CatCaretaker said:
It would be useful to know what solar chargers you all recommend (and what to avoid) ... I like having back-ups
Hi CatCaretaker, yesterday,
in this post, I suggested looking at some youtube videos where
mjlorton had done some (rather detailed and technical) tests of cellphone solar charger options.
Allow me to very briefly summarize and generalize, so you might better know what level of solution you get if you choose between three general kinds of cell phone solar chargers. Okay?
First there are these power banks, with built in solar cells.
As solar cells can only collect a rather specific amount of energy from the sun per square inch (or square foot/meter), these size solar cells will take many days to collect enough energy to do a full cellphone charge.
So this kind of solar power can supplement the energy in the power bank, and if you were out in an emergency, and both the battery on you cell phone and the powerbank had been drained, then this size solar cell might be able to collect enough energy (in some hours) that you could make that
one emergency call that got you help.
But to think of this size of solar cell as a daily collector of energy to be able to run your cell phone every day, is simply NOT going to happen.
Level two
These kinds of power banks would be faster to collect enough energy for that one important call, when all other battery power had been exhausted, but it will still NOT keep your cell phone charged on a daily basis.
The amount of energy this kind of solar panels can collect is about three times as much as those where there is only one panel. Because the surface size of a solar panel is basically what matters, as current technologies of solar panels are fairly much the same, and mainly bigger surfaces are needed to collect the same amount of energy, but do so faster.
Level three
Foldable solar panels, simply add to the surface area of the solar panel, and more surface is almost directly proportional with increased ability to collect energy from the sun.
And only when you get to these sizes of solar panels do you come close to being able to collect enough power that you can do a daily full charge of your cell phone.
You still need good sun for several hours in a day, to do one full charge of you cellphone.
These foldable solar panels typically are able to collect a maximum of around 15W of energy, and as
mentioned previously in this thread 15-17W is what is typically needed in order to charge a cell phone from a 1% to a 100% charge.
Will these foldable solar panels then be able to do a complete charge of my cell phone in one hour?
No, hardly ever, as it requires a "perfect sun hour" to be able to do so, and most of the time, in most places of this earth, a perfect sun hour is not common.
Will these foldable solar panels then be able to do a complete charge of my cell phone in one day?
Yes, in many places, and many situations it will. But it still depends on getting that one-full-hour equivalent of a "perfect sun hour".
So during winter, or storms, or in certain places where overcast is the norm, these foldable solar panels will still need more than one day to collect enough sun to do one full charge of a cell phone.
So there you have it. The minimum 3 level options to solar charging of a cell phone.
And this post only covers solar panel ability. Power bank options (and solar panel options), to be able to do fast charging of cellphones, is another topic, for another post. Okay?
Will you be interested to also look into levels 4-6 of options of how to keep your cellphone going for, like, 4-6 days?
John61CT has already mentioned (in this thread) some options that belong in the level 4-6 options of how to keep your cell phone charged for several days with only limited access to charging options.
