Large power banks to charge from excess solar

[BiddyPop]

Hi all,

Dh has suddenly asked me about getting a backup power station, which he intends to charge up on sunny days when we have excess solar. His plan is to keep it in the car to charge his laptop as he does a lot of work and an occasional movie while waiting at pitches for teen Dd (lots of hockey!).

The added wrinkle is that lots are not shipped here as we're in Ireland so tech and power stuff is harder to get. Certainly not Amazon. But drones.ie have a few that he's thinking about.

Do you have any recommendations on brands, size (mainly amount of power stored), or any tips on what to look for, features etc?

I have an Anker PowerCore 45W for myself and we have 2 smaller ones (a 10W and a 20w ) for phones really but could do an iPad.
Thanks in advance,
Biddy

Camping friends of ours have EcoFlow and Bluetti power stations that they use and like. We don't go camping so I have no other information than the names, sorry.

I looked into this about 18 months ago from Donegal (we're in England now) and all the brands/power outputs/prices seem to have changed. For us, a 400W seemed ideal so it had enough juice for the laptops for several days of camping. The downside is, it needs to be fully discharged regularly to maintain battery health, so one that's too big could present maintenance issues.

Getting a separate station and solar panels seems to be the best way to do a solar power generator, the ones with inbuilt solar panels don't seem to have big enough panels to charge them at a reasonable pace, according to all the reviews.

It's frustrating trying to buy prepping gear in Ireland. Are you near the (non)border at all? Could you use an Amazon locker in Strabane or Newry to buy something that ships to the North? Or they can ship to a Post Office in the North and you can collect. We did this all the time when we lived in Donegal, the Strabane post office just out of town opposite Home Bargains were always really good about this and their parking is decent.

If you do this, just set your address to the delivery location before you shop on Amazon and you'll have access to anything that ships to NI (which isn't everything on Amazon but it's significantly better than what you can get in the South), the shipping cost is usually lower (or even free) and you get the faster UK delivery times.

Otherwise (not useful for the generator as it will need the same 3 pin plug outlet of UK), you can shop on Amazon.de and that's supposed to be the local Amazon for Ireland post-Brexit without having to pay shipping and import tax, but I didn't like it as it was hard to search. You can also get more stuff shipped to Ireland from the US Amazon than you can get in the UK though, so that might be another option (and shipping and handling is cheaper than US to UK).

Probably not helpful for this specific situation but it might help for other things potentially.

Edited: IDK why I said UK/China, they have different plugs. 🤦‍♀️

🤣that this popped back up now!

I have just moved to Brussels and am looking (once I get fully moved in next week, and buy other essentials such as a tv!) to get one here instead.

I'll figure out a solution for DH still in Dublin in due course (possibly involving him driving here for summer holidays)...or he can do it himself...

But as i am the organised "prepper" in the house, I guess it will be me. I did leave him the gas bbq and a camping size charcoal bbq as alternatives for cooking, and some of my decent torches etc. But I took my camping solar panel to recharge my own power bank for my phone/ipad! (I intend keeping my electric bills down as much as possible among other things!)

Sorry I saw the date on the post above mine and somehow didn't realise they'd resurrected a zombie! 😅

That's ok - it's info to give DH as a project to research on those long lonely nights ahead 🤣