Auto-Truck Acc.

Solar Automobile Accessory Charging System

Earth Care’s Breakthrough economical but durable Flexible Adhesive solar panels can be applied easily to cars, pickup trucks, panel trucks, 18 wheelers, boats, and other movable equipment. All three systems have been designed to first charge lap tops and supply enough added power to take care of all your other power needs. If more power is needed you can connect two panels together. We also design larger solar tops.

As a safety precaution, you can apply a molding edge at the blunt end of wind impact, although we have experienced great success with our panels adhering when applied to flat clean surfaces.

Laptop computers consume between 30 and 60 watts of power (some as much as 80 watts). Much less power is required when in standby mode. Most of this rated power is consumed during startup and much less is used during usual operating conditions. The Earth Care Solar Charging Panels ECSV 12 V-360 (36 watts-2 amps), ECSV 12V-480 (48 watts -3 amps,) and ECSV 12 V-760 (76 watts- 5 amps) are ideal for solar power of your laptop.
Some laptops work fine with our 36 watt panel capacity. To decide, multiply the output voltage labeled on your laptop wall adaptor, (usually a black plastic box in-line with the wall plug) by the current (amps) and this will be the amount of watts your laptop will use during startup. Most laptops use input voltages between 15 and 22 volts at usually 2 to 4 amps (doing the math above, this is between Earth Care 36, 48 and 76 watts)(Note: By utilizing a power Box, (Battery) you will enhance the complete system and insure full workability for your lap top.

Our experience operating laptops from sunlight indicates you will use an Earth Care 36 watt panel. Often you may need more power resulting in using one of our larger solar panels, especially if you want to operate your computer and other devices.

The availability of having more power will allow you to enjoy your portable TV, VCR, camcorder, fan, cooler/freezer, video, iPod, MP3 player,cell phone and other USB devices in the comfort of your automobile, RV, utility work truck or an 18 wheeler. You will need an automobile power adaptor for your laptop (one that has an automobile cigarette lighter receptacle male connector on one end). The solar module will have a cigarette lighter receptacle into which you will plug the converter. The laptop will view the solar panel as a battery and will charge and/or minimize energy depletion of the battery when in full sun light.

If you desire to power your laptop and other consumer devices, we recommend a 19 AH battery. You will be able to power your laptop and other devices as desired. You can choose a small 12 volt 19 AH motor cycle battery either in the trunk or under the hood of the vehicle. This type battery can be purchased for less than $75.00. Your second choice is to place a second battery in the trunk or under the hood of your car, and simply running a pre wired harness to either of these batteries from the vehicle alternator will help keep the battery charged . Batteries that are being charged must always be placed in an area that they are vented.

We do not recommend batteries to be the only source of power for two major reasons. Earth Care’s Solar Panels guarantee the full operations and functions of a lap top. We have found that running a set of wires from your alternator to the auxiliary battery and in conjunction with our Solar Panels insures the highest quality of clean power. An isolator must be placed in this wiring to keep your lap top battery power center from discharging back into the regular vehicle battery. The second reason there are many tax credits and grants available to you for powering up with solar. Take a moment and view http://www.dsireusa.org/ for state and federal grants.

You can use any one of the three Earth Care Solar Panels to charge the power center (Battery). The size of the panels you use determines how long you will need to charge the power center prior to running the laptop (the lower the panel size, the less time you will have to run/charge the laptop prior to re-charging the power center. In most cases, the Earth Care 48 Watt panel will allow you to run the laptop indefinitely in full sun light.

Earth Care’s flexible panels charge in cloudy weather, rainy weather, and do not have to face the south to gather the peak sun daily, our panels do not require direct sunlight. Our panels charge during snow periods because snow delivers light and light is what makes our panels create amps. Earth Care Panels work on light, therefore, from daylight until dark our panels are producing amps.

We recommend that you set up your laptop for the most conservative power settings. These will often be found on Windows machines in your settings directory. Other machines may have the setup in the BIOS settings on boot up. Set the computer to go into suspend mode if not used for a given timeframe and set the most conservative power miser; settings if available. This will limit the quantity of power needed. Charging the laptop internal battery while powered-down is also useful (prevents having to supply the internal devices and monitor, allowing the panel to focus primarily on charging the battery).

Most laptops have a battery charge monitor, keeping track of this and powering down to recharge when the battery is depleted beyond (typically) 25 percent charge or so. Obviously, laptop batteries will charge much faster while the computer is powered off.

Depending upon your laptop you can charge in full sun light with the laptop running or for quicker charging with the laptop powered down or in sleep mode. The Earth Care Solar Panels do not have to face the south and angled with a 45 degree in order to charge your lap top, again, it only needs light to charge, not direct sunlight.

The power center stores 19 AH of energy. This means you can draw 1 amp for 19 hours continuously or 19 amps for 1 hour. Most laptops (once started up) draw about 3 to 4 amps at 12 VDC so you can power the laptop an additional 4 to 5 hours after the sun sets (on average).

We provide a 12 Volt Morning Star Sun Guard Controller for protection. The controller protects the battery pack against over current and over-discharge. The system comes with 15′ wiring harness to controller, 4′ harness to battery, 16′ with ring terminals and male quick connect, one female cigarette lighter adapter, one female quick connect and a inverter from DC TO AC. All you need to complete the system is your battery.

Special inverters and heavy duty battery arrays can be set in place to meet even larger systems. For example:

Many State and local legislations have started limiting truck idling stipulating the need for idle reduction technologies that address driver comfort during periods of rest. Earth Care Systems can work in conjunction with the new battery-operated heater and air conditioner systems. These systems will provide extended hours of comfortable sleeper cab environment for the resting driver.” Earth Care’s Solar Charging to Battery Systems are quickly becoming the preferred technology because they are less expensive to own and operate. The Earth Care adhesive panels create no noise.