Charge Your Phone Forever? Cheap USB Solar Panel Test

Can you charge your phone virtually forever with energy from the sun? Of course! Can you do it with just about the cheapest solar panels I could find on eBay for under $20? Let's find out in this dirt cheap Chinese electronics solar panel review.

[@EmergencySurvivalTips]

Oh boy, I re-tested it in December during the shortest day of the year. Did it do as well? kzbin.info/www/bejne/fpmvfnl_qZJnosU

[@gatsbye53]

Great to see someone testing out budget minded equipment!

[@stickmarshmike]

Old guy here! Amazing...Good job explaining all this tech,even if I just remember a little bit thats a good thing!but wow...

[@oleganonimka3725]

2:54 This panel in its area corresponds to a power of 5W. In reality, you can expect no more than 3.5 watts of power from it. Some modern smartphones will refuse to charge from this solar panel - it is too low power for them. In this case, you can charge a power bank with a capacity of 5000mA from this solar panel; I think this panel will be able to charge such a power bank for a full cloudless summer day. And then you can charge your smartphone from the power bank.

[@RandomMan012]

I have the exact panel but it still charges my phone tho

[@phillipcastillo8519]

These are perfect for those rechargeable led flashlights leave it plugged in all day with a longer cord and have lights in a tent at night I also used one of these when our power was out for almost 2 days and it charged my phone enough for emergency’s

[@chrisf5475]

I don’t know anything about solar but I do have RC cars and planes and know a little about charging lipos… and when you have a large capacity battery which is already reasonably charged it becomes increasingly difficult to ‘push’ current into it. You find they charge to 50-60% really quickly and then take longer and longer to reach a full charge, mostly because my power supply for my charger isn’t man enough. I suspect that your testing method, whilst being totally reasonable in terms of a real world situation, is actually a very tough test for the smaller panel. It would be much better at charging a smaller battery.

[@joaomarveloso1049]

Thank you for this video. Made me subscribe 🙂 . I bought a 10w panel similar size to the bigger one you have on this video. It seems to be charging my powerbank and my smartphone which are abt 5yrs old. I'm worried though if it will damage the batteries? I noticed many people saying that due to the solar unstable currents it can happen. What are your thoughts about that?

[@unarmedduck]

I have a solar panel trickle charging a power bank for the last year without issue. I wouldn't personally risk directly solar charging my phone.

[@MattTransit]

CH Kadels catalog has solar chargers starting at about $20 (on sale), and claims 8,000 MAH. Others are $30 and claim 10,000 MAH. I'm not sure what is a better deal.

[@EmergencySurvivalTips]

If it's measured in mAH it has an onboard battery and anything left sitting in the sun with lithium batteries is a stupid, defective by design product. You need the battery and the solar panel to be separate!

[@MattTransit]

@@EmergencySurvivalTips I didn't know that. Thanks for the information.

[@urbansnipe]

Imagine univeral serial bus (USB) and people changing the standard (apple) and then all manufacturers following apple to ruin a standard ffs thunderbolt was literally stolen from the USB standard just to be made apple standard (changes every 2 years or so)

[@urbansnipe]

Like literally its literally a joke the standard USB used to be governed by someone nowadays anything goes if apple could change the freezing the point of water they would just to sell you a new freezer

[@nickwillard4471]

@@urbansnipe "if apple could change the freezing the point of water they would just to sell you a new freezer" That is a fantastic quote which I will be using from now on.

[@millenium2003]

Bought one of these for $13

[@diversezebra6754]

Huh....sounds like it is a bit better than 22% efficiency. Lol

[@EmergencySurvivalTips]

They mean the total energy of the sunlight vs what the solar panel can turn into electricity