First mods were already in the mail before the truck had even arrived.

Absolutely!

I try! I find that concerns about other people’s imagined opinions are usually a really bad reason not to do something when it does no harm to anyone else. Now I take it as a signal to basically force myself into uncomfortable situations.

You’d still be falsely assuming that I’m limited by the output wattage of the panel itself despite it enabling me to charge a powerbank that can output 150 watts.

I don’t really understand exactly what you’re doing here anyway. Like, do you just find people who get excited about things and then go piss all over it because that’s fun or something?

Efficiency means how much of the sunlight hitting the panels gets converted into electricity. How accurately manufacturers report the true output of the panel is a completely different thing. Plenty of reputable brands reach the advertised output.

I don’t think this is able to reach the full 30 watts either. Probably closer to 20 under ideal conditions.

The panels themselves aren’t flexible - just the “hinges” between them. I don’t think the portability makes much sense with larger panels than this. Better just go with a proper setup at that point.

You just here to throw mud or was there a point to this comment?

are generally used to charge a power bank for phones, lights, and such.

That’s exactly the use case I bought it for. In the picture I’m charging a powerbank. I’m intending to play around with a small-scale solar setup on my shed at some point but for now this is the one cheap investment that enables me to keep critical small electronics running indefinitely.

What’s with that passive-aggressive smugness? If you’ve got something to say then say it.

Burning wood seems like the obvious solution to keeping warm in the winter. There’s much better uses for the little solar power there is available then.

A looter - finally!

• That local prepper, probably

I can charge my flashlights/lanterns, powerbanks, tool batteries, a phone with offline maps and offline wikipedia …

A single panel there is rougly the size of a A4 sheet of paper.

You thinking about setting up a public charging spot in the wilderness? I like that.

You’re just larping, friend.

Please elaborate. I have nothing against larping but that doesn’t seem to carry utility beyond the enjoyment gained from the act itself. A small solar panel, however, seems useful for any scenario ranging from a few day power outage to full societal collapse and zombies. It’s a genuine functional panel - not a prop.

Those I can live without. I can just have people polish my shoes by hand for exchange to letting them charge their devices using my solar panel.

You’re moving the goalposts. You said nothing rechargeable besides flashlights isn’t going to be of any use in the apocalypse which is an obviously false statement as demonstrated by the pushback you’re getting. The size of the solar system wasn’t part of the argument you made.

I was getting around 12 watts during the sunset when I was testing it. It can probably reach around 20 watts under ideal conditions.

The argument was that: “basically nothing that you can charge is going to be of any use other than flashlights” not that 30 watts is sufficient for long term.

The dimensions of that first panel are more than double compared to mine so obviously it has a higher output. I intentionally wanted one that fits into a backpack. Whatever output this produces is vastly better than the 0-watt charge capability I had before. I’m well aware that spending more money and getting larger panels would give me more output. However, it’s for charging small handheld electronics - not for running a fridge.