Solar Battery Charger

Navigating a Sea of Portable Solar Chargers

Choosing a Solar Battery Charger - More and more solar charger options exist for laptops, cell phones, ipods, even rv's. Here's advice on how to choose the right solar power charger for the task.

Portable Solar Battery Chargers

solar battery charger

Can those diminutive chargers really coax enough energy out of a day's sunshine to keep the devices functional?

Super small chargers (6 watts and less) are capable of topping off a battery in a few hours but mostly, it would take days for them to completely charge a battery.

In general, if you expect a solar charger to function like plugging into an AC receptacle, you're going to be disappointed. On the other hand, if you understand that solar energy does do the job but it does it differently, you're likely to be pleased and amazed at what solar chargers can do.

One of the few minuses of portable solar chargers is that, like getting a tan through 10 SPF sunscreen, soaking up enough solar rays to get your desired result can take 3 to 5 times longer than plugging in to AC. Solar is a tranquil energy and it takes it's time. You can always speed up the process by increasing the number of watts your unit outputs but then the system becomes less portable.

In the end it's going to be a balance between portability and power.

Aspects to Consider When Buying a Solar Battery Charger.

One size does not fit all when it comes to a solar battery charger. Many battery chargers include a set of adaptors making them compatible with most devices so that a variety of electronic devices can be charged using the same charger, however powering something like a laptop will take a considerable amount of energy and any charger under 20 watts is a waste of time.

Remember

When the specs say that it takes 10 hours of charging they mean 10 hours of sunshine. If you average 5 hours of uninterrupted mid-day sun it'll take 2 days to charge the device.

Finding the solar charger that best fits your needs requires a look at what matters most to you. Considerations will include, portability, watt output & price.

If portability is most important to you, you may need to sacrifice some wattage to get it. The less wattage you have the more time it will take for a solar power charger to top up or fully charge a battery. Less wattage also means charging batteries while the device is off. Low watt chargers (6 watts and below) are not capable of running devices, only charging the batteries.

If you're looking for a solar charger that is capable of operating a device, you'll need a more powerful charger than one that simply charges the battery. Electronics draw different amounts of power depending on what they are doing, particularly devices such as laptops, ipods, iphones, blackberry etc. all of which have graphic display capabilities which requires more power than other activities.

If you want a charger capable of operating your electronics you first need to know exactly how much energy the devices use while they're performing different tasks. The best way to find this out is with the P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor Just plug anything in to this gizmo and it tells you how many watts it's using.

The Following pages Provide more Information and Links on each Subject

All chargers do essentially the same thing. Most are designed to recharge the battery of the device while it's turned off. Running the device while recharging the battery is a whole new ball of yarn and will require a significantly larger solar power charger.