Update on my end. I had accumulation for the first time this year on monday. The morning had showers then was sunny in the afternoon. Then today was more sunny than monday with clouds in the morning but no rain but accumulated less than monday. Im wondering if the extra accumulation had something to do with the water drops on the roof. Needless to say things seem to be working as expected.
I’m glad it works. Perhaps the rain has cleaned it. You need to keep it sparkling clean for it to work.
I had a big jump in production this week on a clear sunny day in late Feb. I stored 400Wh over the 8 hours at the office. Maiki, I'm curious to hear an update.
Here's an interesting perspective /fun facts thinking about 400 watt hours of charge. So, a (now) 7yr old Chevy Volt charges at 7.2kW which - in order to compare - it would take roughly 3½ minutes to charge 400 watt hrs in the 7yr old volt - vs a solar roof's 8 hours! Also - presuming a plug-in hybrid gets a relatively decent 3 mi/kWh - that 400 watt hr charge would let you travel a bit over 1mi. And isn't it something like a $600 option? Not counting that you have to buy the most expensive optioned prius on top of that - in order for the PV panel to even be offered? well - to each his/her own
That's why I tell people to do their own DUE DILIGENT; and not listen to the marketing hype. Marketing hype is designed to SELL YOU stuff; NOT save you money. If you want to save money - DON'T buy it......... It doesn't help that the OP is only looking at the mileage counter and claiming that the panel isn't working; instead of looking at Wh stored to see if the panel is actually defective. The roof panel just isn't meeting the OP's expectations. Bottom-line, it's a 200W panel trying to fill a ~8KW battery. It's simple math from there. Note: that we aren't taking into account charging losses or losses due to supervisory equipment that regulates the charging process.
Come on, guys, even if it is not cost-effective, it is a very nice feature. Besides, we even spend money on things that have no direct benefits and even on things that have harm, and this thing at least has a benefit.
It is clear at this point that there is no malfunction in these systems, but they require strong sunlight, a clean panel, the correct angle of the sun and the car, and so on.
