A more serious problem with your request is covered in both answers - you will need a lot of square footage to get the total watts you will need and the risk of theft or damage is fairly high on the roof of a vehicle. And making a system that will deliver your needed watts immediately is even more costly and large. You may be able to get by with a moderate sized solar panel that charges 12 or 24 volt deep discharge batteries constantly and then suck the power from them that you need quickly to recharge your tools.
But be aware that supplying the various voltage needs of your batteries directly is going to be a considerable hassle of converters, so you are almost certainly going to have to go with a standard solar/battery/inverter setup to provide 120 vac to the chargers provided with the tool batteries.
And by the way, while high power battery tools are more convenient than running 150 feet of 12 or 14 gauge power cord across a construction site, I am not convinced that the Green aspects of batteries are all that good when you include manufacturing and disposal. They also use more energy because of losses in charging, etc.
Actually try using some battery powered equipment before you get into this too far - the early ones were useless (OK, that's years ago, but e.g. a 12" battery lawnmower not rated for continuous use compared to a 36" commercial gas one that goes twice as fast).
Otherwise it sounds a great idea - trying to have a meeting while a contractor is running a noisy gas-powered device just outside the window is a pain.
Solar doesn't really make sense in the northwest unless you are off-grid on an island somewhere (the economics keep getting better but you'd still need a big area of panels). Get a truckload of exchangeable battery packs and charge them at home, if you don't want to connect to the client's 110V.
They do make solar panels that will recharge a 56 + volt battery very slowly, but they are huge, like 4 foot by 8 feet or even more. If it is even slightly cloudy or partly shaded you will go from 10% charge to about 11% charge in about an hour = not satisfactory. Worse, someone may steal the panel that cost several hundred dollars. Also light weight means fragile. The 42 inch TV needs an even bigger panel and will quit if shaded even briefly and partly. You can power both from your vehicle battery, with the help of an inverter surge rated about 400 watts, but you risk not being able to start your vehicle even if you have a square yard of 12 volt solar panel connected to the battery. Battery damage is also likely if discharge more than half before starting the motor. I've heard Seattle is one of the worst locations for solar, due to frequent clouds.
Some rough calculations:
To charge a 56v 4ah battery in 5 hours, you need at least 0.8 amps. ( 4/0.8 = 5) (Due to inefficiencies, you need about 20% more than that depending on the battery chemistry, but these are rough calculations.)
0.8 amps at 56 volts is 45 watts (44.8, but again these are rough)
I googled for a solar charger, and I randomly found one that puts out 45 watts. See my source. It is about two feet by two feet. If you want to charge more batteries at the same time or charge one battery faster, you'll need more panels. And a big truck to put them on top of.
You'll also need a charge controller that can handle a 56 volt battery.
, you need about 3,000 watts. For reference, a hair dryer is about 2,000 watts.
A solar panel that puts out about 100 watts is about four feet by four feet, and costs about $400.
I would just buy green electricity rather than buying the solar hardware yourself. That way, you will be truthful when you say your electrical tools are truly green powered.
I am starting up a small lawn care business to make some extra money. I live in Seattle and went with all battery powered equipment to use the eco friendly angle as a good selling point in this area. The biggest battery I will be using is an Ego Power+ 56v 4ah. I was thinking about getting a solar panel to recharge batteries while I'm on the job sites. I honestly know nothing about solar power and what kind of wattage on the panel, type of battery, or type of inverter I would need to make this possible. I will be using it to recharge these batteries mainly but I'm wondering what other practical uses this kind of setup could be used for. For example if i wanted to power a 42 inch hd tv while tailgating could I use a similar setup or would that require something with more power? Any suggestions on specific equipment, information on how to figure the output of a system/ formulas to figure out power requirements for electronics, or a link to simple sources of information on this subject would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for any responses.
