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DartSolar - A roof rack solar charger for EVs
Приєднався 19 жов 2023
DIY: A drivable solar rooftop for my Tesla Model Y (20 to 75 miles per day)
I created a rooftop solar array for my Tesla Model Y (more on dartsolar.com)
That I could easily drive with it. It gives me anywhere from 20 to 75 miles. Version one (1575 watts, 11 inches high) adds about 20 miles per day, version two (4000 watts, 5 inches high) can add 45 miles on average, and with DC-to-DC charging that could increase to about 63 miles for a five hour sun window.
Chapters
2:51 High-level details
4:38 Design & mechanics
7:37 Aerodynamics & drag
9:29 My modified solar panels and why
11:49 Larger vehicles
13:19 DC-to-DC charging and hot wiring
15:14 Limitations for the Tesla Model Y
17:27 Beta Two
This design focuses on minimizing weight and aerodynamic drag, using carbon-fiber telescopic tubes and rods. When expanded, the array covers the space of a US parking spot and is designed to reduce injury in case of accidental collisions. I also explore the environmental benefits of my design and discuss its potential applications for larger vehicles like buses and delivery trucks. I conclude by sharing my plans for Beta Two, which will have a lower height profile and the capability to support larger solar panels, potentially adding 50-75 miles per day.
That I could easily drive with it. It gives me anywhere from 20 to 75 miles. Version one (1575 watts, 11 inches high) adds about 20 miles per day, version two (4000 watts, 5 inches high) can add 45 miles on average, and with DC-to-DC charging that could increase to about 63 miles for a five hour sun window.
Chapters
2:51 High-level details
4:38 Design & mechanics
7:37 Aerodynamics & drag
9:29 My modified solar panels and why
11:49 Larger vehicles
13:19 DC-to-DC charging and hot wiring
15:14 Limitations for the Tesla Model Y
17:27 Beta Two
This design focuses on minimizing weight and aerodynamic drag, using carbon-fiber telescopic tubes and rods. When expanded, the array covers the space of a US parking spot and is designed to reduce injury in case of accidental collisions. I also explore the environmental benefits of my design and discuss its potential applications for larger vehicles like buses and delivery trucks. I conclude by sharing my plans for Beta Two, which will have a lower height profile and the capability to support larger solar panels, potentially adding 50-75 miles per day.
Переглядів: 68 771
How do we get updates on this? Kidding lol
You might mention how many miles of range you loose having this on your roof. It'll take you all day of charging JUST to recovery the lost energy by having it on your roof.
Does any one watch/follow the Darwin to Adelaide solar challenge? Some great cars and brilliant people. A 2000 mile race.
A roof box can cause 15-30% of less efficiency. This probably about 15% at least . That means you loss 15% your battery permanently. If you have a long range tesla model y that means you lose 11.25kwh . And your solar panel cant produce half of that in one day . So whats the point ?
That is incorrect. For each 1-inch the vehicle loses about 2% in our tests. The current Beta3 prototype is only 1-inch tall and is more aerodynamic
Have you considered double sided panels? They are far off any surfaces as a rule so might be relevant.
Love this idea! We need to have custom made panels that are bifacial
I'm curious about this because I'm in the process of building my own car-roof portable charger. Definitely interested to see how it goes for you.
This would be a great product for a teardrop or squaredrop trailers
Patenting a solar panel,on a car has already been done. I tried to do it in the 90’s just to operate a fan to flow cool air into a hot parked car but someone else, a major car company already holds the patent.
For those interested in this, check out the GoSun version of it, it looks very nice, but downside is solar panels at different angles.
I spent the day at 85f direct sun sleeping in my Y. Ac on low for hours. Barely used any power. Lol
This is so awesome! Im glad someone is driving this idea forward! Most people have thought solar charging for evs is pointless, but if you expand it beyond the size of the car you really can get a considerable amount of energy. Also have you thought of making them have some rudimentary sun tracking system? Usually these systems are more work than just adding more panels, but since space is a commodity in this situation, making them track the sun could REALLY boost output quite a bit!
I would have liked to have seen the electrical components and your procedure for charging the car, rather than watching you chronicle the development of your business idea. Best of luck to you.
What's the way currently that you charge the vehicle off of this? Sounds like you invert the solar energy to AC and then use the Tesla destination charger to push it to the onboard inverter into DC, or you have it connected to a separate battery pack to charge the vehicle when it's filled. I knew of Leaf owners attempting similar that were doing the latter because the high voltage contactors could only realistically take 6-8 activation's per day. I always thought that Tesla should have been doing this more, regardless of actual utility, because the recent Prius showed that solar panels really help alleviate people's range anxiety about their cars. That POS Cybertruck could use it especially, the thing is literally just all hard angles.
You can't patent some solar panels on your roof dude. You're like trying to patent a steering wheel. Good luck with that. Lol
I've always thought sliding mechanisms were more difficult to design in a application like this. Have you explored the option of only hinges to unfold?
That’s true. But sliding mechanisms can be actuated. Folding and hinges are way harder to actuate and automate
So Beta 3 is going to have lower power output than Beta 2? Your design doesn't exist in a vacuum. GoSun has a similar product and already does 1200W@80-120VDC. You'll simply have to do better if you want to compete.
Yes, but their solar panels don’t event point to the sun. Their product is not wind proof, it’s all going to flip and flop endlessly. The expansion cannot be automated or actuated. And the list goes on. Most people it seems only need 1kw of solar instead of 2kw or 4kw.
Great job! Hope this idea takes off for you to compete or sell to some of the big companies that are trying similar.
Fingers crossed!
Could you get the weight and size to a place it will fit in the back of the vehicle or in the frunk? This way you only have the additional Tesla rack drag and not the unit drag wile traveling (20% is significant).
Love the color of your Y, What is the color called?
Its the dark gray one -- I just had it waxed for the video :)
This is feasible if there is sun. A big challenge for any solar panel. There more options for wind power. Think about it, a car in motion is driving over air, thus moving air around and through the car. Can anyone build a wind power generator aparatus right where the front air duct/grill is located? Imagine the range it can regenerated similar to a car coming to a stop or down hill with regenerative braking. Here, you drive,wind blows through that duct and spinning a wind turbine of sort for wind power... not patent yet!
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or serious
What an aerodynamic nightmare! 😂
@@MikeTrieu 🤣
@@MikeTrieu Yes, but Beta2 only creates a 10% drag loss, Beta3 only creates a 3% drag loss -- which is exactly the same drag loss as the Tesla Roof rack
Wouldn't using CGIS panels with a rollup mechanism be good too? You would essentially only have a tube on top of the roof. Of course, much more expensive but with current tech development it could be viable in a few years.
Yes, that is a great idea -- CIGS has a conversion of 17% though, and PERC TonCon flexible solar panels are more in the 20% to 22% range. But I love the idea of using CIGS one day
Lol...invention...you are a joke and it seems you do not even know it.
Great implementation. The integrated solar panels of Fiskar or Aptera make little sense as they don't have enough surface area, but a "deployable when parked" panel set that expands to the size of a parking spot and can generate 10x what Fiskar or Aptera generate does make sense. It's pretty ugly, but it's smart.
We are just adding Beta3 on dartsolar.com which is only 1-inch high, incase you'd like to take a look. For this version we focused on sexiness.
I think this is amazing idea. Keep going my guy. 🎉 I want to see this in production.
Thank you! To get updates please enter your email at dartsolar.com -- we will also distribute blueprints there.
Honestly, rather than trying to cover the most of surface space on top. I would reduce the size to just the top glass surface. I don't need it to charge for more mileages, I only need it to able to even out the energy that climate control system used. 😂
We are just adding Beta3 on dartsolar.com which is only 1-inch high, incase you'd like to take a look. For this version we focused on sexiness. Beta3 is only as big as the glass top of the Tesla Model Y and 3
think about using bifacial flexible panels.......
Yeah that's a great idea. We use flexible solar panels -- there are any bifacial flexible solar panels on the market yet that we have found
You’re dreaming if you think you can get 20 kWh from that.
Sorry I'm confused -- where do you get the 20kWh?
@@DartSolar 75 mi/4 mi per kWh. That takes over 18kWh plus efficiency losses.
@@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity Sorry -- that math on the video later on you can see is done with the 4kw solar array. Not the 1.5kw one
I assume your talking about the 6th photo in the gallery? SO you passed the wires underneath instead of on top. I think your idea is great and will appeal once you can make it look all neat and automated.
Yeah, we flipped the copper strips to appear in the rear, and then we add our junction box there. Thank you!
Curious to see what you do with the junction boxes as they are really in the way for the sliding design I want to do. Surprised no one has made the a low profile junction that comes out the side yet.
Yes we moved the junction box. Go to DartSolar.com/beta2 - there is a photo of our junction box there, in the gallery section
Imagine being so poor you would even think this would be a good idea. You know your hearing BS when it's all started with a safety 3rd statement.
I apologize, I don't know what you mean
@DartSolar what in the world would a tesla owner need this for? Free charging, way off grid? The group of people that mostly ate 6 figure income and can't use a screwdriver and believe in safety first all the time. They are going to install and use this. Cmon, man. I hope you're successful.
@@Patriot3 Campers, gampers, people that drive about 20 miles per day and don't want to pay for charing. People that want a completely off-grid solution, people that believe in decentralization, people that live in rural areas and don't want to pull a power line (i.e.: think Colombia). Lots of people around the world.
@DartSolar dumbest thing I've heard. I am literally camping in my Y as I write this in Idaho and Montana tomorrow. Dum. Imagine the hit you take just from weight and drag. You have to overcome with solar before you see a mile. It's funny to just watch the videos. Keep on keeping on.
And it looks so good too
Thank you!
Can't wait to see v2
v2 and v3 are on dartsolar.com -- I just hadn't had time to record a video yet, but you can see them there
I have a feeling this or something similar will cause a fire
First of all this idea does not worth implementation considering the amount energy u can harvest and the cost of implemntayion otherwise tesla would have jumped on it aleady. if this helps u can use DC voltage to charge ur tesla as level 1 and level 2 AC voltage will be converted to dc in the car anyway. only u need to apply proper dc voltage.
Hello Farzins, I've never tested that, you mean I can connect the solar panels to an MPPT and that directly to the Tesla and it would work?
I think it's a great idea. So obvious but no one else is doing it. could be a very large industry.
thank you!
ALL THE BEST!!
thank you!
This is a must for people who go to the beach often 🇮🇹🏖️
Indeed! Or camping =D
@@DartSolar keep us updated this is interesting for plug in hybrids
@@Solid_Snake99 Will do -- if you enter your email address on dartsolar.com you can download the blueprints and get updates
Instead of putting it on the roof, use a hitch rack and put the panel behind your car. That will significantly reduce the drag.
> cyclist collision Don't mount them such that they end up ad head height then. It can be made to hinge around the front edge, so when deployed, the front corners can be below head height and the rear ones above head height. Worst case you have to park in reverse to get the optimal array orientation. ps. i would be cool to maintain operation of a single panel at all times if that isn't the case already.
James @realsolarcars already built a dcdc to car his chevy volt from roofrack based panels. If you havent already spoken to him you maybe should. Another route might be sunsynk/deye inverters and the battery emulator project but btw doing this on a tesla is more tricky as they ota their software which can introduce incompatibilities with the emulator as can messages may change after updates that you have zero control over. But props to you for protyping your first model. I have an env200 nissan ev van (leaf in van clothing). Leafs are more hacked now so this should be easier. Just waiting for the cost of flexible panels in the uk to make more sense, especially if mods killing their resale value are required. Also low frequency inverters (read heavy) are kinder to the cars expensive chargers. Charging via an ecoflow or similar isnt as forgiving apparently.
Yeah, the real solar cars guy is excitingly intelligent! The DC to DC charging solution that I'm looking at does not involve hacking the batteries, because then it would avoid the warranty of the car. We're going to release blueprints and instructions on our website if you'd like to register to be able to, replicate one for yourself. Sorry, the price of flexible solar panels in the UK are so expensive. Have you considered a purchasing them directly from China or India?
the minimizing injury part was GENIUS!!!
Haha, thanks!
I recommend using a custom tail hitch method to transfer the panels! I've seen someone else do it and it's better for your drag coefficient!!
Well, this particular prototype is 13 inches high, our second prototype was 5 inches high and it had an aerodynamic drag loss of about 7%. Our third prototype is only one inch high and the aerodynamic drag loss is negligible. My original intent was to drive to work, park my car walk away, and the solar array automatically expand. I don't want to drive with a tail hitch all day.
patented? nonsense. dont even try to limit freedom. yep even your own law says gov cannot legalize intervene in freedom matters. at all. how about consult your own lawyers about freedoms before scaring people into serving your spoken limitations.
I'm sorry I'm a bit confused. This is gonna be an open source project. We're gonna release the blueprints to our members. I'm not really sure what you mean.
@@DartSolar you said some design or material was protected by patents, but I dont see anything that actually is. or anything that can be. not by any government.
wild
Indeed, sir!
Roof is the wrong place. You will loose more energy than you'll ever create with this. Better would be using tow hitch to store the panels.
Well, this particular prototype is 13 inches high, our second prototype was 5 inches high and it had an aerodynamic drag loss of about 7%. Our third prototype is only one inch high and the aerodynamic drag loss is negligible.
Last thing capitalism wants is free solar energy 😂
And that's exactly why this is becoming an open source project and making blueprints available for everyone to build their own.
This is a must for tesla owners
You're totally right! It'll be cool to see if this becomes an aftermarket product for Tesla owners
This would be cool for camping as it could double as a shade
That's exactly right!
Have you predicted or calculated alternative material science Abel to achieving this functionality at the building stage of the car?
Sorry for the confusion, can you clarify what you mean. We're not building a car, this is an aftermarket product that adds solar charging to any electric vehicle.
How much weight can you move to the interior ceiling?
Sorry for the confusion, what do you mean by the interior ceiling?