What can solar chargers be used for?

With the ever-growing technology surrounding solar power, more and more interesting devices are cropping up that harness the power of the sun, including the solar charger. A solar charger is a device (usually small or medium in size) that uses solar power to charge things like personal devices.

But what else can it be used for? Just phones and laptops? Nope. Solar chargers can be used for a myriad of things, including (yes) your personal devices, your car, your car battery, things you need for camping, and things you need for hiking. Let’s talk about those for a minute, shall we?

Using a solar charger for your mobile phone or tablet

Solar chargers that are used to charge your personal devices are the most common, so we’ll mention it first. Think of it as a teeny tiny solar panel with a battery and charging cable connected to it. You leave your solar charger out in the sun for 3-4 hours and the sunlight uses the photovoltaic cells to fill the internal battery. Once it’s filled, you connect the charger to your phone or personal device and watch that little battery icon fill up.

Though they come in a bunch of shapes and sizes, these solar chargers tend to remain fairly small. Depending on the type you get, they usually hold anywhere from 3-10 watts of power to any small device. That’s still pretty good though. The average phone only needs about 3 watts of power to charge it, so a 3-10 watt power charger will get you there just fine.

Charging your EV with a solar charger

Do you drive an electric vehicle (EV)? If yes, then you probably use an EV charger, which is a very fancy, very high tech portable charger. And some of them can be powered by solar, which makes them like a solar charger. Solar-powered EV charging stations are super handy because they don’t rely on traditional power to work. Like portable chargers, they connect to solar panels that take energy from the sun and use it to power the charging stations. So renewable energy runs the EV chargers, and you—as an EV owner—take that converted energy and use it to power your car. Pretty neat, huh?

Solar charger and car batteries

Ever worry about your car battery dying in the middle of nowhere? Solar chargers can help with that. Technology has actually advanced to the point where we now have solar charger car battery kits, which are pretty cool. These bad boys come with a little panel you can lay on the ground to collect the sun’s light. They also come with jumper cables that connect to both the solar panel and your car’s battery. Some kits even come with a controller that detects the amount of power in your battery and automatically shuts off to protect the lifespan of said battery. Simply lay that panel out in the sun, connect the jumper cables, and let the power of nature do its thing. In no time at all, your car battery will be charged simply by using the power of the sun.

Using a solar charger to charge camping gear

Because camping sometimes requires you to charge a little more than just a phone, these portable solar chargers tend to be a bit bigger. They can range anywhere from the size and shape of a large, industrial lunch pale to a lawn chair that you’d use to lie out in the sun, but the goal is the same. They will bring in power to your devices by harnessing the sun’s rays. Like most other solar chargers, these guys come with some sort of portable panel (again, to us, they look like lawn chairs) that will unfold onto a large flat surface. The portable panel is meant to collect the sun’s light and use it to convert the current into usable energy. It then stores the power it collects into some sort of battery or generator. Because most options come in kits, these batteries or generators usually come with power cables you can use to connect to other devices such as go-pros, electric stoves, and even campers.

Using a solar charger while boating

Oh! This one’s our favorite because we think it’s so cool. Got a boat? Think about adding a solar charger to that! Most small boat batteries are self-charging, and connecting a solar charger with panels to your boat can vastly improve the lifespan and charge capacity of your boat battery. If you have a bigger boat, like a sailboat, you might have to tap into your engine to charge your battery, but with a solar charger, you can save impact on your engine by harnessing the power of the sun and connecting solar panels to your boat. If your solar charger is big enough, you may not even have to use your engine at all. Talk about smooth sailing.