Ideas needed for Solar Power on Food Truck

[inetdog]

5000Watts will require over 400 Amps. A crazy number requiring cables as thick as your wrist and baterries weighing thousands of pounds. You need to be looking at running a 24 or 48 Volt inverter.
Green

Going to 48 volts will cut the cable size by four, which is good. But the weight of batteries needed to deliver 5000 watts to the inverter will be the same regardless of 12 or 48 volts.

The only way to reduce the weight is to go to AGM (allowing a slightly smaller battery bank at twice the cost) or going to Lithium Iron Phosphate at five or more times the cost to get 1/4 the weight.

[green]

I'm thinking that I could just run a portion of the equipment that I'd be using. I have been looking at converters such as:

http://invertersupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=128&cPath=17

It would be enough to power a small fridge, freezer, and heated display unit. I'm not entirely sure how fast this type of unit would run through a bank of batteries, and what the "make up time" for the panels to charge the bat's would be. I have a generator to power the equipment too. I am new to all of this, so I greatly appreciate the responses for everyone! I think this venture would be a good sustainable step in the right direction...

See... your thinking about the inverter and not what it will take in batteries to power it. These other guys here are better with the numbers but at 12V.. 5000Watts will require over 400 Amps. A crazy number requiring cables as thick as your wrist and baterries weighing thousands of pounds. You need to be looking at running a 24 or 48 Volt inverter. Like I said before Good thing you came here first.

Green

[bhudson]

I'm thinking that I could just run a portion of the equipment that I'd be using. I have been looking at converters such as:

http://invertersupply.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=128&cPath=17

It would be enough to power a small fridge, freezer, and heated display unit. I'm not entirely sure how fast this type of unit would run through a bank of batteries, and what the "make up time" for the panels to charge the bat's would be. I have a generator to power the equipment too. I am new to all of this, so I greatly appreciate the responses for everyone! I think this venture would be a good sustainable step in the right direction...

No, your roof isn't big enough. It would propably take 10 truck roofs to power 1 truck.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

Would it be possible for the panels to charge a bank of car bat's and then run an ac converter? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run all of my ovens, water heaters, etc. Would you all know where I could get some info or technical specs on different types of panels?

No, your roof isn't big enough. It would propably take 10 truck roofs to power 1 truck.

[green]

Would it be possible for the panels to charge a bank of car bat's and then run an ac converter? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run all of my ovens, water heaters, etc. Would you all know where I could get some info or technical specs on different types of panels?

Good thing you came here before investing. You don't want use regular SLI car batteries for a RE system. You need to read on this forum the stickies about battey types, lots of good info here.

Green

[bhudson]

Would it be possible for the panels to charge a bank of car bat's and then run an ac converter? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run all of my ovens, water heaters, etc. Would you all know where I could get some info or technical specs on different types of panels?

First thing is to define you load. So what do you want to operate, how many watts does it require and how long per day do you want to operate it?

WWW

[Sunking]

The vehicle alternator can do in 30 minutes what a roof full of panels can do in a day.

[Wy_White_Wolf]

First thing is to define you load. So what do you want to operate, how many watts does it require and how long per day do you want to operate it?

WWW

[bhudson]

So, I am new to the group, but i have some questions regarding a Food Truck that I plan on building over the winter. I am a chef and have been in the industry for 13 years. I worked on a sustainable farm for a while, and was able to live in a house that was completely powered by solar. I would like to try and use this sort of thing in conjunction with my food truck concept. The only thing is, I dont really know what I could do to use that power for. I need an education in the applications of solar in an automobile. With 200 square feet of space on the roof, i have a lot of area to cover. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.