Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Freeloading
khenry
Since I’m changing phone contracts, I’m reluctant to have to charge two mobile phones during the crossover period at a time when I want to cut my power bill. So I put aside my concerns that solar gadgets needed another year to really become commonplace and took the plunge.
It’s good that the Supercharger add-on pouch for the Freeloader portable battery (in issue 58’s Custom Kit) is optional. The larger panel might charge the Freeloader much more quickly in summer and is probably a requirement when there is much less light in the sky and the days are shorter.
I looked at the fact that the Freeloader could sit at my feet charging via USB whilst my PC is on. That put paid to my doubts about using the device in winter and I decided that the extra panel could wait, possibly as long as summer 2009. I want to see what the battery alone can do to reduce my bills and its £27-30 cost is comparable to just going out and buying another cheap Nokia handset to use with my SIM-only contract. (Update 7/8/08 - the clincher for the Freeloader is that you can carry on charging it with the USB connector using the standby ATX current from your PSU, retained when you shut down without turning the PC off at the mains).
I may still get the newer phone, but it would be safe in the knowledge that I wouldn’t be using much more power from the mains than the PC was wasting anyway. As such, any future phone battery would last a lot longer than the 18 months of the last model. I’d advise turning off those stupid mobile wallpapers and screensavers, especially if you’re with 3, so you can save yourself the same problem I’ve just had.
In the long term though, I have one room which gets all the best sun, where there are no blinds, and a PC Pro reader emailed in to that magazine to say that he adds a new solar panel each year to carry on using a laptop. Eventually, he’d have enough linked panels to have the machine always-on during the summer.
That got me thinking that at least one of those windows might be useful for standing a solar panel on the window sill instead of, or in front of, any blind. This would allow me to do the same for any eventual portable I bought, or to power a solar fan to cool that room or the corridor, depending on the size and ease of connecting the devices to the panel(s).
Putting a single panel in a window is an easier way of finding out the viability of solar power generation than spending £47,000 to stick the panels all over your roof, and waiting 15-20 years to get the money back. All I need now is the gas hob kettle, and I’ll be ready to see whether the Earthwatts power supplies and these other devices bring down my electric bill in October and help the planet as a fringe benefit. The electric bill won’t fall as low as my gas, which was under £22 last quarter. However, anything below £100 would be good, given the recent energy price rises.
This article has no comments yet.