Thoughts on portable solar panels

Ok I haven't research these much but perhaps others out there have , good yes/no and whats are the best . I know your not going b able to power much with them but might come n handy for lighting and some low scale heating .

Some ideas --

Solar Charged battery systems can give you a lot of power at a lot of cost. For heat you might try making a solar collector that stores the heat in bricks and can release it through vent pipes during the night. Solar fans are available fror that. Solar for small use lighting try this www.llbean.com... oduct_Submit

also hand crank electric lights are good.

Wind power may be better than solar in some areas. HHO infusion into a gas generator seems to work. Youtube has a good video of a guy powering a gas generator via an HHO "cold plate". He used something like 32 plates. Two 21 plates should work.

These portable solar panels arent good if your place is surrounded by clouds most of the time, as the radiation incident on the panels will be less. So, you are far better off if you are in a sunny region.

And also, check the efficiency of the panel. Some companies claim ten percent efficiency, but they reach only three percent.

And last but not the least, check if the number of panels would be capable of supporting the load of your home.

There is actually a really cool device I came across a couple of years ago that was a solar power cell phone charger. It would charge a little slower than an outlet, but could charge the phone anywhere, and seemed to work when the sky was overcast, too (good news for Seattle!).

Really convenient in an emergency, was about the size of one of a candybar style cell phone from about 10 years ago and would clip to your belt. Though it did take longer to charge, it generated enough power to maintain the phone if you were talking on it (I had a Motorola Razor at the time).

So, for small appliances like that or a GPS system, I think portable solar cells are invaluable. However, for larger applications, though I believe the technology is close if not already good enough to be able to generate enough power, it's enormously expensive. Sort of like owning a cell phone in the early 80s, except without the status

Depends on what you're wanting to call "portable".

Pocket sized for cellphones. There are quite a few out there.

If you're wanting something just a bit stronger, Harbor Freight has a variety of small panels (5w, 15w, etc) that can be used for charging a 12v battery. These range in cost starting at about $40.00.

As was mentioned before, solar has limits. Sun has to be shining! If you wanted to, you could have a "wind power" generator as a back up. If you're only looking for a small amount of power you can put one together for a couple hundred (if you're a handy diy kinda person).

If you ARE a handy DIY kinda person, you can build your own solar panels and wind generators for small wattage use.

These are links to some instructions for this that I got off of another thread here on ATS ...

www.mdpub.com...
www.mdpub.com...

check these out for smaller applications

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Portable Solar solutions exist in many forms already and they are easy to find on the internet. There are backpacks and bags available that will charge at 5 to 7.2 volts.
You can even recharge a laptop off some portable systems,but they may well weigh up to 20 lbs. That's allot of weight to carry around.

A far as heat is concerned portable solar (electric) is not even considerable.

There are also fold up systems you can get.

Looking at wind-up/crank power is another option that isn't limited by sunlight.