Hi, I wish to ask you experts what is actually the best method to get power supply during expeditions. Just to charge mobile phones, PC, gps, photo camera, etc...
At basecamp of Everest and other majaor peaks generally there is a power generator, but available at high costs and often the voltage is very unstable causing possible damage to the devices. Instead I would like to purchase a portable solar charged power panel, that can be used at high camps too. What would you recommend ?
Many thanks,
Ciao Valeria
Some ideas on power & charging batteries on an expedition
Paul Adler — Sun, 03/30/2008 - 00:33On our expeditions we have used solar power exclusively to charge both our still and video cameras, pda & sat phone. I have a few solar panels, but the one I'd recommend most is the Brunton solar roll. Here is a link to their website: http://www.brunton.com/product.php?id=256
These rolls are very durable, waterproof, lightweight and work well in low levels of sunlight. You can get a few different models, but I'd advise against getting the smallest one, as it will take a long time to charge your devices. Larger ones work better in weaker sunlight. You can often get good deals for these on ebay.
A bit of info on charging batteries via solar
Solar panels output DC power, which is the power that is stored in all the batteries we use. The power we have in our homes is AC, and most electrical devices come with a transformer which converts AC from our homes into to DC power for the battery. It's possible to convert DC power from your solar panel or from a large battery into AC power using a device called an inverter, however this process is very inefficient. When you have AC power at base camp it means you can then just plug your normal charger in and it will work, but all this charger is doing is converting the AC back to DC - again more wastage of power that you have collected from the sun. So, I'd recommend buying car charger adapters for all your devices. These are designed to plug into a cigarette lighter plug in a car. I have bought adapters from ebay for all our devices and they were very cheap - around $10 for each. Search for car charger and then the model of the battery used by your device eg: car charger NB2L.
Charging laptops
Laptops use a lot of battery power to run the cpu, hard disk and screen. I'd strongly advise against using them and recommend using a pda instead. A pda can do everything a laptop can (email, photo editing, upload to website), except edit video. A pda has no moving parts either, and although you can replace the hard drive in a laptop with a solid state drive, its expensive for a small gain. (Hard drives usually stop working above 17,000', due to the low air pressure.)
But if you must use a laptop then definitely buy the car charger for it. A quick search of the web for 'car charger hp notebook' revealed a number of different generic options at less than $20.
How long will my device take to charge?
The amount of power stored in a battery is measured by mAh and its written on the side of every battery. Your solar panel will have a rated output. For example the Brunton Solar Roll 9 has a max output of 9 watts (15.4 Volts / 600 mA). This means that in ideal conditions (bright sun and the panel angled towards it, you'll get 600 mA per hour out. So to charge a 900mAh battery it will take 900/600 = 1.5 hours.
Making a battery
Instead of charging directly from the solar panels a good idea is to charge off another battery. Buy a small 12V NiMh battery or Lithium Ion battery pack with a minimum of 4Ah and buy a cigarette lighter charger for it. Then charge this battery off the solar panel. To charge your devices from this battery, you'll need a female cigarette lighter plug for it which can be bought at most electronics stores. The benefit of this is that it protects the more expensive batteries in your electrical devices from any damage that could be caused by voltage regulations from the solar panel (as the sun intensity changes), plus it means you can charge your batteries whenever you want, even when their is no sun.
If their is a solar power or green shop located near you, they are good people to visit and ask their advice.
Hope this helps.
Paul.
Power supply
Visitor — Mon, 03/31/2008 - 07:42Thank you Paul, some very useful info from experience on field!
Valeria