All Electric/solar RV

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
JayArr

JayArr

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 13, 2020
Posts
1,421
Location
Mission British Columbia Canada
They built a prototype in Europe and took it for a test run.

The Stella Vita is designed for two passengers and has a kitchen, sitting area, bed, shower and toilet. Using solar energy alone, the vehicle can cover up to 450 miles on a sunny day, reaching a top speed of 75mph, as well as powering all the inside amenities, a TV and a laptop

www.theguardian.com

Students’ solar-powered camper van turns heads on 1,800-mile road trip

Dutch team designed and built two-person van with kitchen, bed, shower, loo and range of up to 450 miles a day
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
"Using solar energy alone, the vehicle can cover up to 450 miles on a sunny day, reaching a top speed of 75mph,"

Sound like vaporware to me. I don't buy it being possible under solar alone, unless they had a something like a quarter mile of it.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
I assume they start will full batteries but use solar to supliment while driving. Should be easy to put 1200 watts of panels on a roof if roof layout was designed for it.
 
>>A team of students from the Netherlands are due to complete an 1,800-mile (3,000km) road trip across western Europe in a solar-powered camper van that they designed and built themselves.<<

When I saw that lead under the photo for some reason I immediately thought "Clown Car."

22 kids are gonna be real friendly on that trip - LOL...
 
DonTom said:
"Using solar energy alone, the vehicle can cover up to 450 miles on a sunny day, reaching a top speed of 75mph,"

Sound like vaporware to me. I don't buy it being possible under solar alone, unless they had a something like a quarter mile of it.

-Don- Reno, NV
Click to expand...
Apparently two students have been on the road with the vehicle for nearly a month winding up the 1,800 mile trip. I would like to see a breakdown of how often they had to use shorepower for recharging versus solar, but kudos to the entire team for the design and build. I don't think I've seen any solar vehicle that I'd call "beautiful", but I certainly can appreciate what went into developing the concept and carrying it out. The interior certainly looks nice...
 
NY_Dutch said:
Apparently two students have been on the road with the vehicle for nearly a month winding up the 1,800 mile trip. I would like to see a breakdown of how often they had to use shorepower for recharging versus solar, but kudos to the entire team for the design and build. I don't think I've seen any solar vehicle that I'd call "beautiful", but I certainly can appreciate what went into developing the concept and carrying it out. The interior certainly looks nice...
Click to expand...
Nice to see young engineers doing projects like this. Great life experiences and good source of real works data for for other students. I remember those days well, but our projects weren’t near as cool.
Kudos guys.
 
Rob&Deryl said:
Should be easy to put 1200 watts of panels on a roof if roof layout was designed for it.
Click to expand...
That's why I call BS. Even my electric motorcycles will take more than 3KW just to slowly move. Even to maintain a freeway speed going downhill will take around 3KW. And that's on a motorcycle.

1.2KW just ain't going to help much.

My smallest electric motorcycle (the one I take with my RV) can charge at 1.3KW using the OBC (on-board charger). It's a small 7 KWH battery. It will take 5 hours to fully charge at 1300 watts with the bike not being used.

Does that 1.2KW of solar sound like a lot when it is using above 20 KW during a slow ride?

Just doesn't add up that to solar can help much while driving.

However, with several long breaks (hours), 1300W during daylight can help a little.

-Don- Reno, NV
 
Keep in mind, this is the same university that has built a number of solar powered vehicles entered in the 1,864 mile (3,000 km) Bridgestone World Solar Challenge event since 2013, winning their class in two consecutive events.

www.worldsolarchallenge.org

The Challenge | Bridgestone World Solar Challenge | Australia

Information regarding the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia.
www.worldsolarchallenge.org www.worldsolarchallenge.org
 
DonTom said:
Not solar powered. Not even possible.

Solar-assisted a little is the best possible you can get with solar added to a vehicle.

-Don- Reno, NV
Click to expand...
When solar power is the primary energy source used to propel the vehicle and charge the batteries, what would you call it? Did you read the requirements for the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge?
 
DonTom said:
I would call it at least 20,000 continuous watts of solar--just for a motorcycle. Any vehicle larger would need more.

-Don- Reno, NV
Click to expand...
Are you claiming the Eindhoven University of Technology team, Bridgestone, and all the other various companies involved with the design and development of these vehicles are clueless? Maybe you could learn a little from this link:

scientificgems.wordpress.com

Solar Racing – Scientific Gems

Posts about Solar Racing written by Tony
scientificgems.wordpress.com scientificgems.wordpress.com
 
For comparison, 1.2 Kw is the output of a small Honda generator. Or in absolute terms, about 1.6 HP since 1 HP = 745 watts. How far/fast will that move any vehicle down the road?

As a clue, the European Solar Racing challenge referenced above using very lightweight and aerodynamic solar powered vehicles had an average lap speed of 25 MPH - 1000 km average distance over 24 hours. And most vehicles stopped for a quick recharge during the night when their solar panels were (obviously) not producing power.
 
Lets not get 1.2 KW charging capacity with a 1 Kwh of power. I kwh will take a 4000 pound modern electric vehicle down the road about 6.4 kilometres. (That is our lifetime average for our car) A vehicle that is more aerodynamically designed could go much further than that. And lets also keep in mind that this is a learning tool for young university engineers. Kinda cool.
 
Last edited:
Ex-Calif said:
>>A team of students from the Netherlands are due to complete an 1,800-mile (3,000km) road trip across western Europe in a solar-powered camper van that they designed and built themselves.<<

When I saw that lead under the photo for some reason I immediately thought "Clown Car."

22 kids are gonna be real friendly on that trip - LOL...
Click to expand...
There are only two people in the vehicle.
 
NY_Dutch said:
fackAre you claiming the Eindhoven University of Technology team, Bridgestone, and all the other various companies involved with the design and development of these vehicles are clueless?
Click to expand...
Facts are facts regardless of who says otherwise. The numbers do not add up and that is a fact. That's all I am saying.

Or have we recently invented perpetual motion machines? Or discovered Ohms Law isn't true?

-Don- Reno, NV
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 1,318 (members: 28, guests: 1,290)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,930
Posts
1,387,708
Members
137,680
Latest member
Pearl Constance de_la She
Back
Top Bottom