Thread: Cascadia vehicle mounted solar panel

Originally Posted by Tombie

You may notice it’s mounted to a big heat sink!
Depending on the panels these flexible style work very well.

That skinny little layer of whatever it is under the panel won't help at all as there is Still no airflow Under the panel to cool it down, Even heatsinks need airflow to make them work.
This concept MAY work in some of the colder areas of Canada But in MOST areas in Aus it will simply get too hot to be of any Real use.
Paying $746.91 AUD for a bonnet decoration is pretty silly

I Have tried various skin mounted panels without much succsess and have found that ridged panels mounted with an air gap underneath them are Far superior in performance in temps over 30C than Any of the skin mounted panels I have tried.

I've had a cheap ($100 ish) 80w flexible panel directly glued to my roof for about 4 years. It's no world beater but in full sunlight on a hot day it still produces around 3 amps and runs my fridge fine.

It doesn't look as flash as that one though, I remember looking at an american brand that had a rubber type backing with a mat finish on the front, they were super expensive and mostly long strips about a foot wide.