Egypt4u

Since it is American Thanksgiving today and since there is a tradition of Black Friday which is a day of sales my laptop is FULL of all sorts of DEALS and SALES that will start at some point today (Thursday) and carry over to tomorrow and even to Monday (Cyber Monday)

One of the sales that attracted me is that of Solar Panels. Not ones for the house but the smaller solar panels that would be used to power a cell phone or tablet.

If the electricity goes out I really do not have anything that would charge anything.

Is there an optimal Solar Panel gadget size one would need as in a 12V size?

There are lots of teeny tiny solar panels for phones that are being sold out of China for super cheap but in this case I'm thinking you're getting what you pay for - but - (presuming you're getting sufficient SUN) is there a size that would be needed to charge a Kindle or Nook or ?

Would you want to carry it around with you, or are you thinking of something fixed outside your house on a wall?

Horus, why are there no SOLAR phones ? I have an ancient pocket calculator in the drawer ( I have learnt to count now) and when I dig it out it only needs a minute in daylight and it works.

Jay, phones take too much power to run and the solar panel alone could not supply it. The ones you can buy are really battery packs that you can drain power from to charge up a mobile phone or other device, the solar panel part is really a very slow charge that over say a week could top the battery pack back up again. Things like calculators take an absolute minute amount of power and things like Kindle readers take nothing at all once the page is displayed, they only take power when turning a page, of course if it has a backlight on then that will drain them.

Mmmm OK, another question. The wind up torches, I have 2. The light seems to shine brightly for quite a while, but, if I wind it up for a longer time would it explode ?? or burn ??

No, there is just a small dynamo inside that powers the light by charging a small battery as you turn the handle, the other type has a small spring that winds up and gives you a light until it runs down again, now that kind you CAN overwind and break the spring if you keep turning it after it gets too tight, a bit like a clock.

I was thinking more along the lines of a portable solar panel that could be carried around (as in left in the car) vs a fixed mount.

I was thinking more along the lines of having something available if electricity went out for a prolonged period of time but would allow me to keep the cell phone charged, Kindle charged (I can get emails on my Kindle), maybe act as a flashlight.

I was looking at them but there are so many different kinds all with different levels of power (If power is the right word).

Take a look on Amazon there are lots on there, bear in mind what I was telling Jay about them really being battery packs that slowly charge up.

I ended up buying a solar re-charger. I'm going to keep it in the car so that I could sit it on the dash to charge. It does have a USB so it should be able to charge up my Kindle or phone if I ever get stuck somewhere and find out my battery powered things are running low.

I'm also thinking that if the electricity in the house was to go off for a few days this might be the only source of power available to keep a phone charged too.

Guess mostly I'm looking for alternative ways to keep going in the event we'd lose electricity for a week or so.......

They will certainly keep a Kindle going, but maybe charge a phone only a couple of times.

This is kinda like what I bought. I can't find mine ON Amazon but this is close:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-80000mAh- ... SwA4dWIJJ-

Hopefully it we do go through a few days of power outage I'd have enough juice in this to keep the Kindle going - but then I think if the electricity it OUT cause of snow or storm there probably isn't going to be sufficient sun to charge this up anyway.

Can you ever WIN?

That looks the job