Using Renewable Energy: The Beginning.

The start of using renewable energy.

This will seem a bit unusual of a post for a blog that is mostly Mustang Upgrades and Technology Posts, but I thought it would be relevant.  I think that if we all built a habit of using a renewable energy when we can, it will be easier for everyone.

It all started today when the batteries on my wireless mouse were getting low.  I use the Energizer rechargeable, 2450mAH batteries.  I have a box in my desk that has a mix of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries.  I pulled out two, put them in the wall charger and waited for them to charge up.  Then I realized that at least one of the (very old) AAA batteries was starting to leak.  I sifted through the batteries, and discarded the ones that I can't even remember how old they are.

That left me with two AAA batteries, and 4 AA Batteries.  I decided to do some shopping on Amazon.  I know that the Amazon Basics line of rechargeable batters are pretty good.  As I was shopping ( I did not buy any yet ) I read in the description "Batteries come pre-charged using soloar power".  This peaked my interest.

About a year ago, I purchased a solar USB charger during one of Amazon's lightning deals.  It was about 30$.  I bought it for camping in case we needed to charge anything.  It folds out into five panels, four of which have a solar collector on it.  I thought to myself, maybe I should just keep charging those AA and AAA batteries using solar!

My goal is to use solar to power my iPhone, iPad and the rechargeable AA and AAA batteries.  I also did some searching and found a AA and AAA battery charger that will use USB instead of a home power outlet.  Now, I don't want to have the chargers plugged directly into the solar panel charger - that would take forever and limit mobility while the charging was happening.  I had an idea.  I also have a New Trent IMP120D - 12,000mAh battery pack, which is great for traveling / camping / hiking.  My wife has an Anker Power Core 10400 which is a 10,400mAh battery pack.   My idea is to use these battery packs to charge the AA, AAA, iPhone and iPad batteries.  Then when the battery packs need to be charged, use the solar panel charger to charge them!

I only came up with this idea on 3/1, so it may take some time to get used to.  If I run into any issues or challenges, I'll report back!

UPDATE 3/13/2017

I have realized that the Solar USB charger I have is not only old, but it does not put out the amperage that is needed to charge the battery pack.  The other thing I've learned is that the solar charger likely does not prevent charge back - so when the sun goes down, it may actually pull power from the battery pack.  It's been a almost two weeks, and that solar charger has still not yet charged the battery pack.  It's pretty obvious to me that this isn't going to work.

With all that being said, I spent some $$ and we are about to expand our experiment a little more!