Does anyone have any experience with solar powered gadgets/devices? I've seen some phone chargers and other small duty items for sale with built in solar panels to generate electricity. The phone charger was actually a radio/flashlight combo with an adapter to charge a phone. There was a little solar panel attached to it as well as a crank that you can wind manually to build up power for when the sun isn't bright enough or at night. I'm wondering if anyone knows how effective these things are? Or are they just a novelty? Would they potentially end up paying for themselves or even just saving a little bit of money on electricity costs over the long term?
I think it's a good investment in the long run. We made a solar charger for a Nokia phone once in our Science project. We spent 60 dollars on two small panel. Our teacher was in awe that she kept it for future preferences. That was 10 years ago. That teacher was my nephew's Science teacher last year. It is still working fine according to her. She must have been really in awe that she still remembers my name til now.
I've actually had no experience with solar-powered gadgets but I think they can great for saving a lot of money on electricity. There's this solar-powered laptop I've heard of I wouldn't mind trying out such a laptop.
In my opinion, Solar powered gadgets and chargers are going to be very significant in the coming future. This is due to the reason that the world is facing a severe energy crisis and these gadgets consume a good percentage of the world's power. And solar power is the future, in terms of electricity generation. Even though I do not have much experience with these devices, I think that they are an investment for the future.
I believe the main difficulty with solar power is in storing and transmitting the power that is collected by the sun, as well as it not being a steady power source, that's why it seems to work for smaller items like phone chargers which have alternative power options like the hand crank I mentioned. My main concern would be buying something that's more expensive than the alternative and then eventually the prices will fall out of necessity and mass production. Also, solar panels seem quite flimsy by design, but I've never tried to break one, so I may be wrong about that too.
Well, I once had a solar powered calculator and that was really cool I guess. But in all seriousness, yes, I think this solar powered devices will come in handy, I mean its not always that you find a wall socket somewhere. And what if you're trapped in the wilderness? Or in a deserted island? But I honestly think they should invest on these, I read a news article once about a village in the Philippines that is solar powered.
The main issue with solar powered devices is that they need a very large energy storage capability in order to be of any use, otherwise they just stop working. If you have something for example a car that would run on solar energy, how would it be if you drove it through the night and then the next day it's rainy or very cloudy? I don't think it would have any power then.
I don't really have much experience with them, outside of things like calculators many years ago. The devices I use today aren't really set up to be solar-optimized, so I can't vouch for them now. I think it's great that the technology exists, but I think it still needs improvements.
I remember there was a time those phones were popular. They were feature phones that were powered by solar and electricity. So you could either recharge them by using solar or electricity. It was meant for those people who were not accessible to electricity and that would be mostly in Africa. Although am not sure if there was enough market for the phones. I can rarely see them these days.
