Solar Car Charging
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Solar Car Charging Posted on May 16 2008 at 1:39pm by I'm no electrical engineer, but I wonder if anybody has given any thought to hooking up a solar panel to a car's roof to charge the car's battery, then disconnecting the alternator. I know that a certain percentage of a car's horsepower is diverted away from propulsion and goes toward turning the alternator, but I don't know how much. Obviously, if the alternator was disconnected, then the car's MPG would increase. I think the trick would be to increase the size of the car's battery so that driving at night with all of the lights on wouldn't drain it. Replacing all the bulbs with LEDs would help, but I don't think they make LEDs bright enough to replace the headlights yet, and they would drain the most power. How many amps does a typical engine pull, and how many amps does the alternator produce? Does anybody know if this would work? 
