{"id":31721,"date":"2018-06-26T14:01:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T21:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=31721"},"modified":"2018-06-26T14:01:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T21:01:24","slug":"powerport-solar-lite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/powerport-solar-lite\/","title":{"rendered":"PowerPort Solar Lite"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_91516\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Kp1innPc8Ks?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"fullscreen; accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>In this video I\u2019m going to show you a portable solar charger made by Anker called the <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2Bm7KD1\">PowerPort Solar Lite<\/a>. I picked this up for around $52 on Amazon. At the moment it\u2019s The Wirecutter\u2019s Pick for Best Portable Solar Charger. I\u2019m going to show you what I like and didn\u2019t like about it, and if you want to pick one up, using the link in the description helps support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the PowerPort Solar Lite. You get two, thin, somewhat flexible solar panels, plus a pouch here that has two USB ports for connecting whatever it is you want to charge.<\/p>\n<p>The whole thing folds up nice and compact, around 11 inches x 6 inches and sticks closed with some hook and loop. It\u2019s small enough to fit in a backpack. And unfolded you get all of these loops you can use to hang it up in the sun. It also comes with a standard, 3ft micro USB cable and an 18 month warranty.<\/p>\n<p>There were two reasons I spent the $52 to get this. One was that I honestly wanted to dip my toe into solar power. Specifically I wanted to see if I could use it to regularly charge my phone.<\/p>\n<p>Second, it seemed like a great thing to have as part of a disaster kit. And I\u2019m glad I have it for that.<\/p>\n<p>But for the most part, this thing is pitched as an outdoorsy way to directly charge your phone outside. It\u2019s rated at 5v with a 2.1 amp maximum output and has a driver for the USB output that can automatically detect the best charge rate for your device.<\/p>\n<p>But there\u2019s three practical problems I found with directly charging your phone off this. One is that I\u2019m filled with panic every time my phone leaves my pocket, plus I would never leave my phone unattended.<\/p>\n<p>Two, putting your phone in a black bag in direct sunlight can cause it to overheat and not charge.<\/p>\n<p>And third, I typically need to recharge at night, and use my phone during the day, which direct solar charging isn\u2019t ideal for.<\/p>\n<p>So for me, it made a lot more sense to buy a rechargeable battery for this thing. It\u2019s actually kinda silly that it doesn\u2019t come with one.<\/p>\n<p>Not sure which would work best, I bought three different sizes. I have links to all three in the description here. Ultimately they all worked out fine, though the biggest one doesn\u2019t allow the pouch to close.<\/p>\n<p>It takes about a day and a half of direct sunlight to charge this big one up from zero, but it gets me over a week of recharging my phone. During that week I can charge up these other guys and rotate them in. These smaller ones take about a day to charge.<\/p>\n<p>I haven\u2019t plugged my phone into a wall for over a month now, which feels kinda cool.<\/p>\n<p>But during that month, I did have some trial and error. I\u2019m going to explain that in a separate video offering some tips and hacks for this system. Check the description for that video if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n<p>Otherwise, just know that the Anker 15 watt PowerPort Solar delivers. It\u2019s well built, weather resistant, lightweight, and a good balance of power and size. It doesn\u2019t come with a battery though, and I recommend picking one up. And it really does perform best with direct, outdoor sunlight.<\/p>\n<p>Tool:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2Bm7KD1\">Anker 15W Dual USB Solar Charger, PowerPort Solar<\/a> ($52)<\/p>\n<p>Batteries tested with:<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2Dr6AYS\">Anker PowerCore+ mini<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2Dr98pS\">Anker PowerCore 5000<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2rul0Gl\">Power Banks RAVPower 22000 Portable Charger<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Reference:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/thewirecutter.com\/reviews\/best-portable-solar-battery-pack\/\">The Best Portable Solar Battery Charger by The Wirecutter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Best portable solar charger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[41,2337],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31723,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31721\/revisions\/31723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}