Those damn squirrels. Every time they eat a nut, they keep a tree from growing, which is pretty much exactly the same as cutting down a tree with a chainsaw, setting fire to it, and then injecting the ashes directly into the ozone layer. So, it’s good to see that the old fashioned nut-powered squirrel has been replaced with a much more eco-friendly version that runs on solar power. Just stick him outside somewhere that gets sun during the day, and at night, you’ll have yourself a glowing squirrel. And having a glowing squirrel is very, very important, for a truly marvelous reason which this margin is too narrow to contain.
Here’s an interesting approach to heating your home with solar energy. Instead of using solar panels to convert the sunlight into electricity, a company called Practical Solar has created a heliostat system which basically bounces sunlight into a window or skylight, working like a scaled-down solar oven. Each heliostat can be installed with basic tools, and they’re controlled by a simple piece of PC software (up to 200 units at once) that allows the homeowner to program when and where the sunlight is aimed.
Practical Solar claims that the mirrors on one of their heliostat units are able to reflect as much light as 40 100-watt incandescent light bulbs, and about 600 watts of thermal energy, so two of them working together can provide as much heat as an average electric space heater. Of course there are a few downsides to the system. For one, the heliostats are pretty much useless if you’re looking to cool your home in the Summer, and unlike solar panels there’s no electricity that can be sold back to the local power grid. Not to mention that you probably don’t want to get caught staring into one of these, or standing in the beam for too long.
Incredibly, this is not just another piece of weird internet humor. You actually can make a photovoltaic cell with little more than high proof alcohol, powdered donuts, and purple Passion tea from Starbucks. It’s the future, people! The cell only puts out about 0.13 amps per square meter, so you’re not gonna be able to power your house with a few boxes of donuts and some Everclear. But, just in case, you should probably pick that stuff up anyway. You know, for scientific experimentation.
At Mobile World Congress 2009 this week, LG was displaying a new cell phone with a solar panel battery back that won’t need to be plugged in until the sun goes dead in 6-odd billion years. Ten minutes of sun gets you three minutes of talk time, which is not half bad… The phone is due to be released in Europe by the end of this year, but hopefully LG will take the obvious step of just manufacturing battery backs with integrated solar panels, which would allow existing handsets to be quickly and easily converted to solar charging.
The other thing in that picture is a solar powered Bluetooth hands-free speakerphone, the LG HFB-500. LG was giving these out at their press conference at CES, and it was just too nifty to include in our CES swag giveaway (sorry). It comes with a suction mount to stick it in the windshield of your car, as well as a power adapter that you’ll ideally never use. It’s got an on/off button (it shuts off automatically), a big call answer button, and some volume buttons. That’s it. I’ve had it up on the windshield of my car since January, and I’ve never had to charge it, it’s just always there and ready to go. The LG HFB-500 costs $70 or $80 depending on where you look, which is maybe a little steep, but having gadgets that are ever present and functional without any plugs or maintenance whatsoever is worth a little extra money, I’d say.
For a solar charger to operate at peak efficiency, it always needs to be oriented towards the sun. So instead of just sitting there, pointed in the wrong direction while the sun slowly progresses across the sky, the SOLAR ChumAlong (chum?) continually re-orients itself so it’s always pointing at the brightest point in the sky. This is accomplished with four optical sensors, and results in a 30%-50% increase in efficiency over conventional, stationary solar chargers.
And while the SOLAR ChumAlong looks kind of flimsy, it’s actually designed to fold-up for easy transport, and can be setup in just a few minutes without any tools, making it a perfect addition to your camping kit. You can get it from Edmund Scientific’s for $399.00, but keep in mind that price doesn’t include the 12V rechargeable battery that’s required for operation.
Yep, the iPhone isn’t exactly a champ when it comes to battery life, and here’s yet another way to keep it running should you find yourself lacking an external power source. The SOLiCharger is nothing more than a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack that’s capable of giving your iPhone up to a 50% full charge, which should be enough for a few hours of heavy use. It can be recharged via a USB connection or plugged into the wall, but if you’re lacking either of those options the SOLiCharger also features a solar cell on one side that can recharge the battery in about 4 hours when placed in direct sunlight. And best of all it’s just $39.95 on the SolLight website.
The Miniwiz Solarbulb is a little accessory for people who may not have the luxury of owning a lamp. It charges up in the sun, and after 5-6 hours, it’s good for 3-4 nights (I think it’s nights, seems like it might be hours, there was a bit of a language barrier) of white LED light. Then you screw the Miniwiz onto the top a bottle (it’s got threads on the inside) and there you go, insta-lamp. It’s going to cost about $24, available in February.
The bottles in this picture, incidentally, are hexagonal and can be filled with stuff (or not) and used as bricks. They also pack, store, and ship much more efficiently since they interlock and there’s no wasted space. Brilliant idea, still looking for a manufacturer.
Over the last year or so, I’ve seen a lot of solar chargers hit the market. I’ve even started seeing a few wind chargers crop up as well, but how many chargers take advantage of both forms of power collection? Well now there is at least one out there, and it’s called the Kinesis K2.
Whether you’re sitting in your office, or taking a nice bike ride, you can take advantage of your natural resources to charge your phone (or other small gadget). About one hour of good sunlight is enough juice to give your phone a 30-minute charge. The manufacturer suggests that when the device is fully charged it will have enough energy to recharge the average cell phone roughly 5 times. There’s no word on how much steady wind it takes to charge it up. You can expect this to fetch around $100 when it goes on sale.
I guess I must have found the Greener Gadgets section of CES, because Solio and PowerFilm were right next to each other. How convenient. Solio’s new Mono is basically just one single leaf of their hybrid charger that I reviewed back in April. So it works exactly the same way, with an onboard battery charged by the sun or a wall jack (or car or USB port) depending on how green you’re feeling and how much time you’ve got. A set of adapters gets power from the Solio into your device. Solio suggests that you use the Mono as an emergency power supply (it’s got enough power to fully charge the average cell phone once), and you can buy a little LED flashlight that plugs right into it, too.
The Solio Mono is $60, and the light tip is $20, available now online and at places like REI.
Related Tags: Animals, Eco-friendly, Lighting, Outdoors, Solar-Power
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