Cell Phone Backup Power

[WLJ]

Have you considered buying a CyberTruck?  They recharge phones really well.   

Wonder if we'll see one cover in solar panels. Wonder how long it would take to charge one up on a sunny day(s).

[HankB]

Have you considered buying a CyberTruck?  They recharge phones really well.   

If I was dropping that kind of money on an electric truck, I'd be more likely to get a Rivian. But who knows how long the company will be around. (On the other hand, Tesla has been around longer than I thought it would be.)

And I don't think there are many charging stations in & around Big Bend.

[Bogie]

Just a concept, but with the kind of money that some folks are spending, here's an idea - I had one, and it worked pretty well... It got stolen, and I since replaced it with a similar item from my store.
 
https://www.harborfreight.com/1000-peak-amp-lithium-ion-jump-starter-and-power-bank-59527.html

[JTHunter]

Thread Drift:  I saw in Iceland when I was there, and a couple places in Appalachia during my travels, that in the early 20th century before "the grid" was everywhere, it was common for farms and homesteads to have little 5ish Kw hydro plants to run themselves.  If I lived somewhere with some terrain and running water, I would love to do a 10-15kw hydro turbine to go off grid.  With efficient appliances and DC lighting, that could go a really long way.

On a show called "Homestead Rescue", they had set up a wooden waterwheel for the people.  I don't remember the KW output though.

[HankB]

Wonder if we'll see one cover in solar panels. Wonder how long it would take to charge one up on a sunny day(s).

On a sunny day, the sun produces a little under 1.4 kilowatts per square meter. Assuming the area available for solar cells is about the same size as a cell phone's display, that's about 0.01 square meters, which would translate to total solar irradiance of about 14 watts. Then factor in the efficiency of typical solar cells and you're only pulling in around 3 watts at best. So it would take considerably longer to solar charge your battery pack than it would by plugging it into a wall wart.

Solar charged battery packs ARE on the market, most of the ad copy is quiet about the length of time to charge using solar alone. Even the ones with "fold out" additional solar panels will recharge slowly.

https://www.amazon.com/solar-battery-pack/s?k=solar+battery+pack

[dogmush]

^^^

Pretty sure he was talking about a cybertruck covered in solar panels.

[WLJ]

^^^^That
It was a bit of a tongue in cheek statement as well

But it does make me wonder if you could cover a vehicle in solar panels and what kind of charge would you get from it on a sunny day. Would have to take in account what parts of the car are in sunlight vs not. I seriously don't think you could charge something like a Cybertruck in any real meaningful way but you know...it does have lots of flat panels....

[HankB]

^^^

Pretty sure he was talking about a cybertruck covered in solar panels.

Day isn't long enough to charge a cybertruck covered in solar panels.

Look at the "cars" used in the solar challenge competition.

[WLJ]

Day isn't long enough to charge a cybertruck covered in solar panels.

Look at the "cars" used in the solar challenge competition.

Fully aware and as I said it was bit of a tongue in cheek question but it does make wonder what kind of charge you could get.

Remember those races from years ago. IIRC they hold that race in Australia? No exactly useful vehicles

[dogmush]

THREAD DRIFT!!!

A Cybertruck is 224"long x 80" wide, or 124.4 Sqft (Neglecting windshields, I'll mod it with periscope cameras.  Besides it drives itself)  Probably a little more because of angles, but let's estimate. 

125 sq ft is 11.6 sqm.  Per Hanks post the sun gives me 1.4Kw per meter, so my CyberTruck Solar gets 16.4 Kw of sun power.  It's got a 123 KwH battery, so I only need 7.5 hrs of full sunlight to fully charge it.

Once I invent 100% efficient panels and lossless charge controllers, but that's just engineering trifles.   


Joking aside, if you covered the back deck and frunk with the most efficient panels you could find, and were in a nice sunny area (FL, American SW or such) You could probably meaningfully increase it's range.  The panels on my truck aren't powerful enough to run my fridge alone, but they increase it's battery runtime from 2 days to like 5.5 days.  You might get something like that out of the SolarCyberTruck.

[WLJ]

Don't let the Biden admin see that or we'll be seeing Buttigieg announcing a mandate by mid afternoon.

[HankB]

THREAD DRIFT!!!

A Cybertruck is 224"long x 80" wide, or 124.4 Sqft (Neglecting windshields, I'll mod it with periscope cameras.  Besides it drives itself)  Probably a little more because of angles, but let's estimate. 

125 sq ft is 11.6 sqm.  Per Hanks post the sun gives me 1.4Kw per meter, so my CyberTruck Solar gets 16.4 Kw of sun power.  It's got a 123 KwH battery, so I only need 7.5 hrs of full sunlight to fully charge it.

Once I invent 100% efficient panels and lossless charge controllers, but that's just engineering trifles.   


Joking aside, if you covered the back deck and frunk with the most efficient panels you could find, and were in a nice sunny area (FL, American SW or such) You could probably meaningfully increase it's range.  The panels on my truck aren't powerful enough to run my fridge alone, but they increase it's battery runtime from 2 days to like 5.5 days.  You might get something like that out of the SolarCyberTruck.

You have to orient all the solar cells to be normal to the incident sunlight to get maximum output. Avoid tunnels and shade. You might be able to partially compensate for the windshield and rear window by putting solar cells on your dashboard and read deck. (Or whatever's in the back of the cybertruck.)

[cordex]

A Cybertruck is 224"long x 80" wide, or 124.4 Sqft (Neglecting windshields, I'll mod it with periscope cameras.  Besides it drives itself)  Probably a little more because of angles, but let's estimate. 

125 sq ft is 11.6 sqm.  Per Hanks post the sun gives me 1.4Kw per meter, so my CyberTruck Solar gets 16.4 Kw of sun power.  It's got a 123 KwH battery, so I only need 7.5 hrs of full sunlight to fully charge it.

I'm not so sure about your calculations, but you're right about your conclusion.

Total daily solar irradiance in Florida is at best 5.5Kwh/meter squared/day.
11.6 square meters * 5.5Kwh * 0.226 efficiency of a lightweight solar panel gets you 14.42Kwh/day of sun power. 
Assume 85% charging efficiency and we're down to 12.26Kwh/day actually delivered to the battery.

For a Cybertruck it looks like it gets somewhere around 2 miles per kwh, which would mean 24.5 miles of solar travel per day of full sun.

Realistically, we'll have much less solar panel coverage, but even with 6.65 square meters of coverage we're looking at about 7kwh/day or 14 miles of solar travel.  That would, interestingly enough, cover almost exactly one quarter of my regular two-way commute.  So instead of recharging every 4 days I could recharge every 5 days.

As long as you park it in the sun, you have good insolation, and don't drive too much, it honestly could make a little bit of difference.

[Ben]

For a Cybertruck it looks like it gets somewhere around 2 miles per kwh, which would mean 24.5 miles of solar travel per day of full sun.

That's the difference between life and death during the zombie apocalypses. As long as I can stay 24.5 miles per day ahead of the zombies, I'm golden (assuming the slow variety of zombies).

[WLJ]

That's the difference between life and death during the zombie apocalypses. As long as I can stay 24.5 miles per day ahead of the zombies, I'm golden (assuming the slow variety of zombies).

Better hope they're fair weather zombies. Overcast and/or rainy you're screwed, or rather eaten in this case. 

[Ben]

Better hope they're fair weather zombies. Overcast and/or rainy you're screwed, or rather eaten in this case. 

I'll weld a windmill to the roof as backup. With an exercycle attached to it for when there's no wind.

[Bogie]

Business idea: A Harbor Freight trailer and a big ol' generator or two... 

[Brad Johnson]

Business idea: A Harbor Freight trailer and a big ol' generator or two... 

Go big or go home.

https://www.coloradostandby.com/generac-mcg1600m2-1600kw-containerized-towable-generator-mcg1600m2

Brad