[RE-wrenches] Solar power on Truck?

[Brian Teitelbaum]

Ryan,

Daryl is correct about it being just for looks, especially if the trucker sleeps at night (D'oh!)

Both SunFrost and Southwest Solar (Solar Chill) are working on a low-energy-consumption method of cooling truck cabs in order for them to comply with the new "no-idle" rules. I haven't seen anything yet, though. You might try contacting them.

Brian Teitelbaum
AEE Solar




-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of penobscotsolar at midmaine.com
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 4:48 PM
To: ryan at solar4maine.com; RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Solar power on Truck?

Hi Ryan,
   There are a number of thin film products that can be laminated onto a
truck roof, but when it comes to running an air conditioner it will
only be something he imagines runs his ac unit. UniSolar makes a long,
thin roof laminate but it must be adhered to Galvalume or Zincalume
roofing material.Maybe you could laminate a 68 watt UniSolar laminate
to the roof.
   Here's a company that says they make custom laminates out of silicon
material: http://www.solardyne.com/cuspvlamoem.html
   The bottom line though is that all of this is simply for looks. There
is no way to make anywhere near the power he would need to run an AC
unit on his rig....no way.

Daryl





> Wrenches i had an interesting request today. I have a nieghbor who is an
> over the road truck driver and he wants air conditioning while he sleeps.
> The specifics i won't bore you with. but he has seen a "Molded panel" that
> fits on the roof that takes the place of the airfoil on the cab.
>
> Has any one seen anything like this? He really wants a pv panel on the
> roof. He currently has a remote start generator onboard and we will
> install a bank of deep cycle batteries and an inverter but i question the
> Solar panel on the roof of the Tractor.