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So I was curious if there is a small solar powered battery pack out there anywhere?
I’ve seen stuff like the anker Astro 2. But what I’m looking for is that with a small solar panel built in. My thought is I could charge the battery pack during the day while I’m out and about and then use the battery to charge my devices at night and repeat.I’m looking for something no bigger than a normal smartphone as I’d like to lash it to my pack strap.
I don’t know how well they work, but the one I’ve seen the most is the ZeroLemon SolarJuice. I’ve contemplated buying one a couple of times, but always talked myself out of spending the money. I found them on Amazon in various capacities/sizes – 6000/8000/10000/20000 mAh ranging in price from $31 for the 6000 to $48 for the 20000.
You’re going to be disappointed – solar requires surface area AND direct sunlight for any meaning full charge. eg, the ZeroLemon 10000mah is bigger than a phone and on Amazon, says:
“SolarJuice can charge your iPhone about 50% power for emergency after being solar charged for 8 hours under normal sunlight….”
And I’m sure that’s assuming direct perpendicular sunlight. Attached to a backpack (windows, artificial light, etc) and efficiency goes way, way down. I have a few solar panel products, and you either need a lot bigger/heavier than a cellphone, or just consider a small one emergency-use-only and rely on a plug-in powerbank day-to-day (which the above recommendation fits both).
Im afraid ill have to side with reppans. A surface area you are talking about is going to be a novelty at best and will not really be useful to charge any battery in any decent amount of time. If you really need to be sure about this you could do some math on it but even that 50% of an iphone battery in 8hours (lest assume they are talking about the smallest battery there with the phone turned off) sounds a bit optimistic to me.
It takes sometimes several full days of sun just to charge the built in battery with the little built in panels.
A separate solar charger may charge it in just one afternoon. They fold flat and fit in almost any backpack (anker 14, goal zero, mercury power etc), you’d be a lot happier with one of those I think.
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