Simple,basic and cheap Solar charging of you phone,tablet etc.

Sorry,had posting problems getting back in again.

Panels are feslexible type,outside where they can be moved to follow the sun. Lead acid batteries also outside,close to panels to avoid long cable runs and subsequent voltage drop.

Don't really want to get involved with the folk spending tens of thousands and feeding into the mains etc, not for me but very worthy ble at the same time.

To charge my USB devices I reckon its doable for around €50 ,given free batteries from the garage.

A recent interest has been shown by the rural farming community to run the electric fences on a similar system instead of expensive non rechargable batteries which are filling my recycling ,oxymoron,centre. Thanks for showing an interest.

The phone will draw current,say 0ne amp from the battery,I try to have the phone off when charging..

The panel I bought from Maplin,we miss them,sometimes, cost £30 and charged the battery in sunlight at about one amp.

So it is on what's called a Float system,and a rough guess,as the phones not flat,say 20% charged in 2hrs?

We soon get into loosing most of the audience by introducing very basic maths, maybe to be discussed later, Watts= Volts ×Amps.

Panel is 30 Watts, output voltage,off load,20 volts. 30 divided bt 20 equals 1.5 Amps of current going into the battery,in sunlight.

The pound shop sells a USB cigar plug which is 12/24 volt in,USB out,for €3. The longest journey and all that,good luck in the dark days ahead,but sure didn't cost much!

To answer your previous question,how long would it take to charge the phone on the suggested float system ,panel charges 12v battery,which then charges phone via the 5v USB adaptor,answer same as if you were charging from mains,phone won't know the difference. In other words the Load,in this case phone,tab,lantern etc, will draw the current it needs from the battery the charger doesn't push a charge into the device.

Your follow up question, would it work to go straight from the panel to phone,a qualified Yes, But I wouldn't recommend it for the following reason.

The panel output,in order to charge a 12v battery,must be more than 12v,typically 20v. That's why you should only buy a cigar adaptor which is 12/24v.,must be for use in trucks which are 24v.Problem could arise if the cigar adaptor went faulty,they only cost a few Euro,from China, .What could then happen is that the full 20v panel output would appear across the phone, end of phone.

Why not play safe and charge the powerbank from the float system.

With the darker days coming,I doubt if a panel ,less than 20watts output would be much use inside a window? Best to live with panel outside for maximum solar gain. Keep camping during our Indian Summer!

Makes sense,no argument here.power banks are expensive,fine if they do the job. I've power banks around which are say 10 amp hour,

Meaning you can draw an amp for 10 hrs,or half an amp for 20 hrs,before it's flat. The heavy lead acids stay outside with a wire coming inside,I know tricky.But they are typically 80 amphrs. Lot more bang,sorry,for no buck.

Sure start with a panel,at least 20 Watts inside a south facing window and see how it goes.

Lidl sometimes sell small,but vert bright rechargeable worklights,which are around 5v USB at 2 amp output,a powerbank in effect,for around €25.

Hope we haven't lost the other half of audience with too many maths!

As you would say,they're everywhere.

I haven't looked recently,but in recent years have favoured flexible panels,having broken a fair amount of glass in winter storms..

They don't last forever,my oldest glass panel 50watts has been working for about 30 years,courtesy of BP.

Others developed faulty connections in the sandwich below the glass,making it very difficult to remake the almost cigarette packet aluminium foil,impossible to solder.Prices don't seem to drop much in our Winter,guess the Sun's shining somewhere else.

Thanks for info and interest shown.

Randomname must have a big window he doesn't need to see out of if he'sputting a 50 watt panel in it!. There are ofcourse see through panels,and various hybrids,

50 watt will be maybe a metre by half.There are new materials just around the corner for the past 5 years.

Panels only work on some colours/ frequencies.

BP petrol giants made professional panels for ngo projects in places like Bangladesh ,decades ago.

I wouldn't buy older panels today,but sure a meter at about €10 will read the o/p of any panel you buy,strangely they don't like heat and are less efficient if too warm.

In winter you'll need to let all the vitamin D into thar boxroom you can get!

Last time I saw panels in a local sop was Halford, they know how to charge,sorry, mostly aimed at caravan folk I guess.

It does morph into other small projects even in the dark days,worth persisting

We could debate this for a long time with folk,but they either see it,or they don't and that's fine I'm shocked at how little knowledge our 18 year olds have on electricity upon leaving school,you can't google everything.

A comparison I think about is a household spending €50 to operate the USB small charging project,and NIE/ESB supplying that 5v USB to the same house. They start,in my case 70 odd mile away,generating 44,000 volts AC, which then has to be converted to 5v DC in the house.I know they do that for all mains supply needs.

We can,with the little power wall as Elon Musk calls it, supply our own 203v AC with a 12v DC in inverter, I do this because the fishpond pump is mains voltage only in.

Someone wrote that if every household changed one tungsten light bulb to LED, one power station could be closed.

Interesting how the picture displays a 12Amp hour battery,but the one for sale is 7ahr?,just over half the capacity. Meaning you can draw one amp,roughly a modern smart phone charge,for 7 hrs,more than enough.

Need to be slightly careful on the charging,the purists might be a bit unhappy about overcharging,and constant currently charge etc.

I would start the longest journey with this project,and as the clocks go back,and we are too far north of the sun,don't think you'll be overcharging any time soon.

Agreed,think the best plan is to start at the other end from the panel/battery setup.

By that I mean,where do you want to use,in this case the 5v USB socket,and how much current do you want to draw and for how long,

ie,Ampere hours,as marked on the gel pack sealed 12 7Ahr battery.

That way you can just spend what you need,and keep it simple.

Perhaps other remotes may follow, and who knows what else?

Electric toothbrush, razor,and you should see the panic in this house when the firestick remote fails,and needs new batteries,which can't be found in the dark!

Your right of course to mention any items that draw a lot of current,relativly speaking.

But I guess if they're not on for long,and sitting receiving a small charge 24/7?

Relevancy of this idea of small scale solar charging may becoming of more interest with the war in Ukraine and electricity rationing being talked about?

I've recently be told the Norther Ireland Office,NIO ,are looking at the possibility of bringing in Generator Ships!

I didn't know there were such things.