Originally Posted by
Happy Feet
Very interesting. Do you really mean 450lb's or is that a typo?
I'm curious about the solar panels as I just bought a smaller set up ( Instapark Mercury 10) to recharge my devices on my next tour (phone, Ipod, camera, gopro). I've wanted to get into solar for a while and am keen to see how it goes.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B006ZSE6TM/...185360_TE_dp_1
What % do you think you use e assist overall and does your setup completely recharge the bike each day? Earlier in the thread we were talking about some people who were trying to make self supporting solar input arrays but they seemed to have panels out all the time as they rode (perhaps they used more assist and needed more recharge capacity).
450 was what I said. My Surly Ogre is 45, I'm 265, solar panel, motor and pannier I made for it 50. Then I have my camping & cooking gear, laptop, cloths taking up another 90 lbs. Even with this weight on flat surfaces I still maintain 10+mph without the motor.
The e assist I only ever use on hills as needed and also if I ever have a blood sugar blow out again. I don't know much about the smaller solar panels on amazon, but I know inch per inch comparing mine to the one you listed, mine produce more power. My panels are made by Sun Power and are over 24% efficient. Standard panels are 12%-17% on average from some research.
But in my case you need to have a DC to DC charge converter between the solar panel and battery, another piece of equipment. It takes the 12V from the panels and up converts it to 58v to charge the battery, since that is the peak voltage of the battery. The good thing is it is 95% efficient. So per 100 watts I only loose 5 watts in the conversion. Converting from DC panels to an AC inverter and then back to DC for a battery charger I would have lost to much.
This company is a good place to start, they have the cheapest panels that I found.
Foldable Solar Panels
Your last question just depends on how much you use it. I don't start my day off with a full charge since I used the battery the night before at camp to charge up all of my electronics from it. Solar panels are at there best mid day starting where I am in Sacramento CA. around 11:30a. That is when I take amour hour more lunch to rest and recharge.