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Funny but this looks EXACTLY like the Targus packs that I have except mine are black.
Mine were really cheap too but with the batteries already in there.The difference is charging your battery charger while using it to charge a device, not charging your device while using it 😉
This one just in.
8x 18650
Input 1.2-1.3A. Trickles down to .17A at 100%
Output
1x 1A
1x 2.1AYou can’t charge and use it at the same time.
But it has a huge capacity with 8x 18650 cells in it.
But man does it charge slowly if you make it empty! If you do the math 1.2A / 8= .13A per cell to charge, and that means if the 18650 calls are 2600mah, then it can take 20 hrs to charge from empty.
It has 2 micro USB inputs but I don’t know what they both do yet. So far when I plug input into both the current drops down to .8A +.4A and that isn’t right and it didn’t come with any instructions.
I just lost power the other day for the first time (hopefully last, but I know better) this winter. I have an ExpertPower 20,000mah battery bank, and it worked flawlessly in keeping our devices charged (2 smart phones, a kindle, and a USB lantern). We used it the entire night, and part of the next morning, as we were without power for about 12 hours…I refuse to fire up the generator unless it is abundantly clear that our power will not be resumed in the short term, although I sometimes give in due to my wife griping about it. I went to charge the battery bank the next day and it was still showing 75% full. No complaints from me.
My household has 3x iPhones, 3x iPads and a wifi router that runs off USB power and a bunch of USB lights. So I can burn through the 10Ah battery packs in a couple hours easy and gps or gps games burn through battery like it was plugged in.
I probably have
10Ah
20Ah
10Ah
9Ah
10AH
25AhAnd about 15 18650 single batteries and charger. And to go a weekend with wife and son, it still isn’t enough… Laugh, I don’t know how you manage on one 10Ah battery pack….
From Weylan
Well again, my ravpower will charge and be charged at the same time.
My anker battery, if charging, won’t charge anything until finished or unplugged.
It all depends on usage. Anytime we are without power, we go into super energy saving mode as a family. Basically camping at home. Get out the emergency candles, get out Monopoly and Scrabble, prepare to eat leftovers that are in the fridge before they spoil, etc. Anything we can do to cut down on what power we do need, and everyone knows that cell phones, lights, etc. are the priorities.
My daughter once during an outage complained that she was bored out of her mind, so I put a candle in her room and told her to start cleaning to pass the time. She hasn’t complained about boredom since, and always finds a way to pass the time “productively” as she sees it! LOL. I got to admit though, it does wear on me dealing with a houseful of women after awhile…I usually find some outdoor task that takes me all day to complete.
While we don’t go into ultra saving mode, we can watch movies on the laptops as well all battery power and solar charged. I can even do wash Landry, not dryer, by solar if the sun is out.
We can’t run the tv, but we can run almost all the devices but the tv on power from solar for most of the evening.
What I find very useful in more circumstances than just this particular one is to carry a very small surge projector or power strip. I just found one with two USB ports and two outlets that is about the size of a small tv remote. This allows you to charge up to four things at once or spare some outlets to share (which can make you very popular at places like airports) another good option (I often do both) is to get a short extension cord with multiple outlets, giving you reach and more power. My favored option is a 6ft home Depot with the outlets.
Depending on your preferred carry load this may not work out for you but if edc a full sized backpack this addition is hardly noticeable. I also almost never use my battery pack so this might be a little inconvenient for you to dig out and set up all the time but I’ll leave it up to you.
I think you’ve got it down. Watch movies on laptops, use your phones, etc. There is really no need to power a TV, DVD Player, etc. when you can watch a movie on your computer or tablet. It just makes more sense IMO.
I bought a nice generator a few years back for emergencies, and while it has always started up and ran like a champ, it can be a pain. I remember the first time we used it…I got everything all set up and running so that it would run our fridge, TV, cable modem, router, some lights, etc. We start to fire up Netflix to watch a movie and then I realize that even though we have power now, our ISP and cable company were still out, basically no internet and no TV. So I get to thinking, I’m running this huge generator to basically just power the fridge and freezer, meanwhile it is 20 degrees outside, and all of our perishable foods could have easily been stored in a couple coolers on the porch. It all just seemed like a big waste. Now I wait until the power is out for at least 24 hours with a less than hopeful chance of it returning soon before I even consider using the generator.
On a side note…I love line drying my laundry in the sun. It gives your clothes the freshest smell you can get IMO.
I use this approach all the time when traveling as well. At the meetings I have a USB and small 3 outlet surge suppressor I got. This is what started me on this thread to have the battery pack plugged n charging. And some one just plugs the phone into the battery pack and the phone takes the power it needs up to whatever the pack can supply until phone is full then unplug, and as the phones start to be full and taper off their charge, any extra starts to stay in the battery pack, because most USB ports not chargers don’t output as much as the battery packs can. And it is convenient if a call comes in to take the power pack and phone away from the charger and go some where less disturbing then standing in a room with a bunch of other people.
I like air dry laundry as well, but I don’t like stiff laundry. What I find is I like some air dry to get most of the clothes dry, but five minutes in the dryer helps make it so it’s not stiff and hard.
For movies you have DVDs and other stuff to do like Starcraft with my sun as a lan game is doable by laptop and solar! If an emergency, it is good to get the kids safe and out of the way. I have had all the kids at our house in an emergency and kept safe, warm and happy so parents could do necessary things and not worry.
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