Solar panels on a service truck can charge a mechanic’s electric tools, avoiding the need to idle the engine or use a power take-off.
That was the message from Sean O’Connor and Ray Collett of Go Power!.
The company, based in Victoria, B.C., has unveiled a new product specifically geared to the service truck sector. Called the Solar Dynamo Kit, it features a 50-watt solar panel, which produces half the output of Go Power!’s “bread and butter’ 100-watt panel, O’Connor said.
Sean O’Connor (left) and Ray Collett of Go Power! discuss the company’s solar power solutions for charging electric tools on service trucks.Photo: Keith Norbury
“The reason we made it so thin is so it can fit on the top of a toolbox on a service body. On some bodies we can get upwards of 10 of them there,” said O’Connor, Go Power! business development manager.
Other parts of the system are Go Power!’s own lithium batteries, solar controller, and inverter/charger. For example, the IC3000 inverter/charger is designed for perfect charging of Go Power!’s lithium batteries, O’Connor said.
Can run a compressor
“We can surge 6,000 watts with this,” he said. “That’ll allow you to run compressors (or) pretty much any tools that someone’s going to need on their service body.”
The unit can also plug into a generator to enable quick recharging of the batteries, he added.
“So if we have trucks out for a whole week of work and they come in on the weekend, they can actually plug in in the yard,” O’Connor said. “And if those batteries were depleted and the solar was having trouble keeping up because we had bad weather, then we can catch it up using the built-in charger.”
Instead of having to buy a 5,000-watt generator just to charge cordless tools on a service truck, those tools can run “silently with zero fuel off of batteries,” he said. Even if a generator is needed, the Dynamo system enables the truck to get by with a smaller version, such as a 3,000-watt model, for use with large loads or when a power boost is needed for a short period.
The inverter/charger even has a power-share function that can draw power from the battery to bolster a generator’s output. That would enable a 3,000-watt generator to run a 6,000-watt load, O’Connor said.
The solar controller, meanwhile, boasts 98 percent efficiency compared with 70 percent efficiency for older technology, said Collett, a Go Power! sales rep. “So it’s actually like having 30 percent more solar panel on there but in a much smaller space,” he said.
Safe for cellphones
The company’s pure sine wave inverters, safe for charging cellphones and laptops, replicate home power, Collett added.
(According to the company website, a heavy duty modified sine wave inverter is an affordable option although not a replica of true AC sine wave power; it’s effective for air compressors, shop vacs, toasters, and coffee makers, for example. O’Connor noted that modified sine wave converters can damage batteries, though. “So you definitely want to use pure sine wave, an exact replica of AC, so we’re charging them exactly how they are designed to be charged,” he said.)
The system can power corded tools although the pure sine wave inverter is designed for tool charging. The system can also draw charge from the truck alternator and the solar panels at the same time.
“The two do play nice together,” Collett said. “You can charge dual, and the solar controller is able to see what the voltage of the battery is and what’s going on with the battery. So you won’t overcharge it by having two charges coming in at the same time.”
The same controller can also “intelligently charge” between lead-acid and lithium batteries, he said.
200-watt solution
Installation of the panels can be done with mechanical fasteners or with a peel-and-stick adhesive “so the installation is pretty much clean off the top of the toolbox,” Collett said.
Installation normally takes six to eight hours and costs about $1,000 plus another $3,500 for the system itself.
A typical service truck could accommodate 200 watts at present “until we start figuring out how to put it on the boom,” O’Connor said, adding that the panels, which can curve up to 30 degrees, have been installed on truck hoods.
“It totally depends on how much space they have that is flat and they don’t crawl over it,” Collett said.
O’Connor said the system produces much more than a “tiny trickle charge.” A pair of 50-watt panels during five hours of sunlight can recharge 30 amps of a 100-amp battery.
“It’s a lot more than people think they’re going to get from it, but they don’t have to start something up and they don’t have to maintain it,” O’Connor said.
Soap and water is all that’s necessary for cleaning, although O’Connor said some customers have gone five years without any cleaning their panels and, despite scratches, are still producing 90 percent output.
The system is expected to be available in the second quarter of this year.
For more information, visit gopowerfleet.com.