Household devices, chargers, and appliances cannot plug directly into a solar panel. Solar panels use DC power, while most household appliances use AC. But there are ways to solve this mis-match.
You've got your solar panel, now where's the outlet for your laptop? Well, unfortunately solar panels do not produce the same power that you have in your home. Solar panels produce power like you have in your car, and pocket solar chargers produce power that is like your flashlight batteries and cell phone's battery.
What do you need to get your panel to make the kind of power you need? The answer is 'converters' and 'inverters'.
First, we'll look at DC voltages, and how to make the solar panel output match the needs of your DC devices.
A converter is a device that converts one voltage to another. Converters can be as simple as an adaptor cable for a computer's USB port, and as intricate as one that converts your home's wall outlet into a power for your iPhone. In brief, converters can be DC to DC (ie one battery voltage to another), or AC to DC (ie wall charger for your batteries, phone, iPod, etc).
So, before purchasing a solar panel or pocket solar charger, make a list of all the devices you plan to power from your solar power system, and what voltages they need. For example, your laptop uses 120v AC, but the wall adaptor for your laptop actually converts this to something like 18V DC for the battery inside the laptop (the label on the back of your laptop will state what it needs, or look at the wall adaptor itself). iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, most PDA's, and other devices that plug into your computer's USB port will need 5V DC (this is the USB standard).
Once you have your list, you will be able to determine if you should get a standard solar panel with 12V output, or one of the USB models. You will need the 12V panel if you are wanting to power things as large as a laptop.
What if you need household AC power?
Sometimes it is not possible to find a car adaptor for a device that will enable it to plus into a DC solar panel. Or you might have a specific device, like a specialized camera battery charger, that only operates from an AC wall outlet. In these cases, you need to have a solar power system that can provide AC power, and the key to this is the AC inverter.
An AC inverter is a small device that takes 12V battery power, like the power in your car, and converts it to household AC power. Now, before you decide that this is the best way to go for all your devices, consider the following...
Inverters are the size of a deck of cards and larger
Inverters cannot operate direct from a solar panel
Inverters require a specific type of battery to provide them with power
Inverters will consume about 15-20% of the power themselves to meet their own operating needs
So, in brief, consider inverters to be your last option for a portable power system, when all attempts to live in the DC world have been exhausted.
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