Weekend Project: I added a solar panel to my electric mini-truck to charge from the sun
It’s back again! The electric powered mini-truck that keeps on giving has a different exciting trick up its sleeve. With a little bit of Do-it-yourself magic, I was capable to outfit my Chinese mini-truck with a photo voltaic panel that can trickle cost it from the solar.
If you’re aren’t common with this unassuming tiny mini-truck, then below’s the qualifications: I observed it on Alibaba back again in 2021 and compensated the Chinese seller it arrived from $two,000 to make it mine.
It went as a result of a long saga of being shipped to the US, which expense a little extra than the truck alone. But it ultimately arrived in Florida wherever it’s been dwelling out a difficult performing however satisfying existence on my dad or mum’s ranch. There it mostly serves as a function truck on the home, while often it heads out just to delight the neighbors. Anyone enjoys this quirky tiny factor.
The electric powered push indicates that it is peaceful, mainly servicing-totally free, and doesn’t have to have any visits to the gasoline station to fill up.
That very last a single is essential because it isn’t even road lawful, and for this reason why it life its existence off-street as a function truck.
The relatively huge (for a mini-truck) six,000 Wh battery usually furnished all over a 7 days or two of use right before needing to be recharged from a normal 120V wall outlet.
That was wonderful, while it was a little bit aggravating to hold out all working day for it to cost.
So I resolved to consider to consider edge of the abundant solar that bakes its roof rack every working day when it sits outside the house. To do so, I acquired a modest photo voltaic panel to mount on to the roof rack.
I figured if I could just enable it trickle cost when it’s sitting down out in the solar, then I wouldn’t basically need to have to plug it in for a huge cost of the LiFePO4 battery practically as generally.
You can adhere to together with the system of putting in the photo voltaic panel on the truck in a video I filmed of the project, or just retain examining for the aspects.
The biggest panel I could discover that didn’t lengthen previous the current roof rack was a 50W Renogy solar panel. Not specifically massive, but it would be just wonderful for trickle charging. Assuming all over 35W of photo voltaic electrical power (they don’t phone Florida the Sunshine Condition for nothin’!) for eight hrs a working day, I figured I𠆝 get practically 300 Wh of trickle charging for every working day.
Thinking of the truck only drives a several miles for every working day when it stays in just a 10 acre ranch, that would almost certainly account for all over 50 % of its everyday use. It wouldn’t consider it entirely off-grid, but it really should extend out the time in between prices by all over double. And the panel would be modest ample that it wouldn’t impression just about anything else on the truck or lengthen previous the confines of the current roof rack.
I was capable to mount the photo voltaic panel by making use of PVC pipe to develop struts throughout the roof rack. Immediately after portray them black, they in essence appeared like the current metal tubes and make the set up show up extra like a manufacturing facility occupation.
The pipes also authorized me to angle the panel a little, that means I can park the truck struggling with north when I’m not making use of it and get a great southernly angle for bigger photo voltaic performance.
To enhance the approximately 18VDC coming out of the photo voltaic panel to match the cost voltage wanted by my 60V battery in the mini-truck, I utilised a solar charge controller. It’s the exact a single I utilised in a previous solar electric bike project, and it’s way extra impressive than I need to have. But the added electric power indicates that if I at any time want to develop a carport or other set up with a several greater photo voltaic panels on it, I could plug them in right to the truck and get a bigger charging amount when parked around the photo voltaic array.
The true system of connecting almost everything is really darn uncomplicated. The photo voltaic panels plug into the cost controller, which alone plugs into the battery’s charging port. I was capable to entry the charging port by making use of a spare plug underneath the mini-truck’s charging cap (I however don’t know why the mini-truck arrived with two various charging ports wired to the exact circuit, but I was delighted it did). The most complicated component was just peeling back again the inside lining of the truck’s taxi to conceal the wiring that ran up to the photo voltaic panel.
With the set up entire, tests confirmed that in most circumstances I could get in between 30-35W of electric power. At a single position I attained 45W when the solar was its best position in the sky, while 35W was a extra practical determine on ordinary.
Considering the fact that the photo voltaic panel set up, I’ve observed that the charging period of time has in essence doubled.
If my family members billed the truck all over after each and every 10 times or so in the previous, now we can get absent with performing it after each and every a few months or so.
A panel that was huge ample to entirely cost the truck would be great, but I didn’t want a single so huge that it could get in the way of the mattress because we use the truck practically everyday for hauling factors all over the home.
The mattress also has a hydraulic ram that lifts it up about 45-levels in dump truck sort, and so I couldn’t have a panel lengthen way too much back again.
I𠆝 say that the venture was really effective, and it demonstrates that photo voltaic charging on cars can be efficient if the car is small ample electric power (my truck is all over five hp).
Conventional solar electric cars can’t genuinely assess, because a working day of solar just isn’t ample to fill a realistic part of their large batteries. But if you’ve acquired a modest EV like a mini-truck or an e-bicycle, in particular a single that doesn’t need to have to go way too much every working day and usually stays in a single location like this, you can basically make an impression even with a fairly modest photo voltaic panel.
For any person who at any time preferred to consider a Do-it-yourself photo voltaic charging venture like this, I𠆝 certainly advise offering it a shot. It’s amazingly uncomplicated and simple to do. It’s also difficult to explain the satisfying sensation of stepping back again to admire your function later on, viewing your system “magically” charging with out becoming plugged in. Or at the very least, with out becoming plugged in to the wall.
The post Weekend Project: I added a solar panel to my electric mini-truck to charge from the sun appeared first on Cars News Magazine.
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