Solar panels charging 3 while camping?

[Mjezzi]

So I know there's already been a lot of discussion on solar panels not making much sense to charge a model 3 for driving, but that's not what this post is about. It's about creating enough power to negate sentry mode power consumption and also run a fridge/freezer. If there's an extra percent a day of charge to the car, even better.

The goal is to camp for as long as we'd like without losing battery overtime. The requirement is to have enough solar power to keep sentry mode on and a freezer/refrigerator plugged in and powered. The reason we want sentry mode on is because we keep our mountain bikes locked on top fo the car and sentry mode serves as an alarm system if someone tries to break the bike rack locks and steal the bikes.

The solar panels would need to not take up too much space in the car since we'll be packing it full for a camping trip. Something that's relatively thin and could sit flat in the trunk would be ideal. It would somehow need to be compatible with the MCU for charging. When we get to the campsite, we would deploy the solar panels and plug it into the car.

We're in Colorado so there's plenty of sun. A supercharger is about an 1.5 hrs away from the campsite, so it's too far to be practical.

Does anyone know of a system that could work and fit these specs?

Thanks

 

[SigNC]

a 250 watt solar panel is what.....roughly 5ft by 3.5 feet. So you'd need at least 6 of those with bright sunlight and some kind of way to make the power sustainable at 1440w (battery). Even then you are still using up probably 400-500w of that in sentry mode. It would be a barely break even proposition if you kept sentry mode running over night. Much better of just occasionally hitting a 14-50 at the camp site or trickling off a 15amp 120 if that is available.

 

[TX_M3P+]

I don't know of any solar setup that will charge a model 3 and also run a refrigerator, but some campgrounds provide an electrical outlet that could be used to charge your M3 with your travel charger. If camping with your M3 is the only option then I'd be looking for campgrounds that provide an electrical hookup. There might even me some campgrounds that provide L2 charging, so you can look for those as well.

 

[Mjezzi]

a 250 watt solar panel is what.....roughly 5ft by 3.5 feet. So you'd need at least 6 of those with bright sunlight and some kind of way to make the power sustainable at 1440w (battery). Even then you are still using up probably 400-500w of that in sentry mode. It would be a barely break even proposition if you kept sentry mode running over night. Much better of just occasionally hitting a 14-50 at the camp site or trickling off a 15amp 120 if that is available.

During our last camping trip, we used about 5% of charge a night. That also included a very short drive every night to dump trash and fill up a pressure sprayer. So I guess, if I could get 5% charge a night that should offset our daily use. 75kWh * 5% would require a 3.75kWh solar charge per day. With a few 250 watt panels, I should be able to get that. What I'm not sure about is if the car will even charge at all with such low amperage.

 

[Mjezzi]

I don't know of any solar setup that will charge a model 3 and also run a refrigerator, but some campgrounds provide an electrical outlet that could be used to charge your M3 with your travel charger. If camping with your M3 is the only option then I'd be looking for campgrounds that provide an electrical hookup. There might even me some campgrounds that provide L2 charging, so you can look for those as well.

Our specific campground only has a 120v plug, but they don't really want to do that. Regardless, I want the flexibility to go anywhere and not lose power and have a few conveniences. I do a lot of BLM camping.

 

[strykeroz]

The camp fridge will be very frugal on power compared to Sentry mode on the car. My dad can run his onboard the boat even in cloudy weeks on 2 folding PV panels (with some lights) without needing to fire up the engine to add more charge, or maybe 2 days of solid rain. But of course there's a large 12V battery in the mix so all that energy is stored.

The others who have posted about finding an outlet in your case I agree with. You might additionally consider having a folding panel hooked directly to the 12V battery in the car so it doesn't draw from the main pack while running the fridge during the day. And let the car go to sleep as much as possible, rather than run sentry, to conserve that main pack while you're camped.

 

[tashtibet]

I used to take my Leaf for camping and plug it at the campground while I hike/trek & do the stuff at the campground-since not driving 120v is plenty.

 

[StealthP3D]

So I know there's already been a lot of discussion on solar panels not making much sense to charge a model 3 for driving, but that's not what this post is about. It's about creating enough power to negate sentry mode power consumption and also run a fridge/freezer. If there's an extra percent a day of charge to the car, even better.

The goal is to camp for as long as we'd like without losing battery overtime. The requirement is to have enough solar power to keep sentry mode on and a freezer/refrigerator plugged in and powered. The reason we want sentry mode on is because we keep our mountain bikes locked on top fo the car and sentry mode serves as an alarm system if someone tries to break the bike rack locks and steal the bikes.

The solar panels would need to not take up too much space in the car since we'll be packing it full for a camping trip. Something that's relatively thin and could sit flat in the trunk would be ideal. It would somehow need to be compatible with the MCU for charging. When we get to the campsite, we would deploy the solar panels and plug it into the car.

We're in Colorado so there's plenty of sun. A supercharger is about an 1.5 hrs away from the campsite, so it's too far to be practical.

Does anyone know of a system that could work and fit these specs?

Thanks

I have a Goal Zero Boulder 200W portable solar briefcase that I bought to ensure I could keep my phone and computer functional in the event of an extended power outage without resorting to a gas generator. It just fits in the floor of the trunk of my Model 3 if it's the first thing in. However, it would need to be protected from weight put on top of it. A 1/4" or 3/16" piece of plywood cut the same dimensions would be perfect slipped in the dust cover it comes with. It would probably be better to put in on the floor in front of the rear seat if you don't have rear passengers. However, this panel weighs 42 lbs. and is about 4" thick when closed so I would recommend two or three lighter, more portable (flat and flexible) panels for such an application. They won't collect as much electricity per sq. ft. so you would just need more of them.

I also have a Yeti 1400 (1.44kW) battery bank. It also weighs about 42 lbs. Using the above solar panel it can charge all the way from empty to full in a long day of good sun. I've tested the Yeti charging the Model 3 using the mobile connector and the 120V wall adapter. You will need to short the ground prong to the wide blade for it to charge because the Yeti power bank is not grounded (this mod is not dangerous, it just defeats the mobile connector's safety check to make sure the wall outlet is grounded). The Yeti 1400, from almost full to almost empty, will add 4 miles of range at 60 degrees F. I recommend dialing back the charge setting on the car, maybe to 5 amps, at least for the last half of the charge. This prevents overwhelming the battery bank as it discharges (at the 12 amp setting the Yeti will shut-down (probably thermal self-protect) at about 50% discharge. It might work better charging the car in the middle of the day with the solar panels supplying power simultaneously while the Yeti is charging the car.

I guess this would be a good setup if you wanted to do extended off-grid camping in a Model 3 without worrying about the gradual discharge of the battery but it would take more time managing the solar panels and charging than I would want to do so I would lean to showing up at the campsite with enough charge that it wasn't a concern. And if you have a 120V outlet in your campsite, by all means, just use that! I think in the future Tesla might have a solar input jack and onboard regulator (like the Cybertruck). All of a sudden, solar makes more sense because you won't need a separate battery bank which just adds another layer of losses. You can't charge any current Tesla directly from solar panels.

 

[TX_M3P+]

Our specific campground only has a 120v plug, but they don't really want to do that. Regardless, I want the flexibility to go anywhere and not lose power and have a few conveniences. I do a lot of BLM camping.

The portable charger that comes with the car works on 120v.

 

[smatthew]

At least the bikes can be locked to the car. What's going to stop somebody from stealing your expensive solar cells?
If you're camping in areas without shade a pop-up shelter for the car might be worthwhile to reduce heating of the car and subsequent cabin overheat protection power usage.

 

[user212_nr]

There has been a lot of discussion about this topic on various threads. I think they have passed the hurdles to show that it is "possible" in a technical sense, in the sense that you could purchase enough folding solar panels to get 30 miles per day.

Nevertheless, I've never heard of anyone who has done it. The reason is that the solar inverter / charging apparatus is expensive if it even exists. The technical challenge of finding all the parts for such a system is not a small one, even if you have unlimited money to spend. You are talking a custom system built just "for you" and that requires engineering. When someone does it, they will certainly share their experience for others to copy.

My suggestion is to abandon the "half way camping" idea with the refrigerator and the sentry mode. Not to be condescending, just you can actually live well without these things for a few days. When I went hiking I thought hard about how to carry meat, how to cook food, and concluded it just wasn't worth the effort. Took peanut butter and jelly. It was no problem. If you are car-camping, you can get a butane stove and cook pasta! No need for milk and perishable meats. People eat pasta and other such foods when they are not even camping. When you get back to civilization, you can stop by at a restaurant.

 

[Watts_Up]

I would advise watching this video from 'Now You Know' channel: Route Del Sol: On the Road

This will give you a good perspective about traveling using solar panels.

 

[mattack4000]

How much money do you want to spend? I can tell you it is pretty much a waste of time because I have all the crap below.

A nice efficient freezer is $1000
A 200w solar panel will get 1kw per day if you are lucky. $400. They will eat up a lot of space in your car.
You will need an extra battery to handle the charge from the solar panel and then feed it back into the car. $2000
You will only get maybe 1kw per day charging if you are lucky. Goalzero cant really charge above 6 or 7a without tripping.

 

[JulienW]

During our last camping trip, we used about 5% of charge a night. That also included a very short drive every night to dump trash and fill up a pressure sprayer. So I guess, if I could get 5% charge a night that should offset our daily use. 75kWh * 5% would require a 3.75kWh solar charge per day. With a few 250 watt panels, I should be able to get that. What I'm not sure about is if the car will even charge at all with such low amperage.

What are you going to do with this DC current? You would need an inverter since the car's charger only accepts 120V or 240V AC current. And the Mobile Connector likely requires at least a couple of amps to work. Probably require a backup truck to bring all the supplies needed and an install team too.

 

[user212_nr]

What are you going to do with this DC current? You would need an inverter since the car's charger only accepts 120V or 240V AC current. And the Mobile Connector likely requires at least a couple of amps to work. Probably require a backup truck to bring all the supplies needed and an install team too.

There are some ways to deal with the DC current, for example by storing it in a separate battery, but the solar management+charge controller doesn't come cheap, if it even exists. So you are looking at ~$5k investment, plus experimental know-how.

Another solution is to increase the voltage of the panels to 400V DC to match the car's battery voltage, and use it like a supercharger. Its very theoretical but in theory it should be possible. Just taking this from memory from the last thread that this was discussed on.

Main problem is that it just isn't worth it. You need to be one of those DIY guys who is doing technology for the fun of it, not caring about time/expense/hassle. Video by Watts_up is a good example of that.

 

[Uncle Paul]

Might make more sense to just turn off Sentry when camping.

Get yourself a battery operated hunters game camera and point it at your car. Will get pictures of anything moving across that path.

 

[XLR82XS]

I used to take my Leaf for camping and plug it at the campground while I hike/trek & do the stuff at the campground-since not driving 120v is plenty.

Yes 120 is plenty and will provide the juice needed while parked. Not worth the time, hassle, and $$$$ to get a solar setup working properly. UMC is fine.

 

[CanadianMetal]

When I go camping with my kids I can easily go a few days or more without power.

Instead of a powered freezer. Get a good cooler (I have 2) and freeze a bunch of water bottles (1 to 4 L sizes). They stay frozen WAY longer than ice cubes, to keep food (including meat) and drinks ice cold, and provide drinking water as they thaw.

 

[1FASTROD]

Serious question, why don't we use small/portable nuclear power sources for vehicles? I've read about these being used in isolated Russian buildings (I.e. Lighthouses) years ago and we had them in satellites since the 60-70's. I guess they would cause a slight problem during a collision, or you may end up glowing after a long drive, but has the technology not evolved in the last 50 years to make it safer?

 

[one2many]

You may be on the wrong forum. We installed a house stereo in
a guys car with a inverter (12vdc to 120ac). It was about 120w per channel. He did end up
putting 3 more 12v batteries for longer off road trips. The RV guys do all kinds of systems,
solar. sat, cooling systems, freezers and so on most 12vdv based. Then it is simple math
and cost. I do like the nuke option, can you get this at home depot?