Solar charging while camping? "thoughts"

[Calisoulla]

went camping this weekend and just thought to my self that Rivian should make a connection to be able to hook up a solar panel
so you can charge up a bit for extended camping trips

has anyone done this? maybe with a redarc bcdc?

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[Thedude]

If you carry enough solar panels to get a meaningful charge you won’t have any room left for camping gear.

 

[Calisoulla]

lol true
I wouldn’t mind carrying around a 200w solar
If it would get a decent charge
Id be happy with 5%-15% charge over a weekend

 

[Electrified Outdoors]

Not worth it. You would need a LOT of solar to get any meaningful charge. Even if you had a kw your production is not going to be constant.

If your going to camp and you need to use the vehicle for power I would try to hit the closest fast charger and top it up as close to 100% as reasonable so you have max power when you pull up at the camp site assuming your boondocking it.

Our TT has 30 amp service so we try to get sites that have 20/30/50 hookup. That way we can plug in the TT30 for our TT and then we can charge the truck off the 50 amps. If we don't have a 50 then we will plug into the site 110. If there is only a TT 30 then we plug in to the outdoor outlet in the TT and set max charge rate to 8 amps.

 

[Calisoulla]

Yes we usually boondock
And pull a 3k lbs trailer
So any charge would be appreciated

 

[Calisoulla]

My set up

 

[SANZC02]

lol true
I wouldn’t mind carrying around a 200w solar
If it would get a decent charge
Id be happy with 5%-15% charge over a weekend

5% of the battery is around 6.4 kW. They do make 400 watt panels that are around 59” by 28”. If you had a camper that could fit some of these on the roof. and your camp was in full sun you could generate some power.

An example I have a 6.7 kW system on my house. On a full sun day like today in SoCal I generated 25.4 kWh so roughly 4x my capacity.

If you could do that with 4 panels you might get around 6 kWh if you could fit 6 you might get 9kWh. Those are full sun day though, if it is cloudy or as the days shorten it would be less.

Anyone here want to check my math feel free.

 

[CharonPDX]

lol true
I wouldn’t mind carrying around a 200w solar
If it would get a decent charge
Id be happy with 5%-15% charge over a weekend

200 Watts, in a perfectly sunny location, always aimed perfectly, would produce enough energy per day to drive about 4 miles assuming perfect energy transfer. It won't. realistically, you'd add about a mile of range per day. You'd be better off just charging up an EcoFlow or similar to run your camping gear off and leave the truck in low-power mode.

To be useful, you'd need significantly more solar panels - and that person acknowledges that the solar panels mounted on top to travel cause about a 20% decrease in range. Basically offsetting any power they could add.

 

[Calisoulla]

Here’s a little video

5% of the battery is around 6.4 kW. They do make 400 watt panels that are around 59” by 28”. If you had a camper that could fit some of these on the roof. and your camp was in full sun you could generate some power.

An example I have a 6.7 kW system on my house. On a full sun day like today in SoCal I generated 25.4 kWh so roughly 4x my capacity.

If you could do that with 4 panels you might get around 6 kWh if you could fit 6 you might get 9kWh. Those are full sun day though, if it is cloudy or as the days shorten it would be less.

Anyone here want to check my math feel free.

yes I was thinking of putting solar panels on the roof of

5% of the battery is around 6.4 kW. They do make 400 watt panels that are around 59” by 28”. If you had a camper that could fit some of these on the roof. and your camp was in full sun you could generate some power.

An example I have a 6.7 kW system on my house. On a full sun day like today in SoCal I generated 25.4 kWh so roughly 4x my capacity.

If you could do that with 4 panels you might get around 6 kWh if you could fit 6 you might get 9kWh. Those are full sun day though, if it is cloudy or as the days shorten it would be less.

Anyone here want to check my math feel free.

yes was planning on adding some solar to my camper roof
I have to see how many I can’t fit up there

 

[Calisoulla]

Come across the interesting video


maybe adding solar to the to of the roof might be a good option

 

[Cycliste]

You want power? These women didn’t mess around

https://www.renewable-innovations.com/rebelle-rally-2023

 

[virgnia_rivian]

You can get panels over 500w. These guys might be able to give you some recommendations. They specialize in helping off grid homeowners.
https://www.altestore.com/store/solar-panels-c541/

 

[RivRyan]

The camper guy was getting 1 mile back per charging hour at high noon. That means roughly 4 miles/day. If you stay camped in the same place for multiple days, with solar atop your much larger camper roof, and don’t use the power for anything else, it might get you enough to reach a charging station to get a real charge.

 

[sub]

Keep in mind that the vehicle uses more than 500w just to drive the charging electronics. Trying to charge with anything less than 1000 watts likely going to drain the battery rather than charge it. Try it home, plug into 120 volt outlet and set the charge speed to 2 amps and check back in a few hours and see if you gained or lost range.

Also, there is no way to dynamically tell the vehicle to adjust the charging current based on the current solar production. So you will need to set the charge rate to match the minimum production you expect. Since you aren't going to get the maximum rated for more than a few minutes, you probably need at least 2000 watts of panels to be able to reliably get 1000 watts for a significant portion of the day.

And make sure you unplug as soon as production drops below the charge current setting (evening). When the vehicle is trying to draw more than you are producing it isn't going to get any charging done, but it is going to waste a bunch of electricity keeping the vehicle awake trying to charge.

What might actually might be doable is to attach solar to a 12 volt power supply and keep the 12 volt system fully topped off. If you can keep the vehicle from ever tapping into the HV battery while you are parked you might be able to completely eliminate vampire drain. Preventing 5 mi per day of vampire drain is effectively the same as adding 5 mi to the battery everyday.

 

[Calisoulla]

You want power? These women didn’t mess around

https://www.renewable-innovations.com/rebelle-rally-2023

lol that would be the ideal way to charge

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