A Smart Phone-Friendly Portable Solar Charger That Apple Addicts Can Luv, Too

September 14th, 2014 by Tina Casey

We’ve been testing a few portable solar chargers lately and this nifty little “Sun Power Pad 3000″ cell phone and tablet charger from Secur Products has a couple of different features that we haven’t seen elsewhere (yet). The one that caught our eye is an input port so you can recharge the battery with a wall charger just like you would normally charge your cell phone or tablet, which is a nice thing for us portable solar gadget fans who have less than desirable solar exposure at home.

Portable solar charger by Secur Products (photo by Tina Casey).

A Range Anxiety Solution for Portable Solar Chargers

Think of the wall-charging feature as a range anxiety solution for portable solar chargers. Even if your solar exposure at home (or work, or wherever) isn’t so great, you can still get part of your charge from the sun, then top off the Sun Power Pad with a wall charger if you want to have a full battery while you’re on the go.

Even on a partial charge, the Sun Power Pad portable solar charger is quite handy. We couldn’t wait to try it out, so instead of sticking around for a full charge we dashed out of the house with a cell phone in the red zone at a 12 percent, plugged into the solar charger which showed only two bars on its four-bar display.

Within less than an hour, the cell phone was back up to the 80 percent range, which was more than enough to get through the day. If you decide to try this at home, keep an ears open for another handy feature: you’ll hear a little buzz when the Sun Power Pad has run out of juice, so you know when you can unplug.

A Smart Phone-Friendly Portable Solar Charger For AppleHeads

We learn something new every time we try a new solar device, no matter how simple it looks. In this case, we learned that the world does not revolve around Apple, and that you should empty out the entire contents of the box before you start pouting.

When our Sun Power Pad arrived on our doorstep there was a bit of an initial letdown, because the input port for the wall charger is not compatible with iPhones.

But, sunny days returned as soon as we shook everything out of the box. Secur Products packs the Sun Power Pad 3000 with its own compatible cable, which you can connect to any USB wall plug, iPhone or no iPhone.

Just a heads up, a USB wall plug is not included in the package, probably because Secur assumes you already have at least one on hand for your other devices. If you don’t, you probably someone you know has like six or eight extra ones lying around.

As for the output, that’s just a standard USB port, which you can use on any smart phone or iPhone. We got that aforementioned 80 percent charge on an iPhone, btw.

Portable Solar Chargers That Look Good On Pillows

Another thing we’ve been learning is that when it comes to choosing a portable solar charger that will be hanging around your living space, you’ll want to think about balancing functionality and looks.

Some solar products are designed for multi-use functionality, but if you don’t need all the bells and whistles then you’ll go for simplicity. We took the above glamor shot of the Sun Power Pad to illustrate that in terms of simplicity you don’t have to get down to the bare bones. Sometimes a bit of color is all it takes to make a panel of solar cells look downright juicy.

A lot more portable solar charging action is coming down the road — literally — so stay tuned.

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Tags: portable solar charger, Secur Products

About the Author

Tina Casey Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.

GCO

Someone please explain to me, what is the point of “solar chargers” with integrated battery like these?

At room temperature, regular Li-ion (LCO) already loses half its capacity within 2~3 years if kept fully charged, but degradation is about 10x faster at 50~60°C, which would be likely if this thing is left in full sunshine for hours at a time.
This makes a charger like this not adequate for emergency use, unless the internal battery gets changed periodically. Here, this means replacing the whole device. So much for any green credential.

What about saving money by charging our gizmos off the grid then? Leaving this expensive gadget hanging at a south-pointing window would gather ~3 kW⋅h/year. Couple years lifetime, that’s what, 5 to 10 $/kW*h?

Temporary use away from any and all power outlets, e.g. while travelling in some remote area, might seem the most interesting case, but even then that’s a serious stretch.
If there’s a vehicle around, far better to just use that (and if needed, slap some more serious PV module to replenish its own battery).
If not, e.g. backpacking, one would probably want charge whatever device needs juice directly, instead of going through an intermediate battery which, like rigid cells, adds unnecessary weight.

… What did I miss?
- Kyle Field
  
  Cleantechnica isn’t selling the product…merely reviewing it. I agree that it won’t payout (at least based on your calcs which looks about right). I have a smaller unit (perhaps 1000mwh w/smaller solar cell) and it is truly more of a novelty item. It’s neat to have a usb battery handy…the solar cell does not provide enough facility to be useful.
  
  having said all that…there are likely niche use cases that products like this make sense for (imho)