Thread: Solar charges for devices

specifically chinese options - no idea sorry

i've got 3x solar monkey solar chargers that i got cheaply in the UK a couple of years ago. generally used for charging phone and portable speakers and light for camp (+ rechargeable head torch/gps/kindle etc). two of the panels have a moderate capacity inbuilt battery. they are ok, but not great. they need bright conditions to do any charging and 'sort of' keep up with the moderate power requirements. i would not buy another solarmonkey if i bought again

doing a bit more research and thinking about it recently i've come to the conclusion that taking a pre-charged high capacity battery is the best way to go and then a solar panel or two to add a small amount of top up when the sun is out - or just take the battery. i found a light(ish) option for a large capacity battery and got a Promate Storm 15 15600mAh ($90ish) - this is marginally ok for lightweight trips, it must be about 400g-500g but i haven't weighed it. apparently you get 10x iPhone 5 charges but yet to test it. battery geeks will know more about batteries, i probably should have asked the forum first.

for the solar panel itself, this link is interesting and quite thorough in its assessments. goal zero looks good gear (i have a camp light Lighthouse 250 that is very good), but panels are very expensive and surprisingly it doesn't provide a high power charge vs some others - Rating Scores - The Best Solar Chargers - OutdoorGearLab

the ravpower 15W seems pretty grunty and is available in NZ (search tardme) - but it isn't small and it is expensive. weatherproof-ness seems questionable too. which takes you in full circle back to whether you should just take a decent capacity battery rather than a solar panel? depends on trip length of course

the best option by a long shot is to use a solar panel to charge a battery, store the charge there and then use the battery to charge the device - at a time that is convenient to do so. rather than leaving the solar panel hooked up to a device all day when you may want to have the device in your pack for instance. but if you do this then you are carrying a solar panel + battery. again looping back to the idea that a high capacity battery is perhaps a better idea?

would be interested to hear what else others use/recommend