As this thread is already a few years old, I’d like to ask what solar charger you’d recommend for the Fairphone 4. The use case is the window sill of the southern side of my flat, so it should not be too large.
How about a so called “balkony PV” with a plug for a power outlet.
I do use a large one with 600 Wp.
It also provides other electronics with power and the return on invest is around 5 years when mounted in south direction.
The return on invest only for charging a phone will probably never happen and the CO2 output for sourcing and manufacturing the solar panel would ruin the balance of even the fairest phone.
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I have already thought about balcony PV but without a balcony, I wouldn’t know how to mount it. I don’t know if I’d only use it for the phone, that would depend on how much energy I could get out of it. I’d also try to plug my laptop into it when the phone is full and sun still shining. Your comment about the carbon footprint of the charger is maybe true, unless I’d find a second-hand one.
You could also ask your landlord for allowance to put the modules on the roof, or lean it against the wall somewhere.
Perhaps is a waka waka an option for you.
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Hello, I’ve spent quite a lot of time trawling the internet for info on solar chargers for my Fairphone 3. I’ve read reviews ranging from “great, it works fine” to “don’t buy this, it’s a scam”.
One of the options I’ve read about is to combine a regular (non-solar) power bank and a portable, light, usb solar panel. So charge the powerbank, say, at home and keep it topped up with the solar panel en route, for example on a hiking trip somewhere sunny. There are hugely detailed reviews of both powerbanks and usb solar panels for mobile phones on YouTube [mjlorton]. Alas they are a bit out of date.
Any ideas anyone?
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Rather depends upon what size and weight you are thinking of. Camping - light Home-not so important.
Consider a 12v panel a 12v Li Ion and a 12v car charger
Hi Amoun,
Thanks for you reply and sorry for my late reply.
After exhausting web searches I’ve bought a combined battery/ solar charger fron sunslice (sunslice-solar.com), a Belgian startup
The specs:
- battery capacity: 4000 mAh li-ion
-solar power 4 watts - battery input: 5V/2A - usb C
- battery output: 5V/2.4A
It’s called a Photon and only weighs 230g. I’m currently trying it out with a view to using it on a hiking trip to a sunny location at the end of April. I’ll post my experiences here
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This is my personal experience with the Photon solar charger based on a hiking trip on Mallorca in spring with sunny weather almost all the time. It’s not a list of specific solar charging times etc. but it should give you an idea of how it operates. (N.B: I have no business connection with the manfacturing company!).
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If you’re hiking in sunny terrain, it will take about 8 hours to fully charge. That’s assuming the Photon is fully exposed to sunlight all the time.
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But a half charged (two blue lights on the display) Photon was sufficient to charge my FP3 from 15% to 50% - very helpful towards the end of a day’s hiking.
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You can attach it to your rucksack, so it can charge all day. The loop for attachment to your rucksack has been tested and is very strong.
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The cover is very robust and folds up easily.
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