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Solarpanel for charging iPhoneXs max

ChrisPuth

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Dec 1, 2021
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Want to hike for 20 days and charge my iPhone during hiking. How many watts are required? Any brand recommendations?
 
Interesting question. I’m assuming as light as possible. And maybe water resistant.
 
Are you hiking through forest or desert?...one will be in the sun and one in the shade...anything in between will have sporadic sun. Will you be camped over one night in the same place where you could set up the solar charger for a period of time? Depending on how much you plan on using your phone a simple 10,000mAh power bank might suffice. The power banks that have a small solar panel in them a little larger than most cell phones appear to not be dependable/efficient for solar charging...just not not much panel area to produce electricity with. If you need solar-charging I believe it will require one of the multi-panel, folding units....but even this will need time under good sunlight.
 
I’ve often wondered what the lightest option is. In terms of ounces/watt. Usually I’m looking for a larger system though (bicycle mounted).
 
Here is 10 watts for 80 grams at 0.125 w/g. I don’t know if 10w is sufficient to charge via usb.

466F939E-34EA-4562-89B6-2B839281A409.jpeg
 
From what I can find, the iPhone XS Max has a 12.08Wh battery. If the battery was completely dead it would take 12 solar hours to recharge with a 10W solar panel assuming 100% conversion efficiency.

If you were doing a summer hike with the panel mounted facing the sun all day as you hiked, it would probably keep the phone charged with normal use. The best thing is to minimize battery usage. Turn off WiFi and Bluetooth. Minimize GPS and cell use. Put it in low-power mode.
 
My guess is you want a 30 watt panel, stop and charge it in the sun for a couple hours a day without using the phone. You’d really need to be careful with it also.

I monitor my phone and ipad and see the, take as much as 30 watts almost empty and the tapers back to 10 watts when full. I’ve also used a 100 watt panel charged with while using the device and that takes a couple hours to charge. Between the panel and the charger was a buck converter.

IME experience the 100 watt panel charger is perfect for keeping thosebdevices charged as I lounge around the RV, but I would not want to take that hiking. The Charger and buck converter are not heavy, but the panel weighs 25 LBS.
 
Screw solar.

This could charge your iPhone about 13.5 times empty to full:


With a little conservation, I suspect the above would get you through 20 days. If not, buy two. I'm sitting here comparing it to my Nokia 7.1, and it's almost exactly the same height/width and 2X the thickness of my phone in its case.
 
This could charge your iPhone about 13.5 times empty to full
That thing claims to be 36.8Ah but there is no indication of what voltage it is so there is no way to know the watt-hours.

The product description states it can charge an iPhone 11 about 6 times. I'm not sure how you came up with 13.5 times.
 
It's 136.16Wh (based on the data plate I'm looking directly at).

I just did mental math for 13.5X. It's actually 13.15X

However, I missed the "max" part. X is 10.35Wh for battery capacity. X max is 12.08, so only 11.3 times.
 
It's 136.16Wh (based on the data plate I'm looking directly at).
I guess actually having one does make that more obvious. :)

I wish sellers understood what they were selling so they would put useful details like Wh (or both Ah and V) in the product description. Better yet, include a picture of the data plate.

The iPhone 11 has an 11.91Wh battery. Why does the Amazon listing for this battery state it will charge an iPhone 11 6 times? It would be 11 times if you got the full 136.16Wh.
 
don’t know if 10w is sufficient to charge via usb.
Standard USB is 5V 2A. A 10W panel will be slower than that by double.

I don’t recall where I saw it but I either read about or saw on YouTube a hiker that had a couple 10W 12V mono panels mounted to the top of his pack. Kept a tablet, phone, and camera going for three weeks. I can’t remember how he regulated it.
 
I have a 10w panel for USB charging ... it's pretty slow and requires direct & strong sunlight

I would suggest a 30-40w panel if you can fit it in your pack.
 
I bought a small power bank for my iPhone 6s. Renogy E.Power 20000mAh/74Wh with 5w of solar. As a battery bank it is great but I'm not sure about the solar charging feature. 4 dots is full. I ran it down to 1 dot and left it in full sun for 6 hours. It charged to 2 dots. Maybe that's OK. It did charge. I don't see it on the Renogy site but similar items are on Amazon.
 
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