size of battery needed for my solar panel

[muckington]

That does seem to vary with vehicles, my hybrid is so called as it can go on a road or in the field, all e-bikes require one to pedal, but is seems one does not need to have a direct link of pedals to wheels, but with other vehicles it means twin engined one electric and the other carbon based fuel. But the same method has been used to power railway engines and simply called diesel-electric, hybrid transport has been around for a long time, even a film made, called Two Mules for Sister Sara the mule is a hybrid between a horse and donkey, there have been many off-road vehicles called mules View attachment 402125so suppose they must be hybrids! But a hybrid is basic a mixture where you have the worst of both systems.

So its an electric car or bike what he means. Did you not say above that you charge an electric bike up at a pub. is there no charging stations for this?

 

[muckington]

1 kW of solar panels, will give you around 66 kWh per month. Judging by mine in Mid-Wales.

is that in peek winter or peek summer?

 

[JohnD]

I dont know what a hybrid is, back i take it the battery is all way on change and never gets used

No, it was charged up, and waits in a box until/unless the 12v battery in the car goes flat.

A hybrid is a car with a petrol engine and an electric motor with a 400 volt* battery,

It has a 12v battery which operates the central locking and turns on the computer and the 400v bsttery.

The 12v battery does not start the engine. But if it is flat and cannot turn on the 400v battery, the car can't do anything. The 400v battery, when it is turned on, charges the 12v battery.

*it might not actually be 400, I can't remember

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have one of those China type off of ebay. they have a red casing. When the 100 year patancy run out with Webasco. the ones from china came on the seen, as it is just a copy cat desinge but with cheep componants. If that is the type that you have?

Usually, the complete unit built into a red casing. Yes that is what I have in the workshop, nothing particularly cheap about the components, other than the cost of the unit.

That unit, directly heats the air. I have a proper, OEM 5kw Webasto, fitted in my car, which heats the cooling system water. It comes on automatically, if the ambient falls below 10C, or can be manually controlled.

 

[Why Not Indeed]

moreso?

I think if you did less posting and more googling, you would arrive at solutions to your problems quicker.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I think if you did less posting and more googling, you would arrive at solutions to your problems quicker.

and fewer silly questions..

 

[ericmark]

is that in peek winter or peek summer?

Since not finished December, yet that is incomplete, but it gives a good idea of solar production for a 6 kW array.

⁣ the best December day so far,

⁣ the best June day, this time of year the battery and off-peak are the main gain, the solar does very little, we are considering a third battery, so we don't need to run the three washing machine, dishwasher, tumble drier overnight in winter.

The 12v battery does not start the engine. But if it is flat and cannot turn on the 400v battery, the car can't do anything. The 400v battery, when it is turned on, charges the 12v battery.

Seems there is a design flaw, if the 12 volt battery does not auto wake up the 400 volt one to recharge its self.

So its an electric car or bike what he means. Did you not say above that you charge an electric bike up at a pub. is there no charging stations for this?

No official charging stations for an electric bike, needs a simple 13 amp outlet, if I think I may need a top-up I carry the charger, but that is rare, around a 25-mile range, at 16 MPH that's 1.5 hours of riding, main reason is to take photos and see the countryside I could not see without it, mainly the canal tow-path, which is flat, so don't need the motor, and I am stopping so likely OK for an 8-hour day.

I aim to get it on the train home, classed same as a dog, can't make my bike a member, so I travel free, but not my bike, and unless the disable carriage is on the train, I have to leave it on the veranda of the train. And fold it. And the bike is faster than the train, so often ride it home, rather than put it on the train. Since I do sometime charge it at the railway, at the station, suppose you could stretch a point and call it a charging station, but I can only do that as a volunteer for the railway so well known, not an option for public.

The 48 volt 12 Ah lithium battery used on the e-bike is quite light, but to use it off the bike one would need some inverter to transform the voltage to some useable voltage, my wife's e-bike is 36 volts, so not even standard bike to bike. The charger is not a high rate, so having a meal in a pub so 2.5 hours, will not fully charge a battery, looking at 8 hours.

But if I was doing a lot of riding, nothing to stop me having spare batteries.

So back to workshop/shed etc, easy enough to have two batteries, and exchange them to charge them at home, I have two 90 Ah AGM batteries ex car, which I was swapping around with old garage to have lights in the garage, new shed has a 230 volt supply, but I know the garage will be scrapped soon, so was no point taking mains to the garage.

And this is the major point, one has to work out what money is worth spending on a project, and also what can be used else where, as well. So a portable power bank can be used with a BBQ, etc, as well as in the shed, it was the same with my solar and batteries, the UPS function was a big advantage of having the set-up. I could have bought a small generator for the UPS function, which would likely do a better job, but now don't need it.

 

[JohnD]

Seems there is a design flaw, if the 12 volt battery does not auto wake up the 400 volt one to recharge its self.

The big battery must not be drained flat when the car is left parked.

It is a much simpler job to attack a 12v standby or jump leads. You will remember that petrol cars also do not start their engines when parked.

 

[ericmark]

You will remember that petrol cars also do not start their engines when parked.

They do, not sure if I like the idea, and we no longer pay for the app. But my wife's Jaguar XE so about the smallest of the Jaguar range, could be started from the app, to warm up the car before you went out to it, but there was a warning it should not be used when parked on the public highway.

There is a massive difference to starting a 2 litre diesel engine, to powering up some inverter, I still have the old batteries, which still are used for standby power, years after being removed from the car.

However, during COVID the car was connected to a Lidi smart charger, and around midday every day it would spring back into life, I realised something in the car was switching on every day at this time, likely sending info back to Jaguar.