Any prius owners have solar panels mounted on roof?
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I my self don't want a Prius. I need a truck. And I don't have solar panels mounted on my roof or Solar modules for that matter.
I have and array of 8 solar modules in my back yard.
So I guess I should have not answered this question.
Sorry..
I dont have solar panels.
Prius' are electric, I don't know why they would have solar panels...
Not sure what the point would be. Technology is not far enough along that you could get enough out of them to do you any good. Plus, the Prius is really slick, with a VERY good drag-coefficient. Solar panels on the roof would actually do more harm than good in screwing up the aerodynamics. I'm still not sure what you have in mind. Recharging the traction battery? You can't generate enough and the software would probably have to be rewritten or bypassed, voiding your warranty . Sorry.
It has been done. There have been a couple of people who've done DIY on it, and www.solarelectricalvehicles.co... claim to market one.
In practice, it is unlikely to be as useful as it may initially appear.
Such a large, customised solar panel is very expensive to manufacture, and would take many years to buy back just the dollar cost of the system. Solar Electrical Vehicle's site does calculations based on a daily trip of 28 miles, and a mileage of 100000 miles, so their graphs are based on a 10 year period, the graph shows it saving less that $4000 over this 10 year period, even if fuel averaged $6 per gallon over that 10 year period - it won't pay back its dollar cost.
There will be a similar deficit for the CO2 cost. Manufacturing solar panels is hugely energy intensive process. A highly customised, carefully shaped one that has been made sufficiently durable to survive on the roof of a car will be even more energy intensive to produce. It is also in a non-optimal position - cars often end up in the shade, or parked such that the roof isn't pointing towards the sun.
If you're wanting to power a vehicle from solar energy, the best way to do this is from solar panels on a south-facing roof (in northern hemisphere), and using a plug-in hybrid or pure electric vehicle.
At the current level of technology, the "Solar Prius" is best seen as a proof of concept. Maybe in the future there will be techniques of manufacturing solar panels so that it will have a net environmental and/or dollar benefit, but at present the only good reason I can think of for having one is in order to showcase the technology (i.e. if you are a manufacturer).
One good use I can think of for a (smaller) solar panel on the Prius is to keep the 12V auxiliary battery topped up. There is a small but continuous current drain when the Prius is parked (to power the alarm, the remote central locking, etc...), the net effect of which is that if the car is unused for several weeks or the 12V aux battery gets very old, it may drain this battery and require a "jump start". There are plenty of suitable small solar charging devices for preventing batteries losing charge.
this is quiet funny, i am sure they do not make them like this
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