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Now you're being critical of EV's.
The impossible is still impossible even with an EV. Figure around 4 miles range per KWH in an EV car. Do the math from there and see how much solar that would take. You're not going to get enough solar on that vehicle to make much of a dent in the range. The battery will discharge a lot faster than solar can supply unless you have a long time to wait for the solar to charge up the batteries. The wait time will be MUCH more than the drive time unless you have more than 50,000 watts of solar. Teslas are often charged on the road with 250,000 watts, which is good for a few hours of driving. How many watts of solar would you guess that vehicle has?

I have no idea, but it won't be enough to make a dent in the range without very long stops under the sun to charge up the battery. Longer than anybody would be willing to wait during a trip.

-Don- SS SRA, CA
 
range will be extended quite a bit.
Yes, range will be extended. What do you do when it runs out? "Range extended" means it will still run out of juice and now you have a car that won't move. It says no charge stations necessary. Simple math calls BS, unless you have a very long wait.

Not counting losses, at 3K of solar, it will take 23.3 hours in perfect nonstop sunlight to charge up a 70 KWH battery. You want to wait for it? That will be a wait of several days to get recharge back up for a few hundred more miles of range.

-Don- SS SRA, CA
 
" This Solar-Powered RV Runs Without Fuel Or Charging Stations"
" The e-home supports both level 2 and DC fast-charging, "
"maximum range is 280 kilometers (174 miles)"


See the problem? It supports what it claims it doesn't need, which proves the first line is BS. It needs charge stations just like any other EV, while traveling in it.

Unless you have it in the sunlight parked unused for several days, there is very little advantage of all that solar.

-Don- SS SRA, CA
 
Yes I now see that, it's just about like the Winnebago E-RV in that respect, but it is just a converted class B van. However as battery technology advances, range and re-charging will improve. Tesla experienced that, and now other companies are going through that phase of building an EV.
If the engineers can figure out how to build a reliable solid-state battery, it will be a giant leap forward. Then if the nation's electrical grid can be rebuilt to supply future demand___.
Some say the grid is fully capable of supporting EV's now. If that is fact, why is the nation still having brownouts during hot weather.
 
The advance in technology required to move the needle on this solar RV would be more efficient panels. So for a given surface area you'd net more energy, so that'd be a faster recharge time. You're still bound to the maximum 1kW/M^2 insolation maximum but panels are nowhere near that now. The second level of efficiency gain would be battery weight. That accounts for what, nearly half a passenger EV's weight? Knock that down and then the chassis doesn't need to be as heavy either, and Wh/mi will improve. So there's definitely some improvements to be made through innovation.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
If that is fact, why is the nation still having brownouts during hot weather.
Don't charge EVs at peak times, such as hot afternoons when every house is running an A/C. Most charge later--such as mine charge after midnight--but I can plug in at any time and the charge will not charge before the time set, unless I change locations (it uses the GPS for charging). I can set different locations to start the charge at a different time. Default when no time set at a new location is instant charging when plugged in.

IMO, they can already make a decent E-RV. All they have to do is make an RV out of the Tesla Semi. But then they need a decent charging infrastructure too. Notice it doesn't even bother with solar.

While solar will help some, it's rather a negligible amount unless left sitting under sunlight for a very long time.

IMO, it's more of a sales gimmick than anything else. It reminds me of the older RVs that advertised solar because they had a 5 watt solar panel.

-Don- SS SRA, CA
 
Note that typical max insolation is about one kw per square yard! Even at high efficiencies you need a lot of yards (100 plus?) to provide reasonable charge levels.

Ernie
 
Well, technically if panels were really that good, and batteries sufficiently energy dense and light, the need for infrastructure is actually reduced. There would be a converging of range and recharge time that would allow one to venture further and further away from infrastructure and depending on just how good it got and the daily range required, could be entirely autonomous. My buddy in FL has two nissan leaf's (leaves?) and enough panel at his house that he's net zero for his weekly driving. It's technically possible, just have to work on making the panels small enough to fit on the vehicles, and the vehicles lighter and more energy dense. Likely more of a process and incremental change rather than an event, but as soon as it becomes practical for even limited use cases, it will happen.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Well, technically if panels were really that good, and batteries sufficiently energy dense and light, the need for infrastructure is actually reduced. There would be a converging of range and recharge time that would allow one to venture further and further away from infrastructure and depending on just how good it got and the daily range required, could be entirely autonomous. My buddy in FL has two nissan leaf's (leaves?) and enough panel at his house that he's net zero for his weekly driving. It's technically possible, just have to work on making the panels small enough to fit on the vehicles, and the vehicles lighter and more energy dense. Likely more of a process and incremental change rather than an event, but as soon as it becomes practical for even limited use cases, it will happen.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
I agree with most of your reply, however the nation's electric grid being inadequate is fact, proven by our local governments repeatedly asking customers to reduce demand to prevent that grid from failure. Our nations grid must be upgraded, improved, rebuilt, whatever terms are available, before relying upon it to fully-support eliminating ICE engines in favor of electric motors.
IMO, To deny the electrical grid is in need of widespread improvement is having ones head in the sand so to speak. Some TX and NYC residents will readily agree.
I totally agree with your last sentence. Silicone Dioxide battery technology is still very new, once it is reliable and adapted for EV propulsion, I think EV's will really be in the forefront.
 
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Teslas are often charged on the road with 250,000 watts, which is good for a few hours of driving. How many watts of solar would you guess that vehicle has?
To put 250 Kw into perspective, that is the rating of the industrial diesel generator that provides backup power to the KCBS 50,000 watt AM transmitter plant. Between the building loads (full time air conditioning, lights, the transmitter itself, ancillary equipment, etc) that generator runs at about half it's rated power (120 Kw). At half power it consumes 10 gallons of diesel fuel an hour, at 250 Kw it would use about twice as much.
 
Our nations grid must be upgraded, improved, rebuilt, whatever terms are available,
That is being done also. There has been a constant need to increase electric power since the first day electricity was supplied to homes. So nothing is new with doing such.

BTW, did we have this big debate about overloading the grid when home A/C was invented?

But even without the upgrades, for the less than 40 miles per day average needed, not many EVs will be charging at the peak times. Not much of an issue, IMO.

But the blame should be put on A/C units. That is where the big load is, not the few EVs charging at the same time, mostly when people are sleeping.

-Don- Mecca, CA
 
The chassis upon which the MH is built seems more robust than the completed MH specs: IVECO eDaily
This is a European project and I forgot about how much smaller the countries are than the U.S.A. Once I realized that the completed MH specs are not quite as dismal. I wonder if the project still exists, the latest I can find on it is 2019. Following this video is a class B E-van that is interesting tool
 
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That is being done also. There has been a constant need to increase electric power since the first day electricity was supplied to homes. So nothing is new with doing such.

BTW, did we have this big debate about overloading the grid when home A/C was invented?

But even without the upgrades, for the less than 40 miles per day average needed, not many EVs will be charging at the peak times. Not much of an issue, IMO.

But the blame should be put on A/C units. That is where the big load is, not the few EVs charging at the same time, mostly when people are sleeping.

-Don- Mecca, CA
Don at the bottom of your linked webpage is this: With an Energy Crisis Brewing, No Peak in Sight for Emissions
 
Maybe, if you let it sit in the sun for a few months at a time and then drive a few miles and let it sit in the sun for a few more months each time.

-Don- SS SRA, CA
That's fine. We all need to sacrifice to save the environment.
 
Something you don't see discussed is what is the environmental impact by the effects of solar panel shading and wind turbine air resistance? No doubt there's some, the energy gleaned and redirected is being "taken" from the local environment. Waiting for the new wave of regulations that will control where you can put your solar panels and for how long.

At the end of the day the only meaningful sacrifice one can make to "save the planet" is ones' own demise.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Soylent green came to mind for some reason...:oops:

Yep, your age group has been identified to be at risk from a terrible virus. Report to the government facility and get inoculated immediately. Pay no attention to right wing conspiracy reports. Any similarity to current events is purely coincidental. :eek:

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
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