Solar phone charger for camping trip

My daughter is camping for a week later in the summer. She needs something that will top up her phone and blood glucose monitor overnight that will recharge during the day in the ambient light conditions inside a tent, not in direct sunlight.

Can anyone recommend something?

in the ambient light conditions inside a tent, not in direct sunlight.

That might be the killer blow for the chances of it keeping up.

I’ve got this – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01EXWCPLC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It’s pretty good. In the summer on a bike trip (northern scotland – long days, but not intense sun) popping it out in the evening and it catching the morning rays before we set off and maybe half an hour at lunch was enough to keep up. I’d not be so confident inside the tents.

As you can see from the price of that one – a proper setup is not cheap. For the same money you’d buy 3 or 4 20,000mha usb powerbanks and be sorted for the week without too much bother.

Looks good. She could hang it off the tent.

Daft question… Does that store the charge, so she can juice it up during the day then discharge it into her phone/monitor over night?

I’ve got a very impressive expedition charger, it’s really fast and powerful but it won’t work in the tent. It needs to be outside. It works well when cloudy but it was over 100 quid

A couple of power banks is a perfectly reasonable alternative. And will give power at any hour of course

Also do you have power tool batteries? You can get adapters so you can charge off them via USB

Solar chargers don’t hold power, they put it straight into the device or a power bank to use later

in the ambient light conditions inside a tent, not in direct sunlight.

I don’t think any solar panel will work like that.

Think I’ll just go for 4 x 20000 mha power banks. She’s camping in the same spot for a week so doesn’t have to worry about lugging them about.

I’ve been eyeing up the Alpkit one for a while.

https://alpkit.com/products/flare-usb-solar-panel-charger?variant=33097072050281

It claims “The Flare will fully charge an iPhone in 1.5 hours in bright sunlight (or 4 hours when cloudy and 12 hours if overcast). With a USB port and 5V stabilized voltage, the Flare is compatible with most devices and can also be used with a power bank to store power for later.”

I don’t know if the stabilised voltage comment means that it doesn’t need to feed in to a power bank as I’ve read that phones don’t like charging from solar panels as the voltage is unstable depending on clouds etc.

My MSC panel charges direct to phones, both Android and iPhone. It has auto restart so a shadow won’t shut it off but I think that is typical now.

It’s fast enough that it’s worth getting out for a 15 minute coffee stop, I’ve never rigged it up to charge all day.on a rucksack for example

When I hiked the GR20 I used an Anker solar charger to charge a power bank. Kept it either on the outside of my backpack, or outside the tent with a lead to the power bank inside.

https://www.anker.com/eu-en/products/a2421?variant=41527489462462

When you say she’s camping for “a week” do you mean a working week of 5 days, or a full 7 day week?

The Flare will fully charge an iPhone in 1.5 hours in bright sunlight (or 4 hours when cloudy and 12 hours if overcast)

That’s the key bit IMO, “fully charge an iPhone” isn’t really a proper metric is it.
iPhone battery capacity varies quite a bit from ~3200-6000mAh depending on which model according to the googles.

So lets assume Alpkit are talking about the lower capacity end and the flare will kick out about 3200mAh over those stated periods (1.5/4/12hrs) worst case it’s a cloudy day and she gets 3200mAh for a full 12h day of charging.

If it’s a week of overcast days and she’s trying to charge with a ~ 20000mAh powerbank (which you will have charged before going, so day one is sorted) and she needs Circa ~6000mAh worth of charge per day (with a bit of rationing across a couple of devices?)

So a pessimistic/conservative calculation has basically got to assume she needs ~6000mAh per day and that Flare panel on a week full of overcast day where it will kick out only 3200mAh to a power bank:

Looks like it would just about work for a week, not much longer, the sunnier it is and the less juice her devices need the better of course… Of course if it pisses down for a week, she’ll need to see if there’s any plug sockets in the toilet block(?)… Send her with more and or bigger capacity pre-charged power banks if you can I reckon.

Thanks, she will be there for 7 days.

I’ll get 4 x 20000 mha power banks and load them up before she goes.

When I was looking for a similar solution the techy geezer told me that using a solar panel connected directly to the phone might not be good for the phone battery due to the varying current/power.

Instead, a decent power bank connected to a solar panel and plug the phone into the charged power bank at night.

Decathlon do two decent foldable solar panels that don’t cost the earth.

How topical, one of these just arrived with me about an hour ago:

https://www.mobilesolarchargers.co.uk/shop/details/msc-expedition-10w?basket_items_id=5099509

Can’t recommend it yet as haven’t used it, but it’s the best weight:output ratio I could find (possibly not an issue for your daughter’s use case, but likely of interest for many on here).

Instead, a decent power bank connected to a solar panel and plug the phone into the charged power bank at night.

Used that at a festival.  Solar panel stuck on ground between two tents so not really visible.  Power bank under the fly sheet to avoid anyone slicing the tent if they think it is attached to a phone.  Never had it stolen

Kenneththecurtain that is what I have but a 15w version

It’s really good! Used it quite a bit kayaking and walking. Probably 4 years now.

I’ve got a ridgemonkey 77850 for camping power duties. Not cheap but it does the families phones when camping and also has enough output to charge my laptop or power a portable projector so gets used in the garden quite a bit as well.

Got the three panel Decathlon solar panel. Will charge a powerbank in an afternoon. It recommends charging power banks rather than phones directly due to varying power output that may not be enough for a phone.

Get her to turn of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth as that will save the battery a bit

It’s primarily for her blood sugar monitor, but I’m sure she’ll use it on her phone too.

Bought 3 x 20,000 mha power banks. She should be able to top them up too, but can’t guarantee it.

Too late now, but I got one of these (27mAH) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JIWQPMW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details for Glastonbury (Thursday to Monday) and it kept my phone and iWatch fully charged and still had around 50% capacity left by the end. Not the lightest thing around, but I just left it in the tent (I also had a much smaller one in my bag just in case I needed a top-up during the day when away from the tent).

Any feedback on those solar panels?
I’m looking at getting some for a six day camping trip. I might just take all the families power banks but I like the option of solar.

I’m using a three panel Decathlon solar panel. We’re currently off grid for three days camping. Took 4 power banks and solar panel. We’ve hammered two smart phones as we’ve been at an air show so loads of photos and video. Also kept two smart watches topped up. Left panel on side of tent during the day with one or two packs charging.