Using a Solar charger in Nigeria

For some people, the idea of using the Sun's energy to recharge their mobile phones seems a bit unbelievable, unattainable or unreasonable but for some others, it's the smart way to go.

As a Nigerian, who lives in a hot region like West Africa, it would probably be an evil against nature to keep contributing to global warming by staying dependent on fossil fuel engines. So, one of the things I've started embracing is Solar power.

I normally recharge my mobile phone batteries by plugging it in to a wall socket which taps power from public power(PHCN) but lately, after wondering on the amount of solar energy Nigerians are wasting on a daily basis without tapping into it, I got a 5V DC solar charger as well as a portable backup battery.

Why did I get the Solar charger? Well, so that I'll be able to charge my mobile phones and portable devices even when there is now power from the PHCN. As long as there is sunlight, my mobile phone will always be fully charged.

So, I recently got this flexible, portable Solar charger from Amazon and just hung it on my window while I also got a portable backup battery from Konga. I connected the two devices together by means of a microUSB to USB cable I also got from Amazon and the solar charge normally charges the backup battery fully within about 4 hrs of sunlight everyday.

Nowadays, I no longer need to keep my mobile phone plugged in to the wall when I want to recharge it as all I need to do is connect it to the already fully charged portable back up battery to it by means of it's own microUSB cable.

The Solar charger I got comes with an external USB port that can be used to connect to an electronic device that has a micro-USB port by using a micro-USB to USB cable. Although I can also charge my mobile phone battery directly by connecting it to the solar charger, I normally prefer to connect my backup battery first to it for later transfer of power to my phone since I'm mostly mobile.

So the system I normally use to recharge my mobile phone off the grid is by first making use of a portable backup battery and a Solar charger which, when fully charged, I then connect it to my mobile phone to top it up. The portable backup battery doesn't need to be plugged in to a wall or fixed point to recharge your phone battery as you can carry it along with you anywhere while it keeps charging your battery.

So, recharging a mobile phone and other electronic devices that make use of rechargeable batteries with Solar energy is a smart way to go especially if one were living in a Solar blessed country like Nigeria where there is abundant sunlight. Stop wasting money on generators or prepaid electricity when you can just invest a small token just to recharge your electronic devices off the grid. Besides, solar energy helps keep the world green.

If at least 90% of Nigerians who have mobile phones make use of Solar chargers, there would be a drastic drop in demand for electricity and there would be saving money on other forms of power.