Choosing the Best Solar Charger

By Lyra Pierotti and Chris McNamara - Monday January 12, 2015

Great article on choosing a solar charger.

... A 4 or 5 watt panel works great for small handheld devices, such as a simpler cell phone or mp3 player. However, many smart phones like the iPhone (especially the latest models) are extremely power hungry--nearly as much as an iPad or tablet. In general, you need at least a 7 watt panel to be sure you can charge most smart phones.

 If you want to start charging more energy-hungry items like an iPad, or you want to charge multiple devices at once, things start to get more complicated (and expensive). In general, you will need a panel with at least 15 watts of power. If you want to start charging laptops, you will almost certainly need a battery and an inverter. And if you want to charge AC devices, you are now in a new category. You will now need a pretty heavy duty panel (25+ watts, a battery, and a DC-to-AC inverter). It used to be hard to make those three components work well together. But now Goal Zero has a number of kits like the Goal Zero Escape 150 Adventure Kit that make it pretty easy.

Shop Solar Panels at PrepareNowStore.com.