How I recharge my mobile phone with Solar energy

It no longer makes sense to still use generators or other not-so-green power sources to recharge one's electronic gadgets in our world of today when the world is going solar. Besides, using electricity from the grid or power companies is getting more expensive that it only makes better sense to have your own independent power plant that can run all the day.

What if you could power your home or at least most of your electronics without having to stay plugged into your prepaid or postpaid electricity meter? Well, with solar panels, it has become possible.

Nowadays, I now make use of solar energy to recharge my mobile phone and other gadgets, keeping them topped up whether there is a blackout or not and without increasing my electric bills.

One thing about relying on solar energy to power your home is that although there might be an initial investment required, it normally pays off in the long run. In my own case, I just wanted to be able to keep my mobile phone's battery fully charged for 24 hrs of the day giving the fact that electric supply from the power company is so insufficient.

If you live in a country where electricity supply is not sufficient and you do need it to keep little electronics like your mobile phone and tablet charged up, then it would be good to set up a charging kit that can do just that for you. You've even be more luckier if there is an abundant supply of sunlight in your location.

I live in Nigeria and due to the inefficiency of the Power company, you'd see many people moving around with their phones and chargers and looking for anywhere they could charge their phone like a public place, market, business center and so on. The funny fact is that many Nigerians are not really noticing the fact that there is abundant sunlight in the country and so there is really no reason to be looking for where to borrow power from when you can setup a solar charging kit for your self at home.

My Solar charging Kit
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Here is a breakdown of items I used in setting up a Solar charging kit that keeps my mobile phone fully charged up and I only require about 4 hours of sunlight everyday.

1. Solar Panel (Foldable 14W with USB ports)
2. Power bank(50,000mAH)
3. USB to MicroUSB cable

Solar Panel
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Yes, to setup any Solar charging kit, one of the basic things you'll need is a solar panel and nowadays, there are of many designs but the bottom line is that they are the electronic gadget that converts sunlight to electricity. You may get a big solar panel or a small one. To charge things like a mobile phone, you can just get a portable Solar panel designed for basically charging mobile phones and there are many of such products in the market. The one I got was a basic foldable solar panel that provides and output of 5V DC which is good enough to charge small batteries like those of mobile phones. So, I got a Solar panel product that was designed to recharge mobile phones directly or recharge the batteries of power banks.

Once you have the solar panel, the next step is to decide on where to place it. Since this one is basically a portable and foldable one, I normally hang it on the burglary proof of my window and facing the sun while I simply connect it's power output to the solar bank using a long Micro-USB cable.

Power Bank
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Where do you store the excess power that your solar panel normally generates so that you can use it when the need arises? Well, this is what power banks normally do.

A Power bank is basically a gadget that has an internal battery which can be first charged after which it would then would be able to recharge other batteries like that of a mobile phone. The bigger the power bank, the more charge it would be able to hold. It is like storing electricity using batteries. A power bank can be charged while it can also recharge other batteries connected to it. It normally has an input point as well as an output point.

I initially got a small power bank but later had to buy a bigger one that could hold a bigger charge and could charge my phone for more than 10 times and this is the 50,000mah power bank. I had to buy it straight from Aliexpress and they shipped it to Nigeria while I collected it from Nipost Office. It cost me under $30. It has a microUSB port on one side and a USB port on the other end. The USB port is used to recharge my phone's batter by connecting them with a USB cable while the microUSB port is to be used for recharging it's internal battery when it is connected to the Solar panel or other power source.

USB to MicroUSB cable
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Since the solar panel I bought had an external USB port through which it gives out its charge, I needed to buy a USB cable that also had a microUSB end which could connect directly to my phone or power bank. I got one sold by Amazon cables for under $7.

If your Solar panel requires a USB cable, then one of the things you would need to consider is the length of the cable. I got one that was 6ft in length and it was ok for connecting the panel hung on the window to the power bank on my table.

Summary
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With the above 3 items ad sunlight, I had myself a basic solar charging kit that could keep my mobile phone and other gadgets fully charged.

The benefit of the power bank is that it allows me to still carry my phone anywhere I want without having to keep it at a fixed position when charging. I could simply take the power bank along and recharge it while in my bag, on a table, on the road or some other place where there is no electricity or power outlet.