The search doesn't work so excuse me if I post new topic without reason! My question is how is possible the solar kit to give 10% fuel economy when it's power is only 30 W ?!? At the moment I drive very old Toyota Corolla with installed propane-butane gas system. With 25 l gas daytime (headlights are off) I can drive 300 km. With same fuel but nighttime (headlights are on) I can drive 285 km. I assume that average consumption of the headlights is 100 W and driving time is 3 hours. So I calculated that my car extracts 240 Wh energy from 1 liter of gas and it needs 20 Wh energy to move 1 km. If Prius needs 10 Wh energy (half of mine) to move 1 km these solar panels will give only 3% more energy - not 10% Are these panels work all the time or they work only when the car is working?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DanielDimov @ May 10 2007, 09:36 AM) [snapback]439172[/snapback]</div> It wouldn't make sense to have them work only when the car is running. I don't know for a fact, but I'm sure they'd be designed to collect energy whenever sunlight is available. I certainly wouldn't consider purchasing any that didn't provide that opportunity. However, I probably wouldn't anyway. I'd do a PHEV conversion first, and we have hydroelectric around here, which is less expensive and less polluting than other publicly available electricity sources. Dave M.
