i have a 2012 Prius four with roof solar panel i installed a charge controller that will use the wasted energy that the panel produces when the car is on.the control module for the roof ventilation is located behind the radio it'a a small black box attached to the metal frame with a 10mm bolt the wires are very short so i decided to take apart the actual module solder the 3 wires and drill a hole to get the wires out of the module.i also installed a switch to enable the current flow from the solar panel to the charge controller at any time and i added second switch with a 12v outlet that way i can charge devices with the car off without draining my battery the panel is producing 3.2 amps with the ventilation fan off that's enough energy to normally charge 3 smart phones at the same time.i will post a wiring diagram that i made of my setup
Keep up the great hacking. While youre at it, see if you can get put in a 3rd switch to charge the hybrid battery
What is the voltage output of the solar panel? I searched for this system but only found somewhere somebody says it is 27V, so I am just planning to find a DC-DC converter for it to convert it to 12V. There are some 12V small refrigerator that seems can be driven by this panel... have a can of coke in summer is really cool
Be sure to go by the solar panel's working voltage, not its open circuit voltage. You'll also do better with a charge controller meant for solar systems than with a generic DC-DC converter.
Just to help keep various threads on this topic together, here's a link to Michael Cline's solution from June of 2013, which was pretty slick. and vallesj's very nicely documented setup from a year later.
