by Burgerman » 25 Jul 2022, 12:58
Nobody is taking the piss. Just trying to explain quite how little solar panels give almost all of the time. And so how huge they would need to be. And so not very practical unless you have at least 2 huge 250 watt panels and only then around 5 or 6 hours in summer.
Right now my carefully aimed, south facing 35 degree angles 3kw worth of panels, are making 350 watts. In high summer. At 1PM while sun is high. Because its cloudy. That means that you would *just* have enough power to run your 250 watt powerchair charger. With a little in reserve. But that only charges at 8A and so you would extend range. But still gradually run down the battery as you roll. If you stopped now and again it would probably keep up. If it wasnt cloudy then you would only need 2 big panels.
But unless bright clear sun, that would require all of my 12 of those 250 watt panels aimed south at 30 degrees. In summer! And my panels are typical, and make around 9 times less watts in winter. Meaning that you would need even more of them!
Since theres no way to fit that many huge panels, it cant work. If you fitted just 2 panels as a canopy/roof, around 7 feet x 9 feet (2 panels) above a chair, or on a trailer it would probably keep up mostly in direct sunlight in summer. Angled correctly. But that seldom happens other than a few hours a day in some hotter countries.
So the obvious solution is to fit the panels on your house roof, as I have, and let them charge your lithium battery in the daytime. Or even at night. Then they can really help. How? Because during the day they feed power into your washin machine or computers, or heating water, or running the dryer, and any that you dont need goes into the grid. At night you draw it back.