40 milliamps is a pretty small current, which might help keep the battery from going dead due to it's own (minimal) internal leakage. I was at an alternative fuel car rally a couple weeks ago and a guy drove his home built electric car over to NH from where he lives in Maine. He had a solar panel on his car roof that measured about 4 feet by 3 feet. He said it charged the battery that ran his accessories (ie, wipers, lights, directional signals, etc). It would be interesting to look at the load off the HCH engine compartment battery and design a beefed up solar panel and charge controller that would be effective. I'm working with a team to build about 1kw of custom solar modules that will power a car in a race in Australia this fall. The car is big and it will be completely covered with solar cells. --tom

Tom Im in Australia and would like to know more about that event

Steve,
It's called the World Solar Challenge and it takes place this October. You can google it and find quite a lot of info. The car we are fabricating panels for is being built by students at Simon Bolivar University in Caracas Venezuela. I am a member of the North American cheering squad. --Tom

MSantos:
I was wondering how you connected the panel to the fuse socket. I can't tell if you just taped it or if you had a special little converter or something.
Thanks
PS: Also if anyone else knows how he did it or if they know a way to do this... I haven't seen MSantos around here lately...

Sorry gq;

I have not been able to reply to any post for a while (email verification problems). They are resolved now.

The panel's two wires were split. The ground wire was grounded at the IPU (there are several good bolted grounding points behind the rear seat, no need to remove the seat on the driver's side - just push the cushion a little).
The positive wire was pulled all the way to the driver's feet position under the side trim (just tuck the wire under the plastic trim). The end of that wire has a simple 2mm crimped-on connector but you may buy an automotive fuse kit at Walmart that will do the job neatly as well.

Cheers;

MSantos

thanks. I'll check out that fuse kit.

This is interesting and I may try it myself. I am a power hog in the car, and being able to charge the sub-system should help somewhat.

I have been thingking about a solar system on HCH much since we got it (yeah, only two week ago, but I love the idea of solar)


And I have seen many options for the Prius. Like this one

MSantos: Did you install a fuse between your car battery and the solar panel? I heard that you must do this in order to not void your warranty, but i have also heard that it is not necessary.
Thanks

Yes, I did put a 500mA fuse inline, again this is just to be able to widthstand any future scrutiny. The solar panels I use have protection circuitry though... so it really was not necessary, but try telling that to a service person sometime in the future if something goes wrong, heh?


Cheers;

MSantos

Thanks. I received my panel today. I think it's the exact one you have. The person I bought it from said I did not need a fuse, but I think i'll put one just to please Honda. One last question for you. I just want to double check that I have all my info right. Do you disconnect it when running your car? I think that the diode would allow it to be permanently connected. Also, the person who I bought it from said I could run the car while it is connected. However, the instructions say not to (but they say lots of things, like the blue LED is red). Just wondering what your personal opinion is.
Thanks a lot!