Uses for battery packs

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I have a RAVPower 13000mAh for my phone when the power goes out, traveling, or on the trail.

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I use a 16000 mah ravpower, and got myself an anker, maybe 21000 mah.

They’re great for our energy needy phones and stuff. Mostly phone and my vapes.

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Can’t remember where, probably that big A place, but I saw one claiming that you could jump your car with it.

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There are a few on the market that claim to be able to jump start a vehicle,…..I wonder which one is the best.

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I’ve used mine to power a USB light, and a small USB desk fan before. It worked really good on both.

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Jumpstarting my car.

Nektek 600 Amp 16800mah.

It’s amazing to me that this technology has progressed far enough that we can do this kind of stuff.
Other than that, my Omaker 5200mah actually gets used way more often. I seldom use the built in flashlight, but I’m charging devices with it all the time. We had a crazy incident that caused a “The World Is Ending!!!” support day at work a couple months ago where I had to spend the entire day on my iPhone on the go. This thing saved my bacon.

Seriously though. They’re kind of single purpose devices. They do what they do and they do it well. I suppose if you’re in a serious bind and need to start a fire by overvolting them (and understand the principles well enough to actually do that), that’s something. Small paperweight? Cruel bathtime prank? Combined with an ordinary sock, it could make a decent weapon. I can keep going, but most of the “other” things these are good for, you could do with any rock.

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What I have charged so far with my powerbank (Ravpower 6000 mAh); Smartphone of course, Bluetooth speaker and electronic cigarette.

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I keep 2 in the car and 2 in my work bag.

In the car:
The larger one in my car has been used to jumpstart a colleagues car (it’s designed for it). It also has a warning flash and lantern function built in and will charge 2 devices at the same time, so if i break down i’m good for power for a while.

The small one in the glove box runs off of 2x AA’s and has a moonlight / firefly type led built in.

In my work bag:
One of my power banks, is a 4g mifi router that has been unlocked so it’ll accept any networks sim card. I’ve used this to get online and send e-mails etc during power cuts / signal outages. I keep a sim from a different provider in it, but also have a couple of pay as you go sims from other providers stored with it. So between it and my phone, i should be able to get online where ever i am in the country.

The other one i carry runs off of 1x 18650 li-ion and has a flashlight built in. I’ve used this during a power cut to find the fuse box and check on the ups’s for the server’s. It’s also been used to power a couple of small USB Lights and recharge my e-cig.

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Sounds like you have more than most of us, I’d like to know more about getting online when the power in my street goes down, presently I can only do that via my mobile phone.

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Essentially it’s the same thing as a mobile, runs off a SIM card and you can connect up to 10 devices through it.

I keep mine on a different network to my mobile as I travel the country and often find spots where I can make calls but can’t get online with my phone. I have sim cards from 3 other networks stored with it. But it’s very rare that either my mobile or the primary SIM card for the mifi don’t have enough signal to get online at atleast adsl speeds.

The thing is battery powered and doubles up as a power bank. If you google EE osprey 2, I have the larger of the two devices. The smaller version doesn’t have the power bank facility.

I keep the second power bank handy as it’ll charge my phone, tablet and the mifi twice each before it runs out of juice.

At home I have a small ups (uninterruptible power supply) that has my fibre modem router, home phone and a box from my mobile provider that uses my internet to ensure I have full signal plugged into it. Supposedly with what I have connected to it, it’ll last for 24 hours before the battery in it dies.

We use ups’s at work for the servers, Internet and phone systems, although they are considerably larger than the one I have for home use, they keep the office going for approx 8 hours before they give up.

Hope that helps,

K

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up for 8 hours? what brand and model ups purports to do this?

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Many companies make datacenter-grade UPSes that can support an entire office, for hours or even days, including APC, Emerson, and Tripp-Lite. They have to be sized carefully based on the load and desired runtime, of course, and must be maintained appropriately. Get ready to break out big dollars for this. For loads of any size it almost always makes more sense to plan for a much shorter runtime on battery, long enough for the diesel generators to spin up and stabilize plus a bit of a safety margin.

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Thanks K, for all the information, I’ll have to see what’s available here in the UK and which PAYG sim card is the best option.

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We had the generator die at the hunting camp and had a few hot weekends to look forward to. A trip to the computer store, Walmart, and some ingenuity netted us a functional “swamp cooler” that used ICE and ran on my 20,000mah Anker Battery pack.. In a 4 hour period it brought the temperature down by 10 degrees.. it at least made things bearable.. I think it may be used on the wife’s next tent camping trip, it may lure her into the woods.. 🙂

Between the ultra low amp cooling fan and the pump I bought, the battery pack lasted for about 12 hours..

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I have a couple of power packs but have never actually used them. My phones each last a couple of days with normal use. Anything else I have that’s USB powered, tends to last a week or more and get charged long before I run out of power.

I’m somewhat anal about turning off features that use power when I’m not using them though. I never leave the GPS or wifi on when I’m not using them. I’ve found that just doing that at least doubles my battery life on the phone. I do generally leave bluetooth on but it’s power consumption is relatively tiny. Putting my iPod in airplane mode means most of a week of listening, by the time it needs charging, it’s time to download another round of podcasts.

The only times I come close to using up my battery is when on an extended bike ride. Using the Map My Ride app with the screen on constantly and GPS as well, it will eat up the battery in a few hours. It generally lasts longer than I do though. 🙂

Still, it’s nice to have the security blanket of a handy backup power source. It’s usefulness in an emergency makes it worth the bag space and occasional remembering to keep it charged.

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