My solar powered everyday carry electronics
My solar powered everyday carry electronics
Hope this fits here.
It's not much in the grand scheme, but all of my everyday carry electronics are all solar charged.
Left to right: Cat S22 Flip smartphone, Bluetooth earbuds, rechargable pen light/laser pointer/black light/dog toy, and my Kobo e-reader.
They're mostly charged / topped up overnight from my 12W / 8000 mAh solar battery bank. I just throw it outside or in a window during the day and plug a USB hub into it to charge my devices overnight. My phone will usually go 2-3 days on a charge, but I've also got a 6W panel I stick in the window if it needs a little battery boost during the day. I also top off other things from the 6W panel, but those aren't exclusively solar like my EDC stuff.
Thought I was going to have to cheat a week or so ago. It was rainy and cloudy for nearly 2 weeks, and the solar battery bank was struggling to stay above 50%, but the clouds finally broke and my solar bank was able to fully recharge with a few hours of sunlight to spare.
Like I said, it's not much, but these have only ever been charged from solar**, and I think that's pretty cool.
** Except the bit of charge my phone and e-reader got from my laptop when I had it plugged into USB to flash firmware and add files.
My solar battery bank. (Not the best design with an integrated, non-removable battery, but has worked well enough)
I also have a foldable one that directly discharges to USB. Never really occurred to me to charge a USB power bank with it during the day though 😅
It's very useful to charge my video drone during camping trips though.
Never really occurred to me to charge a USB power bank with it during the day though
Lol. I used to just charge things directly, but I found it was less fuss to just charge a big power bank and then charge the rest of my stuff from that later. There's some efficiency loss with that method, but I don't have to spend my relaxation time worrying about resource management and swapping devices around.
This is vert cool and inspiring. I would like to try to use more solar energy. Do you have a recommendation for a solar charger?
It depends on your use case, but this one is on my wish list. (Amazon link) The small ones that are the size of regular power banks will take a week or more to fully charge and should be avoided as junk. I'd also recommend avoiding any that have integrated batteries (more below).
The one I have is discontinued, but it's the iClever 12W solar with integrated 8000 mAh battery. It's not the best design with the integrated battery that sits out in the sun all day. It will often overheat and stop charging until it cools down, so I have to check on it periodically. Luckily, with what I'm charging with it, I only ever run it down to about 60-70% most days, and it will charge back up before it gets too hot out in the sun. I've used it since 2020, and it's still going strong (I try not to deplete it below 40% which I think helps keep the battery happy).
Those are good for backpacking/travel as well as around the house.
It's a lot less portable, but for camping, I've got a 12v 50 watt panel that I hooked a 12v 45 watt USB-C power delivery adapter into. That will give me 5-20 volts DC at up to 45 watts. I mostly top off my big power bank from that, but it has also charged my laptop easily.
Ngl. I’m an apple fan boy.
But. That cat22 has come across my mind quite a few times over the last few weeks.
So cool!!! I felt inspired to do the same. Some day I'll post my own solar-powered setup
I have a similar foldable solar charger at home but when I charge my power bank with it, the power banks charge display number goes bonkers. Sometimes up, sometimes down. So I stopped charging it by solar as to not damage the battery inside.
I've only got one older power bank that goes all glitchy like that with my 6W panel, and I really don't know why either. The output from the panel is regulated, so it should be happy with it, but it just flickers, makes a high pitched whine, and never seems to charge. Best guess is it's not able to cope with anything less than a minimum charging current that the panel can't provide. Thankfully it's only that one that is temperamental, and it's also my oldest / lowest capacity one.
This is cool. When I get a chance, I wanna submit one of these too.
What brand/model penlight is that?
It's actually a cat toy, and I got a two-pack of them from Amazon for like $10. Both are solar charged, and I keep one at home for the dogs and the other with me to use as a pen light. I have no idea what the blacklight mode is for, but it's a feature.
This is the same thing under a different listing, but it's just a single one: https://www.amazon.com/Pointer-Indoor-Projection-Playpen-Recharge/dp/B09TN6P3QK/
I have no idea what the blacklight mode is for, but it's a feature.
You can check if banknotes/driving licences* are counterfeit, and if you turn the lights off in your bathroom and then look at the toilet with the blacklight, you'll be more thorough when you clean it!Just realised, you could use it in hotels as well :-(
- We have a desk mounted one at work as part of security checks on driver's licences.
Thanks for looking it up, I might actually buy one