PICogeneration Article - Portable Solar Chargers

Every day we see new or improved devices that use electricity. And, in increasing watts, the electricity is supplied by rechargeable batteries. The benefits of new battery technologies mean that they are being used in new and exciting ways. For example, almost every improved small appliance has new electronics that result in more features. There was a time when every adult had a personal time piece - usually a wrist watch that that each person valued and relied on. A few years ago, we laughed in exasperation at the number of clocks we reset when there was a power failure or in anticipation of a daylight savings time change. Now, the blinking lights are becoming a thing of the past as those devices are improved by additional computer resources so that they use small amounts of battery supplies and their internal programming to take care of these minor chronological problems in their stride. The point is that we live in households and businesses that have increasing demands for stored electricity in order to keep our up to date electronics working as expected. Certainly this is one of the motivations for adding solar panels and wind turbines to our homes and businesses. For our portable appliances or devices, we should consider portable solar chargers.

Portable solar chargers come in a variety of sizes and with a wide range of their own features. One of the most important is power generation capacity, the amount of watts that the charger can generate in an hour. This will give you an idea of the kind of devices that the charger will charge for you. This suggests the next important feature. That next important feature is the connectors that come with the charger. Once you know what devices can be charged, you must be sure the charger has the connectors for your devices. These are the two basic important features.

Portable solar chargers have panels that must be placed where they can convert light into electricity. These panels respond in different ways to different wavelengths of light - from infrared to ultraviolet. The panels are also available in rigid and flexible formats in various sizes. Increasing part of the design of all kinds of consumer goods, the panels may be single purpose photovoltaic sheets or part of your clothes or other accessories. You will find panels that are part of backpacks at the PICogeneration Mall. You will find other chargers, of course, at this site. Some of the most effective are found in the Green Batteries section.

Rechargeable batteries should be part of your consideration simply because so many of the devices you use, require separate batteries in various formats. AA and AAA are ones you likely use in large quantities although C, D, and 9V batteries are also very common. A portable solar charger should be part of your personal power generation planning for charging these batteries to keep your devices working well, clean and green.

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