Hood Solar Panel Owners Thoughts

[Ratbert]

Serious question: given the generation restrictions of solar, and the fact that our Jeeps move, most of the time, would it be too ridiculous to affix a row of small wind turbines to the roof, not unlike one of the many light bars, but with fans instead of KC lites?

With a row of them, you could have them be pretty small I'd assume.

Wouldn't this be more efficient?

Those would only be generating while driving, which I'm thinking isn't a time when generating electricity is an issue, right? If that's an issue then I'd start thinking about getting a better alternator.

The noise could also be a concern as well as what happens to them when you're cruising along at 80 mph with a 30 mph headwind.

Sponsored

 

[Bayrat]

 

[Bayrat]

My system is pictured above

 

[AndySpill]

You explicitly mentioned parasitic draw in your first post, so it seemed fairly obvious that parasitic draw could be an issue for you.

I did. As I did entropic over-time battery draw, hood glare, and a somewhat lacking ESS system. But, as much as I could fairly see you concluding these my issue,s in addition to ones commonly faced by the community, they just aren't, perhaps in part due to my existing solar setup.


Now @THAW, and this is directly at you, not John, I see you liked John's point.

Perhaps it's as if to say that my leaving out such details about my not be effected by such issues detracted from my post, much in the way that you leaving out details, or posting nonsense, or irrelevancies diminishes your posts: https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/fo...nt-deserve-their-own-thread.1162/post-2623547

Here's where things differ. Please get a pencil and take notes. Ready?

My questions dealt primarily and clearly with the long term ownership success of hood based solar panels. Nothing about my personal situation changes that or the electrical issues faced by the community, so those details weren't included. Flexible solar panels, not to mention those exposed to heat, like, say, that an engine might give off, are known to be subject to performance failure over time, temporary or permanent, nothing bad intended in Cascadia or Lensun's direction.

John's confusion as to why I asked my question, and as I explained to him, was spelt out consistent with the above paragraph, in my OP.

That I personally am considering such an option to supplement or replace the solar on my roof, perhaps to free up the latter for hauling is irrelevant, like--I don't know--the miniscule changes to the center of gravity of a JL subjected to the larger main battery consistent with the tow package. Remind me, whose brilliance was that?

Vast difference Foster arises from details not included from irrelevancy like mine, that don't detract from meaning or purpose, and some of the posts that make up "your greatest hits."

Follow?

 

[AndySpill]

Serious question: given the generation restrictions of solar, and the fact that our Jeeps move, most of the time, would it be too ridiculous to affix a row of small wind turbines to the roof, not unlike one of the many light bars, but with fans instead of KC lites?

With a row of them, you could have them be pretty small I'd assume.

Wouldn't this be more efficient?

To further John's point @Ratbert, even assuming that batteries could be installed to store that power, and the weight of those batteries didn't affect the vehicle's mileage, the wind resistance created by the turbines might.

This isn't to say that you aren't on to something Ricky. Ironic though it is, the first 3 letters of John's handle, Rat, is the very acronym of an emergency device on most commercial airplanes called the RAT, or Ram Air Turbine, that can be manually lowered, to spin and provide emergency electrical power in the event that main and backup power systems fail, precisely consistent with your thoughts.

 

[Maverick909]

The wattage of the rubicon is just fine for a low amperage charge. Max input to the battery would be around 2.25 amps with a full sun day.is a pretty good charge. Thus wouldn’t be enough to run a small iceco fridge. I do have a 12v 100watt panel that does good at keeping my jackery battery pack fully charged while running my fridge. Fridge avg at max watage is 55watts full sun on my solar panel runs 80watts and above depending on sun and time of day.

 

[Ratbert]

I’ve seen those hood-mounted solar systems from Cascadia4x4 and Lensun Solar. I don’t have one myself, but the concept of using hood space for solar panels is pretty clever.

Just make sure you do the math before buying one. Most of them generate very little wattage.

 

[AndySpill]

Just make sure you do the math before buying one. Most of them generate very little wattage.

To John's point I'd consider these as decent trickle chargers, more indicated for overcoming the loss of a battery's power due to time without charge and/or the (hopefully) small draw of vehicle appliances that tap the battery even when the vehicle is powered down.

(I do appreciate the manufacturer's indications as a dead battery jump starter as well, much as that takes time in the sun.)

The panel for the Rubicon, as you may know/appreciate, given the hood's design, is particularly lower in wattage output given its need for a smaller footprint to fit. And appreciate that length of day, angle of sun, panel degredation in performance with time (and dirt/failure to clean) and things that block direct access to the sun from clouds to trees all contribute to performance that's less than that advertised.

There are some interesting videos on Youtube that seem to suggest the Cascadia product a better more robust one the that from Lensun. You may want to check them out.

Conflict of interest: I own no hood panel nor work for any vendor. I have a roof rack with a much greater wattage panel on it that charges a dedicated battery to an always on dash camera, as well as trickle charges the factory pair under the hood.

Sponsored