I'm very new to this and have many questions.
I'm looking to build a (hopefully) budget solution for powering and charging entertainment devices (laptop, Switch, Steam Deck, etc) and USB power banks in the event of a power outage. I know nothing at all about solar panels, however. My main desire is having at least one high-power USB PD port (at least 60W, preferably 100W) and multiple USB A ports.
Would something like this portable solar kit (150W @ $200 currently) be a good choice because of the simplicity and my USB-specific needs, or should I go for panels more like these (200W total @ $190) and buy an external device to give me the charging ports I need? Is two 100W panels too much for a small setup like this?
I imagine it would be much nicer all-around to have solar panels and drop the cash for a larger power station (even with the $100 coupon available now this thing is $360!) for power at night, but my concern is that anything with a battery is essentially a recurring cost as batteries will eventually need to be replaced. Is that a valid concern, or will something like this last 5-10 years without problems under light use? I do have an Anker power bank that's five years old and though I haven't measured its capacity it still seems to be working great.
And if I want to choose the most expensive option from the products I've suggested and buy the power station and the first solar panel I linked, do you think it'll be able to charge the power station at the 65W that it will accept while also powering the 60W USB PD port and the USB A ports, or can I not expect to reliably get 125W+ out of something like that?
I'm not married to anything I've linked to, either, those are just things that caught my eye while doing initial browsing.
I'm looking to build a (hopefully) budget solution for powering and charging entertainment devices (laptop, Switch, Steam Deck, etc) and USB power banks in the event of a power outage. I know nothing at all about solar panels, however. My main desire is having at least one high-power USB PD port (at least 60W, preferably 100W) and multiple USB A ports.
Would something like this portable solar kit (150W @ $200 currently) be a good choice because of the simplicity and my USB-specific needs, or should I go for panels more like these (200W total @ $190) and buy an external device to give me the charging ports I need? Is two 100W panels too much for a small setup like this?
I imagine it would be much nicer all-around to have solar panels and drop the cash for a larger power station (even with the $100 coupon available now this thing is $360!) for power at night, but my concern is that anything with a battery is essentially a recurring cost as batteries will eventually need to be replaced. Is that a valid concern, or will something like this last 5-10 years without problems under light use? I do have an Anker power bank that's five years old and though I haven't measured its capacity it still seems to be working great.
And if I want to choose the most expensive option from the products I've suggested and buy the power station and the first solar panel I linked, do you think it'll be able to charge the power station at the 65W that it will accept while also powering the 60W USB PD port and the USB A ports, or can I not expect to reliably get 125W+ out of something like that?
I'm not married to anything I've linked to, either, those are just things that caught my eye while doing initial browsing.
