Let me know... Thanks!
Unless you sleep in the daylight, how on earth do you think a solar panel could keep the batteries from drawing with no SOLAR?
I'd venture a guess that a solar panel that could power a 15,000 watt air conditioner would be enormous.
On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 05:34:21 +0000, Advocate rearranged some electrons to form:
A 110 W solar panel is over 15 square feet in size (64" x 40").
110 watts would provide barely enough power to turn the blower motor, much less power anything else. Of course, at night, the panel puts out zero watts.I think more along the lines what he was referring to is that most solar systems out there do not directly power accessories, but rather spend the daylight hours charging solar batteries while driving his rig around all day, then at night providing power off the solar batteries. (For a simple example, the solar low voltage lighting that can be found in Home Depot - charges 2AA batteries all day, and the light is lit all night.) But I do agree that I don't believe anything is out there right now that can power what he's looking to do. Just my humble opinion....
With the vehicle in motion, a constant flow of air would be travling across the rig. Let me think...how about a turbine powered by that constant high flow of air could be used to power a generator which would charge the bank of batteries. Not unlike a windmill but with the vehicles motion supplying the wind. Maybe I'm on to something...it would store enough power to run a airconditioner or heat supply, but it could keep a bank of batteries charged for "normal" useage.
Nice forward thinking, but when you think about it, the reason you probably don't see anything out there like the solar or the turbine idea is simply cost. It would be cheaper to put a heavy duty or even a second alternator on the rig to charge up a 2nd bank of batteries for nighttime usage. Again, no matter what you put in, I don't think any bank of batteries is going to run a A/C or heat very long, but it may have enough to run low voltage lighting and even a LCD type TV for hours. I remember my friends Ford conversion Van had a set-up like this and it had a dial on the firewall of the passenger side that had a "1", "2" or "BOTH" choices on it. It was for the two batteries and if he was camping in the Van at night, he would dial "1" or "2" to run off the one or the other battery for lights and TV, etc. This way in the morning, he could turn it to the other to start the van (since it was usually dead or close to it as he would sometimes fall asleep with the TV or radio on.). Once the Van was started, he would turn it back to "BOTH" to charge both while driving....
I nice concept but it would have to induce drag to spin turbine to make power and it is doubtfull that it would be energy efficent vs a big altenator to provide power needed as engine would have to overcome extra drag if it added too much. Still a nice idea though koodo's. When I lived out west for a bit in 90's they were some mountain top amatuer radio repeaters that were purely solar powered. Thye had a bank of about 8 to 10 golf cart battteries with a solar array that could make about 400 watts peak. They made and stored enoungh power that they could keep repeater operational for over a week without sunlight and they had to be reliable too because winter maintainance access was not possible. THey would always draw a couple of amps even when not transmitting and could draw a total of 10 to 25 amps when transmitting depending on configured output power.
----------------- The SnoMan
On the other hand, the truck has a 250KW generator (the engine) that could be used to charge those batteries while he's on the road. Of course that would be stealing from Peter to pay the batteries but the loss may not be noticable in terms of milage. Likewise with the wind turbine which the truck is also powering. Solar panels would be one way to nab free energy but the cost of gathering it up ans storing it is anything but free.
It would be possible to power a small personal sized air conditioner for the cab or sleeper of a truck for a few hours with an inverter and battery bank. The bank would be about the area of 6 automotive batteries and about 30" high. That would power a small AC unit for 8 hours. It would require about 100 amps charge for ten hours. This is roughly 1.5 HP from the engine. A solar panel sufficient to charge the batteries would have to cover the roof of the trailer unit.
These are rough figures and guesses out of my head but I used to set up large battery systems on yachts of 100' or more. Boats like that often have a couple of banks about the size of a desk. Solar powered charged would not even touch banks that size.
The owners like the idea of being able to shut down all engines and staying quiet for some time. In practice they usually end up shutting down the main generators (likely a pair of 30-40KW) and running a smaller backup/nighttime unit (12-16 KW) which can't really be heard up front unless everything is off.
Stephen N.
On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:08:48 +0000, Advocate rearranged some electrons to form:
Why go to all that trouble? Just charge a battery from the electrical system.
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