Portable Solar Chargers: Tempting Toys
Solar power and technological gadgets are two things that interest me, so I’ve long thought about buying a portable solar-powered charger with visions of charging my devices with free, universally available power. The catch is that while these devices may be tempting gadgets, they’re really of limited practical use to most of us.
In order to get a full charge, most of these chargers need a full day of direct sunlight - which means you need to locate your charger next to a southern-facing window or somewhere outside. If it’s inside, you’re probably at home or somewhere where electricity is available, in which case I can pretty much guarantee you that if you’re using such a charger to save a little money, you’re probably talking about a few cents over the course of the year due to the small amounts of electricity these portable chargers provide - and that’s if both the weather and your patience allow you to get that much use out of it.
If you set the charger up outside then it needs to be somewhere you can keep an eye on it so that no one snags it (assuming there are people around who might) or in case it rains (unless it’s waterproof, in which case the charger will be safe, but you won’t get much of a charge).
If the device doesn’t have internal batteries which you can use to transfer the charge to your phone or MP3 player at night, then you’ll also have to leave your device connected to the solar charger the entire time. Again, consider the above.
If it does have internal batteries which allow you to transfer the charge, there’s an inherent flaw with this design: the greatest threat to the life of rechargeable batteries is heat - yet in order for this device to work best, it needs direct sunlight. I’m not saying such solar chargers won’t work, but if you buy one and intend to use it frequently, I suggest you get one that at least allows you to replace the rechargeable batteries yourself.
When it comes down to it, I see these devices as being handy in three situations:
1. Extended (more than two days camping) treks into the wilderness for charging a GPS, phone or MP3 player. This is especially true for devices where the replacing the battery with a second, charged one isn’t an option, such as with iPod and some other MP3 players. If you’re really headed out into the middle of nowhere, this may even be an essential survival device if you’re dependent on your GPS.
2. Emergency use in case of vehicle failure in a remote place and your phone battery dies, assuming no car charger or that the vehicle’s battery has died - and it’s sunny out, since even if your solar charger has rechargeable batteries, they’ll have surely lost all their charge if it’s been sitting in your car for months.
3. Emergency use in case of extended power blackouts assuming no access to a vehicle with car charger, gas generator or other power source.
Considering the above, I’ve realized that if I were to buy a solar charger, I would use it once or twice to see how well it works, and then it would sit unused for months, if not years. Maybe I would bring it out during a weekend camping trip get some use out of it and feel some sense of pride that I can charge my phone with solar power.
Solar power is a great solution for energy needs. For some people people these portable solar chargers could be a life saver, but if you’re really interested in getting into solar power, perhaps your money would be better spent on a good book on how to setup solar power