I (Doug) recently worked with two friends to present several days of training workshops in a land where rolling blackouts are common, resulting in entire 24-hour periods without electricity. Because my work doesn’t stop when I travel, I decided to take along a power inverter and solar charger. This Anker power pack (which included the battery to store the power, along with AC receptacles and USB ports) and solar panels worked great: https://a.co/d/hDnUaIQ . Honestly, my laptop never ran it down once – even though I sometimes would work for 5 and 6 hours on it each night. (My laptop is a workstation with a 140-watt power supply. It happened that that’s *exactly* what the solar panels generate when oriented correctly.) This unit is a bit pricey – currently $319 – but that includes everything you need in one bundle. This case — https://a.co/d/hDnUaIQ — was the perfect solution for carrying it. Have you used any similar units? Which are your favorites?
10) Cool Tools: A Functional Solar-powered AC Power Supply In a Carry-on
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As a person who usually only travels with hand luggage, I’m interested in whether this can go in hand luggage, or whether it has to go in the hold? It seems like a great idea when travelling to regions with unreliable electricity and something I have been thinking about.
Hi Catherine. I definitely carried it on multiple airlines in carry-ons without being stopped. It was *flawless* and effective in every way.
We live in Ukraine and have dealt with rolling blackouts. As far as I know, solar isn’t great here. It seems like we don’t get enough hours of sun to charge. But a good inverter is wonderful, especially when we have four hours on and four hours off schedules.
Phyllis, our hearts *ache* for you living in Ukraine. Praying for you right now. May a just peace come quickly.
A long-time friend of Brigada chose to write us directly on this. I’ll post his comments:
https://www.faa.gov/hazmat/packsafe/lithium-batteries
Size limits: Lithium metal (non-rechargeable) batteries are limited to 2 grams of lithium per battery. Lithium ion (rechargeable) batteries are limited to a rating of 100 watt hours (Wh) per battery. These limits allow for nearly all types of lithium batteries used by the average person in their electronic devices. With airline approval, passengers may also carry up to two spare larger lithium ion batteries (101–160 Wh) or Lithium metal batteries (2-8 grams). This size covers the larger after-market extended-life laptop computer batteries and some larger batteries used in professional audio/visual equipment.
That unit is 288 WattHours.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DBLJRRPW?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_3EXSPMFP0NPXA8WM9YNM&previewDoh=1&previewDohDeal=1
[For what it’s worth – The airline didn’t stop me on the one I mentioned above – and they definitely opened my bag.]
He also added:
Doug, looks like a good system. Solar panels RARELY give rated power, since rating conditions are a lab construct.
Fortunately a laptop actually uses less than the rating of the power supply. The power supply has to run the laptop AND have enough extra power to recharge the internal battery at the same time without overheating. Typically that is charge is faster than the battery runtime of the laptop, so takes more recharge power than run power.
If you really want to know what the laptop draws when the battery is charged buy a “Kill-A-Watt” meter (<$30) and plug it into it with the battery charging and without charging. The wattage times hours of powered use give watt hours, the internal battery in your power support box also has an amp hour rating. AmpHours X battery voltage gives a number pretty close to Watt hours capacity of the support battery. If Lithium technology you can safely used about 85-90% of that capacity safely. There are losses keeping the inverter in the power bank running but they are usually pretty low. IF the battery is lead acid technology you can safely use only 50% long term with rare deeper discharges shorting battery life. A safe estimate of solar panel output under good real work conditions is about 70-75% of lab (STC) rating. [end] Thanks so much for the input!