Both Raven and I have mounted solar panels to our FEH's.

Raven has tied his directly to the vehicle 12V battery (actually replaced with a Optima Deep Cycle).

I use mine to charge a seperate 55AH Deep Cycle Gel Cell, with a 1500Watt DC to AC Inverter. I frequently camp at remote sites in Michigan, and use the system to power an 18ft trailer for lights, fans, and radio's. The system as is, will last for about 3 days, even with no additional sun.

I have mounted (2) 31 Watt Unisolar Laminate solar panels directly to the roof of the vehicle.

See my solar panels mounted on the vehicle at:
https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...olarHybrid.jpg

As soon as my warranty is up (in another 40,000 miles or so) I will connect my battery system to the Jump Start Module, which will boost the 12V to about 300V to charge the HV Battery. However, this module was deleted from the later model years of the FEH (after 2007?).

This will require a modification to make the Jump Start module think the HV battery SOC is lower than 30% in order to enable the boost mode.

Even if I discharge the 55AH 12V battery by 50%, this will only add about 300 watt hours to the HV Battery, which will get me about 1 mile of extra range. Then I have to wait to recharge the 12V system again (which in Mi may take anywhere from 1 day to a week depending on the weather).

 

BadFrog,

Would you mind answering a few questions about your installation?

1) What did you use to attach the panels?

2) How long have they been on?

3) What is the KW rating of your total panels?

4) Did you notice any decrease in fuel efficiency since adding them?

Thanks in advance.

 

1) The Unisolar Laminate panels have an industrial strength adhesive (peal and stick). Stuck directly to the roof.

2) They have been on 2 years, through car washes, and High Pressure water sprays with no issues.

3) Two panels rated at 31 watts = 62 watts (although I do sometimes get about 70 watts) = .07 Kw.

4) My system is not currently connected to the vehicle in any way, so no increase or decrease in MPG.

 

I must love digging up old topics. lol

Is anyone still tinkering with a way to hook up a solar panel or 110v outlet to charge the battery to say 60% SOC while parked during the workday? Got an offer to set up one or two of these in wifes parking space at work.

Model KD 135GX-LP
Max Power 135 Watts
Voltage at Max Power 17.7 Volts
Current at Max Power 7.63 Amps
Maximum System Voltage 600V
Open Circuit Voltage 22.1 Volts
Short Circuit Current 8.37 Amps
Series Fuse Rating 15 Amps
Dimension (LxWxD) 59.1"x26.3"x1.4"
Weight 33.0 lbs


Was also thinking that two of these mounted on the roof of our home then trickle charging the HEV battery to 60% SOC overnight might be nice as well. According to the calculators for my houses gps location, two of these pannels should provide 1.08 Kwh per day average throughout the year.

Right now I'm not looking at practicle (i.e. cost, etc) just is it possible and if so how? You guys know far more about the FEH than I do so I'd like to pick your brains a bit.

What kind of gains could this possibly net?

 

Mike, you realize you void your warranty if you try to charge your HV battery in any way other than designed by Ford don't you? Ford had the dealer tech take lots of pictures of my '05 FEH and send them to their Ford engineers to see if I had been charging my HV battery with a plug-in design. My FEH wouldn't start and they thought the HV battery was bad and didn't want to cover it. The tech told them I had by-passed the heater core and they had him call me and ask if I had been charging the HV battery from an outside source or modified the program in my PCM. The tech also told me that Ford had him check out my SGII also. Everything was cool when the tech found a relay that was bad and the HV battery wasn't bad after all. I took the tech for a ride and showed him the techniques I use to hypermile and told him I never used a plug-in at all. I would not even have a remote start installed unless it was approved my Ford and the dealer did it during the warranty period. After the warranty period I may choose to have a plug-in installed, but that would be with much bigger lithium battery. It's just not worth the money to install a plug-in for the present HV battery.

Ford does have a patent on a HEV Charger/Generator but they never made it available to the public:

"The present invention provides an apparatus, system, and method of utilizing a Home Power Unit (“HPU”) which functions as a battery charger for a Hybrid Electric Vehicle (“HEV”) or as a generator, utilizing the HEV's electrical power to operate external electrical devices. In its simplest form, the HPU comprises a Transformer, inverter means, rectifier means, a control unit, connection means to the HEV and external electrical loads or sources and switching means to change operation between charger and generator function. Alternative embodiments of the present invention utilize the HEV's existing components thereby avoiding component redundancy within the HPU. Specifically, in the first alternative embodiment, the inverter means are utilized within the vehicle, therefore, requiring only filter and transformer to be added to the vehicle. In the second alternative embodiment, the vehicle's DC-to-DC Converter is utilized as opposed to implementing a transformer. Therefore, only an inverter and filter are added to the system."
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/672...00&stemming=on

GaryG

 

The engine block heater (option 41H) in the 2005 to 2007 version and some 2008 models have a direct connection to the hybrid battery-heater. At one time, it was "thought" this direct wired connection could act as a "poor mans' PHEV". There is a thread on this site about this information. There are photos on this site with the connection to the hybrid battery heater. Can this wired connection--that some of us have--be modified for use as a trickle charger is unknown at this time. WARNING-messing with the high voltage hybrid battery can KILL YOU.

 

Oh I know it would totally void the hybrid warranty. But the way I figure it, If I start asking questions today, in less than six years when we hit 100,000 miles I'll know almost enough to start working on it. Till then, those beautiful solar pannels we were given will probably end up on our roof (if the condo assoc. allows it) and be used for something.

 

Hack, In looking at that panel, I agree it would fit, but it only supplies 50v at 250w. Were you planning on making the secondary bank less than 300V? If so then it would not be able to supply the primary battery.
so in essence you would need 6 of these sells to supply the full 300volts.
otherwise the dc to dc conversion would yield much lower watts on the output.
john

 

Hey guys, I'm new to this forum but after recently using this place as a research tool that was invaluable to my most recent progect I wanted to let you guy's in on it. I have successfully installed solar on the roof of my 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid and it was fairly simple!

The solar panel is a Ramsond (find it on eBay) 120 watt panel. I mounted it directly to the lugage rack and painted the sides black so it just looks like part of the rack. I ran the wires through the factory gromet that the wiring for the rear wiper runs through, down the inside of the body, under the vehicle to the motor. I mounted a SunSaver 20 amp charge controler on top of the factory fuse box (fits like it was MADE for it) and ran the wires from the SunSaver to my new Blue Top deep cycle Altima. You MUST use a deep cycle battery for my system because it will get drained and recharged and a factory style battery isn't good for that. The Blue Top fits like a factory battery! You'll need to run a longer ground wire because the factory one isn't quite long enough since the posts are switched on the optima but thats not a big deal (use 8 gauge). On the power side you will notice two red wires going to the positive terminal. One takes power to the fuse box, the other brings power from your trunk battery, through a DC/DC converter to your 12v battery; this is the wire you will be disconnecting and not using. Wire it to a distribution block and keep a jump wire in the glove box so if you are going to make a long run at night you can hook the factory charge system back up. Now, your entire 12 volt system is solar and self sustaining with no pull from your trunk battery at all. As you drive, the car will use more 12v power than your 120w panel can make but as soon as you get to where you are going simply park in the sun and let the sun do the rest. Instead of supplimenting solar in, your 12 volt system will be stand alone. At first I thought this might throw some sort of safety code but the vehicle doesn't even notice! It still goes into hybrid mode and everything! I just set up my page so I haven't got pictures up yet but I will soon.

 

does anyone know if these stick battery's can be used for or in a solar PowerBar operation and if so do I need a bms