Are solar chargers a meme? I'm finding that bringing a powerbank

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bumping with pics

>>898948

Huge meme. It will take you days to even fully charge a phone. You also need to face the sun all the time or else you are wasting time. Something like the dudes backpack could be sort of kind of working in summer but don't expect to fully charge things anytime soon.

I don't think anyone here uses them. I'm completely content taking extra batteries if need be. The only electronics I use are a watch and a head lamp. Maaaybe a GPS if I have one.
What are you doing on 5-7 day trips that warrants a solar powered backpack? Just enjoy the /out/doors

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I have a goal zero charger kit. I use the power supply quite frequently because I can charge it off a wall socket before my trip. I've used the solar panel a few times, bit it spends most of its time folded up in my emergency supplies.

I loaned it to a friend who used it on half of her PCT hike and she really liked it, so if I do the PWNT in the next few summers like I'm planning I'll probably take it wit me.

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>Nekteck == 15W, Eceen == 7W.

The Nekteck has two 2A, 5V outlets and I have an Easyacc 15,000mA battery that has dual input for a perfect match up. Best $/W value.

Here for the comments with regards to use in other countries.

Totally meme imo but I'm in the UK and we hardly ever have enough sun to charge up a dead cockroach

>>898948
Been looking at getting pic related. Not sure how well it'd work though.

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>>898992
>pic related
>Forgets pic
Every. Damn. Time.

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I was homeless in the UK for a while with pic related.
Had a little supple of eneloop so always had power.
Loved it, have heard there are better ones than GZ for cheaper.
Thought I was going to be stabbed by other homeless for me panels.

Solar in the form your pic shows is pretty terrible. For solar to work properly, there are a myriad of factors like direct sunlight, the time of year, the time of day, the moisture level in the atmosphere, the material the panels are made of, etc.

Can it work? yes, but only in very specific situations where carrying a second power bank may be a better size / weight / cost option.

There are thermoelectric generators that work OK too but your best bet is to carry power banks you calculate to meet your needs. Remember that whatever the power bank says aH wise, half that when making your estimate.

I have an Anker 21V solar charger and a Powercore 20100 in my pack. I strap the charger to my pack or body in the best direction to the sun while I am walking and lay it out when stopped. It's not a lot of weight but it provides a shit tonne of functionality.

When I go out I normally take a kindle, usb charging headlight and a phone. I could keep them all alive indefinitely in California with my charger. I could likely even add my tablet to the mix and still have more power than I need to keep all four devices floating indefinitely (depending on usage of course, but I only use my devices when at camp if I have nothing else to to, so not that much).

It's pretty legit.

Now, I'm originally from Scotland, so the question I ask myself is: would I take the charger and batter with me there? The powercore, definitely yes; the charger, probably not. However I keep my pack set up in a way that - if I want to - at any time I can drop everything and go absolutely anywhere. So I'd likely still take the solar charger with me. Boring ultralight cunts be damned.

>>899036
Thanks for the input. Think I'm gonna grab this particular solar charger.

>>898948

Depends how much wattage the panel(s) has/have.

You will need bare minimum 5 watts to charge a phone in an acceptable timeframe. 10 watts is better.

>>899000
>trips chk'd
Same kit I have.
The charger's awesome, mostly as a USB AA/AAA charger.
The solar panel is junk.

For solar to work the way you expect it to, you need to massively overbuy on panel size. Those little postcard sized panel/battery combos are a joke.

The bigger the better. You will need around 3x what you think you will need on paper to account for all possible lighting conditions.

I had a college buddy who majored in electrical engineering and is currently trying to start a business that sells effective charging devices that don't require any extra actions or behaviors. Our senor year he kept sketching designs for heel inserts that pump water through a tube to generate electricity while you hike. I'm an ecology major so idk what all the designs meant but it sounds pretty promising. Even if all goes well they wouldn't be on the market until 2020 or later so don't hold your breath. He always remarked at how garbage solar chargers are and why everyone seems to think that's the only means of generating electricity off grid

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>>899770
Sounds horribly inefficient, but then most human powered charging devices are. Reminds me of the power peg, it was a linear induction generator that was supposed to unthrone solar chargers. Problem was it took about 45 minutes of vigorous shaking, I mean VIGOROUS shaking, to get a few minutes worth of power to a smartphone. I was working at REI when it debuted, we had them in the clearance bin after four months.

Hand crank dynamos are more efficient, but you're still looking at a lot of physical effort for not a lot of output.

Thermal generators like the power pot and biolite are probably the most efficient. Solar may be slow as fuck, but it's passive so you don't have to expend energy or fuel.

Like others have said, solar works best if you pair it with a power supply since you can pre-charge it and it discharges to your device faster.

But really, unless you're going to be away from power for a weeks at a time, a pre-charged power bank is all you really need to keep a small device like a phone or GPS charged. Bigger devices like a DSLR it's better to just bring an extra battery or two.