Solar panels for my truck

Why?

 

I don't really have suggestions as for the panels as I don't know much about them...

I will say I do see trucks in Ontario running solar panels, they don't look like your typical solar panels... They look like they follow the contours of the truck so they are a soft type of solar panel.. I have seen them on the Robert trucks out of Quebec..

 

I highly doubt that you could get enough panels on there to offset the draw of whatever you are using. Probably not going to get enough light to get the full charging capacity out of the panels and solar is at best a trickle charge.

 

Added weight, and minimal energy production. Great idea for keeping a base charge on your batteries. Each square meter receives about a kilowatt of solar energy, but conversion efficiency is only 10-20%. So with a large panel up there(during peak sunlight and correct angle) you would be hard pressed to run anything more than a 150 watt inverter. RV's sometimes install them just as a trickle charge for the batteries when parked for extended periods of time.

 

This. If you were going to be parking your truck for extended periods of time without any way to plug into shore power to keep batteries charged, I think the panel idea would be plausible. But to extend your lithium batteries? Nope.

What I really think would be beneficial is a way to tie into a reefer's upgraded electrical system, and use it as a "mini-apu", rather than relying solely on electric apus.

 

They're making panels lighter and slimmer these days with new technology, from roofing shingles, each bwing a panel to invisible, paper thin panels, easy to locate in your favorite search engine.

imagine building's covered in see through panels set up as a power station.. its on the way.

 

examples

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com

invisible solar panels

 

I know with my truck's setup the battery doesn't charge unless you have more then 20amp at 12v if the AC is on. (My inverter can charge the battery at 2, 10 20 and 40amps.) So to maintian power you'd likely need at least 300w if your only power usage is the AC.