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Old 07-16-2012, 09:10 AM
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TerminatorX5 TerminatorX5 is offline
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Location: Stafford, VA & Harrisburg, PA - USA
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Solar panels in panoramic roof shade?

I've had two solar panels hard wired into the cigarete light sockets in the cargo area, and they were stuck to the rear small windows on either side of the car. Granted, they were mounted vertical, and behind the "cold weather package" tint, so the power output was not at its peak, but it was doing OK...

I do however want to have them mounted on the sunshade of the panoramic roof of my new 4.8iS, as the sunshade is automatic, there is a rear third of the roof glass that is only tilting and not going back into the roof liner...

I was wondering if stripping the panel from the plastic shroud would make it thin enough to permanently "reside on the rear half of the sunshade (or, perhaps, the front half?) Wiring would be a nightmare, as one would have to accomodate for the moving parts...

I measured the output voltage of one panel in full unobstructed summer Virginia sun under roughly 90 degrees angle to the sun at about 20V DC... I did not measure the output amperage, but I think these panels are rated at just 2 watts of power, so the amperage would be tiny...


Any opinions???
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E53 X5 4.6iS
147K mi - Sold May 2013
Tireprints left in:
USA, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Russia

E53 X5 4.8iS built 2005-10-17
66200 mi - June 2012
96000 mi - June 2013
112000 mi - June 2014
OEM fire extinguisher
OE first aid kit
OE tow hitch
OE TV module
OE aspheric mirror
K&N air filter
black/white badges
rear camera
4-channel video recorder

Here is the list of things I have done to the X
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