Solar Sun Roof Hack?

It be nice if there was some sort of hack for the solar roof that could trickle charge the 12V battery. That way you could charge a mp3 player or a phone while the car is off and not worry about the battery going dead.

 

Anybody know how much current is available from the roof?

 

I'm suprised they dont do that, and if my assumption is correct, and it only stabilises cabin temps when car is not running, what happens to all that clean power created from roof during [WinteR] months even though less.

Maybe it could heat up the car during winter tooo...lol

Cheers
Tekmann

 

It depends on sun light strength, 0 watt to 59 watts.

Ken@Japan

 

12 volts @ 59 watts?

wow... that's enough to run some laptops.

 

The solar panel itself does not have the voltage control function.
We have to have an MPPT Solar Charge Controller.

Ken@Japan

 

I was thinking it would be great to be able to charge a laptop or camera battery.

 

Actually,
The solar roof does not provide enough power to charge the battery.
I think even if you were to leave it in direct sunlight for 3 days, your battery might go up a bar maybe 2. Not much of a difference. However, the 12v battery would be cool to try out.

 

I'm pretty sure some peeps have modded it to charge the 12v, which in theory you could turn around and use it to charge up devices using an accessory outlet, or putting in one of your own.

 

Actually, there is a Japanese Prius enthusiast, who developed Japanese CAN-View, installed a 45W solar panel on his Gen2 Prius.
It charges HV battery. He reported the charge level is up 14% SOC (approx 0.04 liter of equivalent gasoline energy) on a typical sunny day.
He used to see 30 km/L (70.6 mpg) mileage number on his 7km short commute, then it becomes 36.2 km/L (85.2 mpg) after the solar panel installed.

A good news is he already replaced the Gen2 Prius with Gen3.
Of cause, his Gen3 comes with the solar option.
He is now trying to hack the solar system to charge the HV battery.
We'll see some news from him anytime soon.

Ken@Japan

 

59 Watts = 12V * 4.9A
That is at its peak.

 

It is probably weird to post my question here, since the last post was written in 2010, but I hope that somebody will see my message.

I have the same idea to charge the external battery (let's name it EB) and use it as a portable charger for camera and/or cell phone later. I was thinking about 12V to 5V converter, or just cigarette lighter connector to charge the EB.

I think that the Solar Panel is constantly producing the current that I can utilize for my idea. I am not expecting to charge my main 12V battery, or Hybrid battery, and 59W is quite enough to charge my EB all day in Florida and use that charge later.

I have no guts to rip off the car interior in purpose to find the output wire, and can't find any wiring scheme for the Solar Panel in PriusChat or Google.

Any advises, guys?