Dear Lazywebs, [stuff]

[rebeccmeister]

Among the things I foolishly left at home is an AA/AAA battery charger.

Given that, I'm pondering the idea of getting a solar battery charger. I'm not sure about this one:

https://www.rei.com/product/198072/goal-zero-guide-12-nomad-5-kit

Any thoughts or experiences to share?

Thank you,
Rebeccmeister

Comments

[graydon]

Generally speaking 5 W is not much at all; the usual recommendation is that you want at least 20 W of output (meaning "at the battery end of the cable") from the solar panel for utility. This runs the price up! going for the good stuff (e.g., PowerFilm) runs the price up even more.

The other thing is that while solar panels like direct sunlight, batteries do not, so it's important to be able to get the batteries into some robust shade. I tend to view that as "more cable" rather than "the battery needs to have its own designated hat", but however it's accomplished it is a needful thing to do.

[rebeccmeister]

Thanks so much for this information! I'll need to keep shopping and thinking about how I might use this.