How will a secondary solar battery and my Chevy Volt interact?

[Pas N Gas]

I'm mounting solar panels to my Chevy Volt's roof. I know I need at least a 12v 100ah lithium iron phosphate battery to gather enough watts from the panels to get my car to draw from this secondary battery to its primary battery. Currently, I only use a 120v 12a outlet for charging my car. It requires at least 6a at 120v to charge. Assume a 1500 watt inverter. At what level of capacity in the secondary battery will my car's charger be triggered to draw from it and how long will it take for my car to draw that capacity down to a cut-off point of 10% battery capacity?

Thanks a lot!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I'm mounting solar panels to my Chevy Volt's roof.

Are you 100% confident this makes sense? Hard panels disrupt airflow horribly and can impact highway mpg/range. Flexible panels get so hot, they underperform and deteriorate rapidly.

I know I need at least a 12v 100ah lithium iron phosphate battery to gather enough watts from the panels to get my car to draw from this secondary battery to its primary battery.

How do you "know" this? This doesn't make much sense. Please elaborate.

Currently, I only use a 120v 12a outlet for charging my car. It requires at least 6a at 120v to charge. Assume a 1500 watt inverter. At what level of capacity in the secondary battery will my car's charger be triggered to draw from it

This doesn't make much sense either. Try again.

and how long will it take for my car to draw that capacity down to a cut-off point of 10% battery capacity?

6A * 120V / .85 = 847W

847W/12.8V = 66.2A draw

100Ah * .9 / 66.2 = 1.35 hours.

 

[Pas N Gas]

1. I get your point with hard panels. I will be using flexible ones and I will contour them to my car's roof, so no disrupted airflow. Are you saying flexible panels are shit and shouldn't be used at all for solar applications?

2. I need a second battery powerful enough to trigger the charger in my car to turn on. So, my car's battery can charge from the second battery.

3. I use a standard 120v electrical outlet to charge my car. My car requires a standard electrical outlet to have at minimum 6 amps to turn on its charger.

4. I appreciate you running some numbers there for me.

Thank you for responding to my inquiry.

 

[Ampster]

After you have time to digest the numbers, tell us what you think of the practicality of spending thousands of dollars to save some gas. Have you figured how much gas you will save?

 

[Bud Martin]

BTW, how many Watt of panels are you able to put on the car roof?

 

[Pas N Gas]

After you have time to digest the numbers, tell us what you think of the practicality of spending thousands of dollars to save some gas. Have you figured how much gas you will save?

It's not about saving money at all. I think it is super cool to be able to charge up my car with the sun where ever it happens to be parked.

 

[Ampster]

t's not about saving money at all. I think it is super cool to be able to charge up my car with the sun where ever it happens to be parked.

Good for you. I did the math and I could put more solar panels on the roof of my home than I could put on my EV so that is what I did. I have a good arrangement with my power company that I can store that energy with them and charge my car later so I can park my EV in the garage where it is cooler and out of the weather. It all depends on where you are standing, and where and when the sun shines..

 

[Pas N Gas]

BTW, how many Watt of panels are you able to put on the car roof?

I am able to get 315 watts worth of panels on the top of my first generation Chevy Volt.

Using these panels. They fit just right. https://www.lensunsolar.com/Products/Flexible-solar-panel/Black-flexible-solar-panel?product_id=487

 

[Pas N Gas]

Good for you. I did the math and I could put more solar panels on the roof of my home than I could put on my EV so that is what I did. I have a good arrangement with my power company that I can store that energy with them and charge my car later so I can park my EV in the garage where it is cooler and out of the weather. It all depends on where you are standing, and where and when the sun shines..

Nice! More surface area means more power. Good thing your power company is so accommodating. In some areas power companies are very not friendly to solar households. Placement absolutely matters, I have already identified the best place to park my car in my neighborhood for the most sunshine.