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#1. My Solar Plans

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~ Mark Wells

#2. Green Eco Club

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~ Green Eco Club

#3. Earth4Energy

(Solar / Wind)

~ Michael Harvey

#4. Power4Home

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~ Jon Russel

#5. HomeMadeEnergy

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~ Bill Ford

#6. HoJo Motor

(Zero Point)

~ Howard Johnson

#7. Solar Stirling Plant

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~ Solar Stirling Co.

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~ Green Eco Club

#9. Wind Plans

(Solar / Wind)

~ Les and Jane

#10 Nikola Tesla Secret

(Radiant / Magnetic)

~ Ben Miller

#8 Sky 4 Energy

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~ William Miller

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Solar Charger

A solar charger uses the same principles of electricity as a standard electrical charger. But among other advantages of solar energy, here rather than drawing electricity from a wall socket, a solar charger uses an arrangement of solar cells to collect energy from the sun, and then convert that energy to electricity either for immediate use, or for later use as stored energy in a battery.

Whether or not the right solar charger for you will need an internal battery will be determined by the type of devices you intend to charge and your intended use. Smaller devices, such as cell phones or digital music devices might run fine directly from the sun. However, larger devices may require a battery because of the power needed. While solar chargers without internal batteries are cheaper, one important consideration to note is that if the sun is not available when you intend to use the device, it will not work. Consequently, having an internal battery is much more convenient as the device can be run at any time, regardless of the level of sunlight.



 

Solar Charger

Solar Charger Reviews

Solar chargers come in a wide variety of sizes and power output capabilities. Some are designed to be larger and mainly for running household devices and appliances. These come in the form of solar powered generators for the home. Others are designed to be compact and easily portable. For example, we all love the convenience of being able to run many of our portable electrical devices from batteries when we are not close to conventional wall sockets. Fortunately, that type of convenience also applies with regard to solar powered portable devices. It is crucial, though, to correctly match the solar charger you are considering to the types of devices you intend to run for power requirements.

To compare, with standard batteries for portable devices this is an easy process with which we are all well familiar. Everyone knows that to run a portable stereo (boombox) you will probably need several D-cell batteries, while to run a small flashlight you might need only a couple of "AAA" batteries. However, with solar power these distinctions are not as obvious, and so it might be a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the terms used to describe the power output of chargers and the needs of devices. Here are some basics:

The three main electrical units you are likely to encounter in your shopping comparisons are watts, volts, and amperes (amps). A common analogy used to describe the relationships between these is that of a garden water hose.

Volts would represent the water pressure of the water coming out of the hose, amps would be the rate of flow of the water, and watts would be the total power or strength of the water coming out.

Watts equals volts multiplied by amps. So, for example, if you increased the water pressure (volts) then the flow rate of the water (amps) would also increase. Consequently, when both of these numbers are higher, so is the water power produced (watts).

For our purposes, then, we need to know that the most important unit is watts. We need to know how much power (watts) our device needs to run, and we need to know how much power our charger can produce. The other unit we will consider is amps. Once we are satisfied that our charger is powerful enough to run a given device we can also look at the flow rate of electricity (amps) and that will tell us how long the device will run on a single charge. This can be a little confusing at first, but the important thing is if these questions are not answered in a description of the charger it is always a good idea to find out.

Through common experience we are all reasonably familiar with about how long a regular dry cell battery will last in a given device. However, most of us do not have that same experience with solar energy. That is why it's a good idea to have all the information about power and how long it will last before we make a purchase.

Solar Charger USB

Another handy feature of the portable solar charger is that not only can it draw and store energy directly from the sun, but when the sun isn't available many models have the capability of connecting directly to your home computer for charging via USB (universal serial bus) connectors (of course, for mobile use the solar charger used must come with an internal battery).

One important thing to remember here is that you should always have the proper connectors with you at the time of need. This includes both to connect the solar charger to the computer and to connect the charger to the device later. Some mobile devices have USB ports and some do not, so you might need a different cord to connect them. This is an added benefit to the solar charger since it can be used as a power source without actually needing any sunlight.

 

Top Rated Solar Chargers (larger/multiple devices, camping etc)

Solar Charger For Iphone, Ipod, Ipad, Laptop

Some of the most common mobile devices that use stored battery power are Iphones, Ipods, Ipads, and laptop computers. Depending on what you have, you may have the need to charge any or all of these products and may wish to use a solar charger. It could be easy to assume that one charger could handle all of these devices, but that might be very far from the truth. Again, it is absolutely critical that you match your charger to the devices you are using.

While the general size of a device can be a loose guide as to how much power it needs, by no means is it conclusive. In many, many cases two devices of approximately the same size have different power requirements such that a given charger will work with one but not the other. For this reason it is always a good idea to make sure a given charger is specifically rated to charge your specific device. Many chargers advertise that they are "great for Iphones" or some such. Just make sure that if what you have is instead, say, an Ipod that it will also work for that.

As you might imagine, laptops use much more energy and need more power to run than the smaller devices. Therefore, you will need a larger solar charger. Fortunately, these are still very convenient because today laptop flexible solar panels can come in the shape of a rolled up newspaper. Just roll out the panel wherever you are and let the sun start storing energy to power your laptop.

Of course these larger solar chargers do cost more, but the good news is that because of their power ratings you may be reasonably confident that one laptop charger may also be able to charge all of your other small mobile devices.

The only extra thing is that you might have to make an adjustment for voltage as laptops sometimes have different needs. Many appropriate solar chargers come with a switch to make this easy. Again, double-check that the solar charger you are considering will power all of the devices you intend, and for an amount of time that works for you.

Top Rated Solar Chargers (iPhones, iPads, mobiles etc)