Solar Battery Charger

I bought a cheap battery charger from Sundance Solar. It only does AA batteries, and it takes days to do so, even in the Colorado sun. But it was a proving point for me to peer at the much bigger and faster puppy.

I got it Thursday afternoon, and between Grandpa George and the Jetster, the charger got a lot of peer-at time during the weekend. Between the three of us, we could probably keep the thing pegged at about 160 mAh's for a good 10 hours a day, which would still take the 4 1600 mAh AAs 40 HOURS to get charged up, or 4 days to get a complete charge. Given, however, that those same four 1600 mAh AAs give me a good month's worth of pictures from my digital camera, it seems worth it to do. They'll also run my radio, clocks, weather station, and remotes for just about ever. Free charge, basically, past the cost of the charger, which I basically bought as a toy out of my little budget.

And the 1600 mAh AAs were only $1.45 a piece, compared to the $4 a piece I was paying for the Ray-o-vac NiMhs. It always took me a while to get the courage up to get a four pack of those; but being able to recharge them about 1000 times was definitely worth it in the long run compared to disposables. However, it was hard to get hit with that initial cost. But at $1.45 a pop, it's eeeeasy.

( The weekend was a little crazy. )

Solar Battery Charger

I bought a cheap battery charger from Sundance Solar. It only does AA batteries, and it takes days to do so, even in the Colorado sun. But it was a proving point for me to peer at the much bigger and faster puppy.

I got it Thursday afternoon, and between Grandpa George and the Jetster, the charger got a lot of peer-at time during the weekend. Between the three of us, we could probably keep the thing pegged at about 160 mAh's for a good 10 hours a day, which would still take the 4 1600 mAh AAs 40 HOURS to get charged up, or 4 days to get a complete charge. Given, however, that those same four 1600 mAh AAs give me a good month's worth of pictures from my digital camera, it seems worth it to do. They'll also run my radio, clocks, weather station, and remotes for just about ever. Free charge, basically, past the cost of the charger, which I basically bought as a toy out of my little budget.

And the 1600 mAh AAs were only $1.45 a piece, compared to the $4 a piece I was paying for the Ray-o-vac NiMhs. It always took me a while to get the courage up to get a four pack of those; but being able to recharge them about 1000 times was definitely worth it in the long run compared to disposables. However, it was hard to get hit with that initial cost. But at $1.45 a pop, it's eeeeasy.

( The weekend was a little crazy. )