I recently picked up an EZOPower Portable Solar External Backup Battery Charger. I think I finally found a solar-powered battery that has acceptable performance.
Readers of our site might remember my quest to find a solar solution. That was in the wake of a potentially large hurricane coming to New Jersey. Fortunately it blew out to sea and the need for a solar battery didn’t materialize. As mentioned before, we live in New Jersey. That means we get to worry about hurricanes in the fall and blizzards in the winter. Losing power is no fun. Especially when you are looking at days or potentially weeks without any electricity. I never thought weeks without power was a possibility until having lived through Super Storm Sandy. I was lucky and never lost power but close relatives weren’t so lucky. They were out from a few days to two weeks. I invited several to stay over at our place but they all wanted to stay in their house even without power, which also meant no heat. Most heat is provided via natural gas in New Jersey but unfortunately your furnace is run by electricity so even though the gas lines were not effected, it didn’t matter. Some tried to get a bit of heat from the stoves but for the most part their homes were as cold inside as outside.
So when the latest hurricane was gunning for our state, I wanted to prepare for the worst, at least as far as my phones and tablets were concerned. I took a look at some portable solar panels which you can read about here. That wasn’t quite what I wanted. I was looking for a battery with solar capability built-in when the power was out but could be charged via a traditional outlet when all was normal.
The EZOPower Portable Solar Battery does the trick. The battery holds 10000mAH. That’s more than enough for several full charges of a smartphone. The battery comes with several cables for charging the battery including a micro USB as well as a traditional USB cable. Both cords are a bit on the short side versus other cables I have used. If charging it outdoors you don’t care but if charging indoors using an AC outlet, it stretches less than a foot.
There are two ports, each pushing 2.1 Amps and that means you can charge two devices at the same time. A clip that can be used to attach to a backpack or belt is also included which is useful for hiking.
The best part about the battery is the ability to charge it in sunlight. The solar panel is embedded into the top of the battery. Obviously, it’s not that large ( I would say around 2 x 5 inches). When you want to charge the battery, keep it outside, at least that’s what works best for me. Keeping it inside it only going to give partial sunlight and it’s not enough to make a big difference in the power – you need full sunlight. Because of the small size, it takes some time to completely charge the battery, even in the sun. The fact that your phone can charge while the battery is outside charging itself is a nice feature.
The EZOPower Portable Solar External Backup Battery Charger is a good choice. I’m glad that I picked one up and have it on my emergency list of stuff needed in case of a power outage.