Ha, I did it. Hood solar

[perfectlift-tips]

Good build, love the setup but baffled about the engine heat a hood is facing and what are its effects on the whole setup?

 

[Paddy]

Okay well humor me this. Park your car in the sun for a while. Now take you hand and feel around the roof and hood and see what is hot and what is not. Then, drive your car around and get the engine hot. Then do the same test. I predict that your hood will be hotter when you park than when you drive. But, this test is really pointless to the subject, because I don’t need solar power at all when my engine is running, it makes it’s own 12v. Point being, the roof gets as hot or hotter than the hood on a parked car. So my focus is performance on a parked car. And trust me the heat of the engine won’t melt these and make them inoperable. So even if their performance was hurt by engine heat, that wouldn’t matter at all, at least to me.

Another’s point about glare, this truck is white and had worse glare before the gloss black panels were mounted.

This is a case of valid concerns being placed on exactly the opposite situation than really exists. Life’s like that sometimes I guess.

 

[Paddy]

Gah I can’t imagine having to look around a spare 35”er on the bonnet!
Interesting your friends panels are only 1/2 output. Maybe they are older tech. These seem to be about as good output as a traditional poly panel by area.
As far as dropping things on them, I don’t think many panels like that.

 

[rruff]

Always wanted to mount a panel on hood, but until these semi rigid models came out I couldn’t do it. They are a thin skin of aluminum so they don’t suffer issues with wind and dirt like the plastic flexible ones.

Just wondered how these were holding up for you?

Looks like a great idea. Sure it won't work when you are parked in the shade, but a lot of times I won't be, and this would keep me from needing to deploy a remote panel.

 

[dwh]

Solar panels generally have an anti-reflective coating to reduce the number of photons bouncing off to increase harvest.

You can rig two PWM controllers to the same panel(s), but not MPPT.

Looks good. I like it.

 

[NorthernWoodsman]

It is a lot of flat real estate screaming to be used. I'd be concerned in a situation like this that it would be like looking into a mirror.

This is mitigated by buying a good solar panel, not something cheap. A well made solar panel is going to have material or coating to keep sunlight in, not reflect it. A high gloss surface is indicative of a cheap panel or an old one made before newer materials and surface coatings were introduced. And like the other photo of the black solar panel, that's another way to reduce bright areas. Black backing is less effective for energy production than white, but is visually better looking at better at lowering glare issues.

View attachment 453160

 

[Paddy]

Just wondered how these were holding up for you?

Looks like a great idea. Sure it won't work when you are parked in the shade, but a lot of times I won't be, and this would keep me from needing to deploy a remote panel.

Works superb. Keeps my rig topped off, reduces glare while driving, and takes up zero space away from the more valuable real estate. Highly recommend it.