Solar roof

[yawood]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion (that I could find) about having solar panels on the roof of the Club Car. I was looking particularly at the new S2F from SolarDrive. I know they're expensive but does anyone have any experience with them or any others?

[Seaquell]

From what I have read they're not that effective, there is a post somewhere on here from a guy that builds solar cells and he says it's not enough to make a difference on a golf cart, on a tractor or something they work great to keep topped off. Even if it sets in the sun it will provide a low amp trickle thats not the best, you need some bulk charging at 20 Amps or so.
Solar power is getting better every day so maybe sometime soon but right now I don't think it's worth it.
Any experts in the field feel like there's some worthwhile options yet?

[Golf cart guy]

Don't bother, its not going to charge your cart.

[scottyb]

Clients tell me it is a good supplemental source of recharge but we all know it will not maintain the wet cell battery as it needs to be stirred up by high amperage bulk charge. If you have limited electricity or need to extend range off the grid and under the sunshine ..... it may be worth the high cost but, like the cartfixer said, it is not going to replace the grid charger

[Kashmir]

I'd like to get a mini nuclear reactor to power my cart...

that would be "the BOMB"

[rib33024]

Originally Posted by yawood

There doesn't seem to be much discussion (that I could find) about having solar panels on the roof of the Club Car. I was looking particularly at the new S2F from SolarDrive. I know they're expensive but does anyone have any experience with them or any others?

Here's some info


https://www.google.com/search?client...esgonewild.com

[yawood]

Yes, I think you are all right. IMHO they would probably extend the range a little but nowhere near enough to justify the price.

We are in the process of building a new house on a golf course estate and I am going to put a large solar array on the roof with a lot of it feeding the garage phase of the three phase power. I will charge the cart during the day to make maximum use of this power - we get a lot of sunlight in Australia.

I think that's the best way to use solar to charge the cart rather than an expensive roof on the cart.

[dundeebarnbuggy]

Wow. You have 3 phase power in your homes? What voltage? Cool. Can you run a 20hp compressor in the garage without having to put in an extra panel?

[yawood]

240V. I'm pretty sure we could run what we liked - we could get the sparky to provide 400V if we needed it.

The usual installation is single phase but you can specify three phase if you want, which is what I am doing. I'm having one phase to the garage and workshop (triple garage - one for the car, one for the ute and one for a workshop and Club Car parking), one phase to the Kitchen/Pantry/Laundry and the third phase to the rest of the house.

I'm looking at getting at least 5kW of solar (maybe 10kW) with micro inverters and batteries. This system: https://enphase.com/en-au/products-and-services/storage

BTW my ute (pick-up) is not quite what you're used to, we have a lot of flat beds here and mine is also a tipper (dump truck) with twin hydraulic rams.

[dundeebarnbuggy]

That's a first for me. A car with a dump bed. Is it a taxation thing or are the tags/plates cheaper? I take it you don't venture far off pavement. But hey, yours has a more useful/work ready bed than most of the pickups people buy here nowadays. Most are little more than grocery baskets. Sorry if this is getting off topic.