Convert an old bag into a solar power station

By SmartPlanet on 14 April 2008, 7:31am

After playing for a week with new Super Charger solar panel, we were simply going to write up our first impressions. But after using it on our bicycle's pannier bag for a few days we came up with a better idea -- why not use the £20 panel as a cheap way to retrofit any old bag and transform it into a solar bag? Read on to discover how to make your old backpack, tote or even a handbag into a clean green charging station for your gadgets.

Why you should bother
On sunny days, you'll create sufficient free green electricity to keep your phone's battery full. It's also less than half the price of buying a brand new solar bag.

What you'll need
Super Charger, £20
Freeloader Spare Battery, £13
Mini USB cable -- you'll probably have one of these lying around. If not, £2 off eBay
Relevant gadget adaptor, £5-7
One old bag or bike pannier, free

Total cost: £40
Cost of a new solar bag like the Voltaic Converter: £100

Old bicycle pannier + Super Charger + battery + USB cable + dirty old bike = solar power station

Old bicycle pannier + Super Charger + battery (not pictured) + USB cable + dirty old bike = solar power station

The very easy how-to
Transforming an old bag into a solar one with the Super Charger is very simple, provided you're happy with results that are more lo-fi than hi-tech.

To start, you need to attach the Super Charger to the outside of your bag. There are two ways you can do this -- use the pair of crocodile clips, or use the 30cm-long Velcro loop. We used the clips to attach the panel to the carry handle on our pannier bag. It's not a beautifully elegant solution, but it did stay in place for a whole week of cycling nine miles daily through London's bumpy streets.

These crocodile clips stay surprisingly secure once snapped on

The velcro strip's useful for attaching to large traveller-style backpacks

To finish up, all you need to do is find a suitable zip compartment for the Freeloader spare battery in your bag. We used a small zip pocket on the top of our bag. Then you just run the USB cable from the panel to the spare battery. Bear in mind that although the panel is weatherproof, the battery isn't -- so you need to keep it inside the bag.

The (pink) battery doesn't like rain, so house it inside your bag

The battery (the pink bit) doesn't like rain, so house it inside your bag

And that's it. Then all you need to do is hook up your gadget with the relevant charging adaptor to get free power. iPods are catered for via a female USB adaptor from Solar Technology, and adaptors are available for virtually every phone brand worth bothering with.

It works! Here's the battery charging a Nokia in real-time

The official spec says the panel should fill the battery to full in just four hours. Once full, the battery can then power an iPod for 18 hours or a mobile phone for 44 hours, though obviously that depends on the model.

First impressions of the Super Charger
We're seriously impressed by this solar panel. As well as a great way to solar retrofit an old bag, it's a practical accessory that anyone owning a Freeloader should consider for its charging speed.

We left our Super Charger out on the SmartPlanet balcony for a weekend and it survived the snow. Surprisingly, the battery -- which isn't deemed weatherproof -- lived to tell the tale too by being hidden underneath the panel. After a weekend of charging, we had enough power in the battery to power up two Nokia N-Series phones from half full to full, and a 5.5G iPod from three quarters full to full.

As we've pointed out in our Freeloader review, the lack of a charge indicator on the battery means it's impossible to see how much juice it has inside. Still, even without an indicator for carrying out accurate tests, our informal experience is that the Super Charger charges the battery much faster than the Freeloader's standard solar panels. It should do -- the Super Charger's rated at 1.5 watts peak (potential power) to 0.66 for the Freeloader panels.