Did my ability to search for things intelligently on the internet die when Google search did or are there legitimately no personal umbrellas with solar panels and a battery pack? Like I feel like that would be an obvious thing, and there’s a bajillion beach umbrellas and patio umbrellas that have solar panels. How are there no personal versions for wandering around on a sunny day with portable shade that gets you a charged battery pack? Is this a thing and I just can’t find it or does it not exist yet and all of science has failed me in every way possible?
Sorry for the terrible AI picture, I didn’t create it I just found it on the internet and it was the only one I could find because these apparently don’t actually exist.
Probably because it would weigh 40 pounds and cost $1700. It would probably also suck, and break very easily.
And having any of that shit anywhere close to saltwater? Hell no. The electronics should be corroded within a week.
Edit: while we definitely have the technology to do this, we just don’t have the capability to mass produce them at a reasonable price or of any reasonable quality. Current technology and materials also come with a lot of really crappy limitations. Maybe something like this might get developed if a lot of people suddenly show interest in it, but aside from that happening, it could be a while.
Developing a product like this could take hundreds of millions of dollars and 10 years to get something like in the picture above.
Nah. You could DIY something like that for 30€ or something, let alone mass produce. The only problem is that the folding would be more clumsy and probably take a bit more space folded
Edit: picture of a real product from which you could DIY one:
Slapping one together out of spare parts is not at all the same as mass producing one in a factory.
And whatever you could slap together for 30 bucks would, as I said, in previous comment, suck and break very easily, not to mention that you wouldn’t be able to bring it anywhere close to the ocean for fear of everything corroding extremely quickly.
Yeah. Mass producing can be orders of magnitude cheaper.
It’s a ridiculous argument. Of course something like that could be manufactured, it’s just too niche of a market so nobody has made it a reality (yet).
I have 2, around 25cm x 30cm and, when perfectly aligned to a strong summer sun, they do 1 watt and 2 watts respektively. Amazing.
Also, sitting outside in the harsh sun with a laptop? No thank you 😁.
This is really niche stuff for when you can’t even reload your power bank once every couple of days IMO.
Yeah, that’s my experience as well, you leave them out all day and get half a power bank if you’re lucky. Basically only worthwhile if you’re camping somewhere remote for an extended period of time.
I got one to charge my phone to 1%. Pretty happy
Now look at the standard umbrella and figure out if it is 25x30cm…
Lol that tiny ass solar setup ain’t charging both a laptop and a phone, least of all with them running.
That can just barely charge a phone (source - I’ve done a lot of math around this, solar panels have very low output per square meter).
I would think of using the solar panel to charge a battery pack instead, then you can power devices from that. Although you may be charging the battery for 8 hours to power a laptop for 2.
Who said it would?
The picture clearly implies that.
A computer?
There is a cable running from the solar panel to the laptop, implying the panel is charging the laptop.
Which, based on my experience with them, ain’t happening.
Oh in that picture. Yeah I didn’t even think about that, I’d imagine for the original use case you would charge a phone. Laptops need a lot of power, I didn’t even dream of charging one off of a portable solar panel lol :D
I’ve got a very similar panel myself, in fact it’s probably a bit bigger.
If you leave it out all day, under ideal conditions, it will put around 10AH worth of charge into a power bank, maybe a bit more, so 40-50 watt-hours if you’re lucky, over twelve hours.
Not a worthwhile amount of power.
Yeah this has always put me off solar panels like this, for their cost they make fuck all and if you just need power for a day or two it’s better to get a battery. Only if you need weeks does solar+battery start to make sense instead.
That charges a phone just fine?
I use a smaller panel to charge a battery at a summer cottage. That keeps my and a few other people’s phones charged pretty alright.
Not worthwhile if you’re carrying it around all day.
Why? You can carry your phone and charge it at the same time.
Why do you need to charge your phone during the day anyway? Does it not last a full day?
Modern smartphones are terrible for energy consumption tbh, if you just want calls/SMS an old Nokia is so much more energy efficient.
I suppose turning the phone off can help save, but how many people could even comprehend that these days?
There’s plenty of solar panels that don’t weigh a lot these days