Solar Panels: How do they work?
 

I see pictures of Raven's FEH, and it has a solar panel on top. I'm curious to know in what ways it supplements the battery pack? Does it keep the charge longer, allowing you to ride longer in electric? If so, how do you avoid the heating/cooling issue (the ICE would still come on)? Does it allow you to "floor it" more before ICE kicks on? What does it actually do?

I've invited Raven to comment, but thought it was worth a public thread. Anybody else have comments?

Re: Solar Panels: How do they work?
 

Hi, I'm a new on the forum, but Raven has put several pictures of my FEH on the site. (Raven has the White Escape, I have the Red Escape with the Lightning Tear Graphic on the side, and the big tires.)

Both Raven and I plan on using the solar panels to charge a secondary Deep Discharge battery (probably a 75 amp/hour Optima), and then use that power to provide power to the High Voltage battery through the Jump Start boost module. We also plan to utilize the solar power to run the cabin fan to exaust hot air in the vehicle during the few hot summer days we get in Michigan.

Re: Solar Panels: How do they work?
 

Using the Solar to run an exhaust fan, or other 12v accessories is a decent idea.

Charging the HV Battery via the "jump start button" will NOT work.
( tried that the second week I owned my vehicle, as I also have 75 watts of solar panels just lying around, working my garden lights right now... )

The HV jump start button only works when your HV battery is below 40% and so low it won't start the car. Once the HV battery has even the bare minimum, the jump start button is disabled. You're going to need a very sophisticated hack involving computer programing to pull this one off.

There is some documentation that the "jump start button" simply heats the HV cells, giving them a voltage boost in borderline conditions, but does not actually provide a direct charge, and won't resurect a deeply discharged HV pack.

-John