Solar battery charger?
 

does anyone know if there exists a such thing as a solar battery charger for an ebike?

First you need to know the voltage you are charging to. You also need to know how many watts the solar panels you are using put out. I am using a 48V system; so I went with this charger.

Be aware that it is still in a box on a shelf; I have not road tested it yet.

cool. I haven't decided on a bike yet, but i'm leaning towards the rad mini with a 48v 11.6 ah battery. so I would need solar panels plus the charger then. probably better to just charge it from the house outlet... after purchasing the charger plus panels, it would be something I would look to save charging expenses on over a pretty long term to make it cost effective.

Frankly, I don't think that a solar arrangement will save any money. The advantage that solar gives is range; however, you cannot plan on high speeds using solar, by itself, on long trips.

As you can see from the thread below this one. Going solar is pretty involved. I realize that the panels I went with are a compromise. I wanted light weight panels so as to not be too top heavy. However the result is that I am only going to get about 100W/sq meter. The metal is still on order; so the project is nowhere near complete.

Just FYI, it will take about 1200 sq. in. (about 1 sq meter) of high-quality cells to charge a typical 48V 12Ah battery in 5 hours of full sun. Most of the relationships are linear, so if you cut the panel size in half, you'll get half as much charge (or a full charge will take twice as long).

Agreed. I am still not sure that my project will give me the performance I want with a full touring load. I have about 3 sq/m of panel and will consider it a success if I can average 12mph over an extended period. However, it is not a simple, or cheap, project

I wasn't looking to have solar panels mounted on my bike during a ride... and as I live in myrtle beach there is no lack of sunshine, so it would be an alternative to plugging it in and paying for electricity to charge it. I have a small solar panel trickle charger for my car that sits on the dash and plugs into the lighter, so wasn't sure with todays ever evolving tech that maybe someone had come up with an all in one unit to charge variable voltages. thanks to all for responding.

All it takes is money, and two Hrs of sunshine... http://www.hi-powercycles.com/hpc-su...l-and-charger/

yikes!

For that example, if you do a pretty full discharge (daily?), then you will need about 48v x 11.6 ah = 557 Watts to recharge.

If you get a little 50W panel, then it will take 10+ hours of peak power charging to recharge. But, expect to only get a few hours of peak charging a day. So, it would take several days to recharge.

Say you get a 250W panel, then it should recharge your bike with about 2 or 3 hours of noontime sunshine.

What are your goals?

Recharge while at work?

Recharge at night while at home?

unless moonlight is enough for the solar charger, it would be charging for 3 or 4 hours during the day. but I can't afford the investment as I see that it would be, so i'll just plug it in overnight.

I am looking into getting a Solar Charger for my Yuba Sweet Curry custom eBike (1500W Crystalyte) …. Battery configuration is 48 Volts and 40 Amps (2 LiFePo4 Lithium batteries connected together). I will be going on a 400 mile (each way) tour this winter from Modesto, California …. through the Redwoods, to Eureka. Planning on 3-4 weeks round trip.

I found this Solar Charger >>> Solar Charger for 36V and 48V Electric Bike Batteries

I know nothing about electronics. Would greatly appreciate your comments ….. Would I be able to charge while cycling ? How long to charge when stopped ?

I plan on leaving early each morning, around 5:00 a.m. Will probably be able to ride only for around 3-4 hours, but hopefully get enough charge to continue riding a few more hours later in the day, then find a campsite with electricity and charge overnight.

The first two legs of my journey will be long (80-100 miles each day), if I can get enough charge from the Solar Charger. Going through the Redwoods will take me 3-4 days, so I will only be traveling short distances each day.

My 24v solar trike has 2x 18v panels at a metre by half metre each, they need direct sunlight to put out 100w at 36v, and plummet at the very threat of a moment's shade. With the charge regulator they were about £250. Im thinking you're gonna need double that capacity, still only running 200w max, if you hope to get, say, a 36v 13ah e-bike charged in an afternoon. Like a 4ft x 7ft area, and 700 dollars worth. And then 36v won't be enough, so you'd need slightly higher output panels to boot.

Seeking information Possibility of Chargeable batteries using Solar energy.
 

Hi,

Can anyone let me know whether there are any bikes can be charged by using Solar energy.

Thank you.

Any rechargeable battery can be charged using solar energy; it is just a matter of MONEY and TIME.

For example; at 48V 10Ah battery holds 480Wh of energy. A 100W solar panel in direct full sun will needs 4.8 hours to charge the battery from near zero IF it was 100% efficient; but actually it will take longer because the electronics between the solar panel and the battery are not 100% efficient; you'll be lucky to get 80% overall efficiency in the electronics and cabling.

Thank you so much for your valuable reply and got some knowledge with this, Can you please give some information where can I buy them easily? Like are there any websites selling solar panels for bike? Can you please make me clear?::):):)

and so square footage of solar cell arrays.. bigger is better..

you buy solar panels themselves, a carport roof is a good size..

an electrician, trained in solar power, can sort out the electrical connections

to create the bicycle ~ battery interface.

Not unless you hire me as a contractor. I am very expensive. I' have given you basic physics for free, design and implementation take money. You should be able to get a professional design package with complete bill of materials (BOM) for $10K, $2K for materials, $5K for assembly for the first one; in if you purchase 10,000 units, you can probably get it down to 10% to 15% over the cost of the photo voltaic cells.

See also @fietsbob 's response.

Solar Charging
 

Hear, Hear! nfmisso,

I come from an Electrical/mechanical eng. background, and no one's paying for my professional knowledge although often asking for.

Main note: I rode a solar charged bike not too long ago; made by a Univ. of FLA engineering student and very prototypical. All wiring and electronic components were just kind of thrown on the frame with whatever held (hose clamps, duct tape, zip ties, etc.). This system had a "folding" solar panel (essentially the size of a lap top computer when folded/closed) which provided charging to a lead battery pack. The actual design was okay, but it needed refinement; and unfortunately this individual knew nothing about cycling in general and installed this contraption on an ex-Ebike that would kill the normal person to pedal under their own power, very heavy and poor handling, wrong gear ratio, and add to that the fact that the battery pack was located up high nearly saddle high right behind it and the solar panel was on a rear rack behind the battery. All this caused the bike to be very difficult to handle due to the high center of gravity with a bike that already was poorly designed for its original function (it would fall over with the kickstand down unless on nearly level ground; one fall and it's dead!). the bike travelled at 20 plus mph, with about a 20 mile range given average rider weight. $500 for the whole thing, but I passed due to needing to fit to another frame which at the time I didn't have; otherwise I'd have mounted if possible to a light touring frame to vastly increase the efficiency just due to the substantial weight loss. If I were to design this type of system I'd probably design a frame first to account for mounting location, weight distribution, center of gravity, etc. It would be very interesting to see what a unit of similar performance would get for range on a typical lightweight racer around 20-22 lbs considering you're adding that much weight or more with the motor, battery, and solar/charging components. It would provide trickle charging (manual selection of this function) during operation if sunny out, so extended range during daylight hours which I thought was a great design feature. I'm kicking around thoughts ever since I saw /rode it, but I don't see myself on an Ebike except for commuting (I work midnights and travel 40 miles to work so no go there!), or I'm just too shot physically to do the pedaling anymore (which is getting closer by the minute!).

So, I am wondering, if you went with a solar panel on the back of your bike or on a trailer and hub generator on the front, could you generate enough power to keep rolling, at least on sunny days?

Check with Marissa. I do think the hub generator would use more energy than it produces.
Marissa's Solar Bike Adventure ? Marissa Muller

I want to remind you guys that I rode a grossly overloaded e-trike from Kansas to Utah without plugging in once. So yes, it can be done.

(those of you wondering if I am planning to just rest on those laurels, I am starting to set up a verticle 4'x8' CNC so I can start cutting Coroplast to make an enclosed velomoblle for my next stupid stunt)

Solar panel & Hub Gen.
 

Unfortunately, I never really got to check the bike out under the conditions that would apply. I actually rode the bike at dusk/early evening. Battery was fully charged, so to at least test the charging while riding I'd have meters showing voltage and amp draw to see the difference between riding while getting a trickle charge, and riding w/o charging. As far as the hub generator in conjunction with the solar panel charge, I would think that you'd be served more by the generator (at least with the size panel used in my case, less than 2 square feet) than by the panel charge. I did not get the specs for that setup at the time I tested it.

If you ever had a hub generator on a regular bike, you felt the drag when it was pivoted onto the tire to run the lights, Please discard the idea that you get more energy from it that either your legs or your electric motor must put out to turn it.

HPL, good initiative in actually testing a prototype. If you had been able to get 10X the panel area, you would have had something to talk about. Look at Robert C's pictures. I knew about his ride, but Marrissa's page were were easier to find. Although she had a sponsoring solar panel outfit build the electronics for her, you can buy a lot of similar electrical gizmo's today,

[QUOTE=Doc_Wui;20955654]If you ever had a hub generator on a regular bike, you felt the drag when it was pivoted onto the tire to run the lights, Please discard the idea that you get more energy from it that either your legs or your electric motor must put out to turn it.

Agreed Doc, you're dealing with both the mechanical drag and the electrical "drag" with a generator. I wish I had tested the prototype during the day with an ammeter wired up to it.