Has anyone put solar pannels on a Toyota Prius?
Question:
Answer:
The only useful use of solar panels on a Toyota Prius is to keep the 12v accessory battery charged when you're planning on leaving the car unused for some time. There are some solar panel kits that you can buy that plug into the cigarette lighter for this purpose. However, on the Prius the 12v accessory outlets (cigarette lighter outlets) are turned off when the car is off... So, you'll either have to wire your outlet to be always on/hot, or you'll have to connect an additional plug directly to your 12v battery, to make it work.
The problem with connecting a PV system to the hybrid battery (besides the added weight on the car of the PV system) is that you'll have to defeat a number of safeties on the car to connect to the hybrid system and make charging available while the car is off...
There have been a few prototypes out there of a PV Prius:
For a NHW11: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/08/...
For a NHW20:
http://www.solatecllc.com/products.htm...
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