Did my ability to search for things intelligently on the internet die when Google search did or are there legitimately no personal umbrellas with solar panels and a battery pack? Like I feel like that would be an obvious thing, and there's a bajillion beach umbrellas and patio umbrellas that have solar panels. How are there no personal versions for wandering around on a sunny day with portable shade that gets you a charged battery pack? Is this a thing and I just can't find it or does it not exist yet and all of science has failed me in every way possible?

Sorry for the terrible AI picture, I didn't create it I just found it on the internet and it was the only one I could find because these apparently don't actually exist.

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[–] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (22 children)

Probably because it would weigh 40 pounds and cost $1700. It would probably also suck, and break very easily.

And having any of that shit anywhere close to saltwater? Hell no. The electronics should be corroded within a week.

Edit: while we definitely have the technology to do this, we just don’t have the capability to mass produce them at a reasonable price or of any reasonable quality. Current technology and materials also come with a lot of really crappy limitations. Maybe something like this might get developed if a lot of people suddenly show interest in it, but aside from that happening, it could be a while.

Developing a product like this could take hundreds of millions of dollars and 10 years to get something like in the picture above.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago* (20 children)

    Nah. You could DIY something like that for 30€ or something, let alone mass produce. The only problem is that the folding would be more clumsy and probably take a bit more space folded

    Edit: picture of a real product from which you could DIY one:

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    I have 2, around 25cm x 30cm and, when perfectly aligned to a strong summer sun, they do 1 watt and 2 watts respektively. Amazing.

    Also, sitting outside in the harsh sun with a laptop? No thank you 😁.

    This is really niche stuff for when you can't even reload your power bank once every couple of days IMO.

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  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Slapping one together out of spare parts is not at all the same as mass producing one in a factory.

    And whatever you could slap together for 30 bucks would, as I said, in previous comment, suck and break very easily, not to mention that you wouldn’t be able to bring it anywhere close to the ocean for fear of everything corroding extremely quickly.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Yeah. Mass producing can be orders of magnitude cheaper.

    It’s a ridiculous argument. Of course something like that could be manufactured, it’s just too niche of a market so nobody has made it a reality (yet).

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    I've got a very similar panel myself, in fact it's probably a bit bigger.

    If you leave it out all day, under ideal conditions, it will put around 10AH worth of charge into a power bank, maybe a bit more, so 40-50 watt-hours if you're lucky, over twelve hours.

    Not a worthwhile amount of power.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    That charges a phone just fine?

    I use a smaller panel to charge a battery at a summer cottage. That keeps my and a few other people's phones charged pretty alright.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    Not worthwhile if you're carrying it around all day.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Why? You can carry your phone and charge it at the same time.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Why do you need to charge your phone during the day anyway? Does it not last a full day?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    Modern smartphones are terrible for energy consumption tbh, if you just want calls/SMS an old Nokia is so much more energy efficient.

    I suppose turning the phone off can help save, but how many people could even comprehend that these days?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Yeah this has always put me off solar panels like this, for their cost they make fuck all and if you just need power for a day or two it's better to get a battery. Only if you need weeks does solar+battery start to make sense instead.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

    Lol that tiny ass solar setup ain't charging both a laptop and a phone, least of all with them running.

    That can just barely charge a phone (source - I've done a lot of math around this, solar panels have very low output per square meter).

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    I would think of using the solar panel to charge a battery pack instead, then you can power devices from that. Although you may be charging the battery for 8 hours to power a laptop for 2.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)
  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    The picture clearly implies that.

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  • [–] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)
  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    There is a cable running from the solar panel to the laptop, implying the panel is charging the laptop.

    Which, based on my experience with them, ain't happening.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Oh in that picture. Yeah I didn't even think about that, I'd imagine for the original use case you would charge a phone. Laptops need a lot of power, I didn't even dream of charging one off of a portable solar panel lol :D

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