How about an solar panel in the glass of the sunroof? no more complaints of heat or burning skulls... or in another area of the roof?

a back up battery....with addl 12 volt plugs one in rear one under the hood....

If battery is dead...plug in portable battery cables to plug....to car battery start?

like a Xantrex system built into the car always charged up and ready to go..

They have that system for boats. Some of the people at the yacht club have it on their sail boats. They dont use the engine long enough to keep the bat. charged. So when they need it, it won't start. The solar charging system keeps the bat. charged for them. It will shut off the solar charger when the bat is up to snuff. That keeps it from boiling off the water in the battery. If you plan to go that route, then look into the solar charging package from one of the boating places.

The E could use this:

www.siliconsolar.com

A solar panel on the roof would look pretty dumb :-|

A solar panel on the roof would look pretty dumb :-|
who cares, who would see it? big rigs?

I think it's a cool idea, maybe hook it up to a second cell. Extra power for...... well, I'm sure we can find plenty of reasons why around here.8)

dwford36,

Your link has portable solar panels that are designed to sit in the windshield while the car is parked and trickle charge one's battery through the 'cigarette lighter' to keep it topped off. Seems like a good way to deal with the weakness of the stock battery. The largest such unit is the 5.5W AutoExtender, which is only $50. It generates 460 mA, which I realize is intended to top off the battery, but is this enough to run any of the Element's electronics while parked with the engine off? Radio, stereo, lights, a DVD player?

FarStar

You might want to PM or email the OP. He/She last posted two years ago.

It generates 460 mA, which I realize is intended to top off the battery, but is this enough to run any of the Element's electronics while parked with the engine off? Radio, stereo, lights, a DVD player?
FarStar

The headlights in the Element are standard 60/55watt lights so to run ONLY ONE of them on low, you would need ten of those panels. 20 for both headlights.

The stock stereo claims to be 270w (120w for the LX) which is very optimistic (i would say more like 75-100 watts with it up pretty high)

Even the stock interior lighting is to much for that to power.

The factory dome lights pull twice what that thing can handle (833mA ~10w.)

Now if you have upgraded your Dome lights to the High Power LED Festoon Bulbs (the ones with 6LEDs) (http://www.elementownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php?p=522280), you might be able to get away with running two, but the sunlight would be more than adequate.

460mA at 5.5w is really only enough to charge a cell phone battery, or iPod. As for charging a car battery, a trickle charge it defiantly would be. Sort of like filling a bathtub with a dripping faucet.

admiller,

Thanks for quantifying various power draws for me. The first night I owned my E my son went down to the garage to program the radio presets, left the map lights on, and the battery was dead in the morning. With the consensus on this site as to the weakness of the stock battery, a trickle charger seems to have merit, but I'd only use it while parked at work or parked while camping given that I garage the car. While camping it would be nice to run the interior lights or radio or CD player, but our experience on night one of ownership points to use of much interior power while camping may well leave us with a dead battery in the morning -- not a desireable situation if one is camped in an isolated area.

I thus obtained a Brunton Glorb LED lantern to use for interior lighting while camping. Your suggestion to upgrade the dome lights with LEDs sounds good.

Thanks again,

FarStar