How is everyone doing right now?

[Arzosah]

These Jackerys, PowerOaks etc are really impressive off the shelf products, but you need to manage your expectations with them. Check out the storage capacity in Watt Hours and you'll soon realise that they will soon run flat if you try to run anything with a motor or heating element.

Sadly, Jenny, I won't realise any such thing - it might as well be Ancient Farsi, written in hieroglyphics. And I have no Rosetta Stone **sobs loudly**. As for my expectations, they don't yet need managing because I literally don't really know what I'm looking at, and I'm too old to believe in electronic magic.

My query about the 4 stroke engine was because it was mentioned in the Amazon listing - not that I'm envisaging running it, but I have no knowledge of whether that's a practical thing. If it is, I'd do it, if it isn't, I won't. Ignorance! It's not bliss.

They win hands down on features and on being lightweight, but capacity gets expensive compared to typical domestic electricity use. To get greater capacity for your money, you need to either pay a lot more, or go for bigger, heavier batteries. Then you surrender portability.... For the home do we NEED portability, or can you pop something big and heavy in a cupboard or shed?

My image of using portability is that I could carry the kit into the back garden, move it around a few times during the day, and then bring it in at night, or when it looks like it might rain.

[GillyBee]

Jansman - I feel jealous. If the power goes out I will probably be trying to work from home in the cold using my USB desklamp and a laptop connected to my mobie as a hotspot.
Whenever I go on holiday I try to digital detox and leave all the tech behind. And then t'other half asks me to turn on Google Maps and navigate for him and "what do the Met Office say the weather is going to do?" (Puts head in hands..)

[diamond lil]

What JM said ^^^^ Head torch, good book, tea, and sweeties!

[jennyjj01]

Sadly, Jenny, I won't realise any such thing - it might as well be Ancient Farsi, written in hieroglyphics. And I have no Rosetta Stone **sobs loudly**. As for my expectations, they don't yet need managing because I literally don't really know what I'm looking at, and I'm too old to believe in electronic magic.

My query about the 4 stroke engine was because it was mentioned in the Amazon listing - not that I'm envisaging running it, but I have no knowledge of whether that's a practical thing. If it is, I'd do it, if it isn't, I won't. Ignorance! It's not bliss.

Ooops. Sorry about all the geek speak.
Easy ones first. Amazon is quite wrong to mention 4 stroke. That's silly. It's not green and black either.

In dead simple back of the envelope maths.
It will power a max of 200W. Which is roughly 2 tellys or 3 laptops or 40 or so LED lightbulbs. Try to power up more than that and it will say no. If you ran it on full load, it would be flat in an hour or so.
If you just ran a laptop on it, you'd get about 3 hours out of the battery. If the solar panel was connected at the same time, it might run a few hours longer, as the panel contributes it's energy. Charging or running little devices like phones or ipods would seem almost unlimited. The main difference on the dearer units is how long the battery can power things for. The more panels you connect, the faster it will recharge. Note that if the mains is on, it can charge from that, so it's ideal to use on its own to get through any 3 hour blackouts. It might be used to run a small tv for 3 hours, or a small crockpot for 2 hours.

You don't NEED to use solar panel at all if you have mostly got mains on. Pre-apocalypse, around the home, really not much point connecting the solar panel if you just want some little bit of standby electricity..
The solar bit is most useful if you are off grid in a caravan, for example, where you'd get a few hours laptop, tv or light per day.

My image of using portability is that I could carry the kit into the back garden, move it around a few times during the day, and then bring it in at night, or when it looks like it might rain.

That would work, grabbing sunshine where it lands, to charge it up. But again, if the mains is mostly on, you could just charge it from the mains at about 10p a time, taking up to 5.5 hours. It might take all day to charge just from the sun, giving you 10p worth of free energy per day ( if you use it).

If you pay more for the bigger models, you can either power the same devices for longer, or you can power more devices at a time.

Real world review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaVFC-9yXio

[Yorkshire Andy]

What JM said ^^^^ Head torch, good book, tea, and sweeties!

Hope you have a way to charge your electric toothbrush

[itsybitsy]

My laptops all seem to use 65 watt chargers or thereabouts so a 250watt unit should be fine.

Ah! Yes, mine is 65 watt too. So that should mean its good enough?

There's a calculator here.

https://www.electricalsafetyfirst.org.u ... alculator/

[itsybitsy]

These Jackerys, PowerOaks etc are really impressive off the shelf products, but you need to manage your expectations with them. Check out the storage capacity in Watt Hours and you'll soon realise that they will soon run flat if you try to run anything with a motor or heating element.

Sadly, Jenny, I won't realise any such thing - it might as well be Ancient Farsi, written in hieroglyphics. And I have no Rosetta Stone **sobs loudly**. As for my expectations, they don't yet need managing because I literally don't really know what I'm looking at, and I'm too old to believe in electronic magic.

My query about the 4 stroke engine was because it was mentioned in the Amazon listing - not that I'm envisaging running it, but I have no knowledge of whether that's a practical thing. If it is, I'd do it, if it isn't, I won't. Ignorance! It's not bliss.

They win hands down on features and on being lightweight, but capacity gets expensive compared to typical domestic electricity use. To get greater capacity for your money, you need to either pay a lot more, or go for bigger, heavier batteries. Then you surrender portability.... For the home do we NEED portability, or can you pop something big and heavy in a cupboard or shed?

My image of using portability is that I could carry the kit into the back garden, move it around a few times during the day, and then bring it in at night, or when it looks like it might rain.

Arzosah - don't worry too much about getting bogged down in 'stuff'. If it does what I need it to do - which is keep my laptop / phone / lighting juiced then I'm good. £250 is not beyond budget limitations. I'm not looking for something that needs a shed to live in and could power the streetlights for six hours and I doubt you are either.

[Arzosah]

Jenny, itsy, thank you for these posts! I haven't had my coffee yet so I won't make any decisions, but this all makes things a lot simpler. I'll get there

[Arzosah]

Erm, I've been checking what I've already got. An ancient solar panel of 13W, its the same size as the modern 100W panels.

I also have a much newer, mobile Anker solar panel. The box describes is as "14W, 2A". Hmmm.

My current phone is a Samsung A50, and the gsmarena website (never heard of it, but it looks quite detailed) says that it fast charges at 15W. I wonder if the Anker panel would charge it slowly?

My kindle is a FIRE HD 10, Amazon say that the charger cable is only 9 watts.

My router is a modern Vodafone one, its 12V / 2.5A. Watts aren't mentioned, dang it.

So, the panels I currently have, I could send the ancient one off to the solar panel graveyard, though if it still worked, it might still charge the kindle (which would be amazing). The Anker is new, but only 1W more than the ancient panel. Both panels need to charge any device directly, as there's no solar generator, no battery device, attached.

This means that if this tech worked, I could charge the kindle, and possibly the phone. I still need the generator, to get any storage at all, and realistically I need the 100W panel too. Things are all getting a bit real.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Erm, I've been checking what I've already got. An ancient solar panel of 13W, its the same size as the modern 100W panels.

I also have a much newer, mobile Anker solar panel. The box describes is as "14W, 2A". Hmmm.

if it's the type I think you have it's got a smart port/s with a blue inset your best off charging a decent power bank then using that to charge your phone... Reason many phones are a pita they light up / vibrate every time you plug it in so ever time you cast a shadow on the panel the volts drop and the phone blows the power it's just had put in telling you it's charging again



My current phone is a Samsung A50, and the gsmarena website (never heard of it, but it looks quite detailed) says that it fast charges at 15W. I wonder if the Anker panel would charge it slowly? If it's bright it'll charge it fine but I'd power bank it first

My kindle is a FIRE HD 10, Amazon say that the charger cable is only 9 watts.

My router is a modern Vodafone one, its 12V / 2.5A. Watts aren't mentioned, dang it.

12v *2.5a =30watts

So, the panels I currently have, I could send the ancient one off to the solar panel graveyard, though if it still worked, it might still charge the kindle (which would be amazing). The Anker is new, but only 1W more than the ancient panel. Both panels need to charge any device directly, as there's no solar generator, no battery device, attached.

This means that if this tech worked, I could charge the kindle, and possibly the phone. I still need the generator, to get any storage at all, and realistically I need the 100W panel too. Things are all getting a bit real.