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Harvesting free power


CompairHolman

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We have no electric on our mooring, we often go to Costa coffee and spend about half an hour in there, they have mains sockets free to use to charge devices, we were thinking if we took a power bank with us in our bags how much charge could we suck up in half an hour without blowing their fuses ? 

 

Might be worth it if we could power our tablets, WiFi device, phones, and led lamp for the night ? 

 

Every little helps if your off grid. 

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6 minutes ago, CompairHolman said:

We have no electric on our mooring, we often go to Costa coffee and spend about half an hour in there, they have mains sockets free to use to charge devices, we were thinking if we took a power bank with us in our bags how much charge could we suck up in half an hour without blowing their fuses ? 

 

Might be worth it if we could power our tablets, WiFi device, phones, and led lamp for the night ? 

 

Every little helps if your off grid. 

Get an extension lead from the boat.......

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5 minutes ago, Sapphal said:

Just save yourself £2.50 on your coffee by using weatherspoons unlimited coffee. And you can usually find a table near a power socket. 

But somebody might see you entering a wetherspoons :o

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For the price of 3 or 4 coffees why not just get one of these, leave it on the roof, plug in your device, and your phone, Kindle, head light, radio,etc etc (any 5v USB device) will be charged.

On a good day 7w (over 1amp - charges most things up in a couple of hours)

Put it out in 'the Sun' yesterday and achieved a measured 2.11Ah over 6 hours (not bad for the Winter)

 

Opened Size: 330mm X 155mm

Closed Size: 165mm X 155mm

 

 

 

 

IMG_20170129_090450.jpg

IMG_20170129_090525.jpg

IMG_20170129_090648.jpg

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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1 hour ago, Alan de Enfield said:

For the price of 3 or 4 coffees why not just get one of these, leave it on the roof, plug in your device, and your phone, Kindle, head light, radio,etc etc (any 5v USB device) will be charged.

On a good day 7w (over 1amp - charges most things up in a couple of hours)

Put it out in 'the Sun' yesterday and achieved a measured 2.11Ah over 6 hours (not bad for the Winter)

 

Opened Size: 330mm X 155mm

 

Closed Size: 165mm X 155mm
 

 

 

 

 

IMG_20170129_090450.jpg

IMG_20170129_090525.jpg

IMG_20170129_090648.jpg

Some modern devices prefer a 2.1a charger now to charge in a reasonable time. 

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17 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Some modern devices prefer a 2.1a charger now to charge in a reasonable time. 

I also have a 12v 10w panel 'kit' that has a cigarette lighter socket which I use with a Lighter plug / 2,1A USB outlet.

Folding size:200x240x27mm
Opened size:550x240x3mm

(I do find the 'small' one charges my GPS, Watch, Phone, Radio, headlight, and torch OK.)

 

 

 

 

IMG_20170620_145538.jpg

A1.jpg

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15 hours ago, CompairHolman said:

 how much charge could we suck up in half an hour without blowing their fuses ?

I doubt you would get more than a few pence worth of electricity in half an hour.

 

Edited by MartynG
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1 hour ago, Tom Morgan said:

Is there a manufacturer's name or a model name/number I can use to search for one of these online?

 

 

I got them both off Ebay - just search for 'folding solar panel', or 'solar panel kit'

Available in all sorts of voltages and wattage ratings

 

example :

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-5-5V-5W-Folding-Foldable-Portable-Solar-Panel-Mobile-Phone-Charger-Kit-FT/113136509995?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140122125356%26meid%3De75ce0e1482d4c85a142cd73cc759280%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D323693016291%26itm%3D113136509995&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

 

 

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19 hours ago, CompairHolman said:

We have no electric on our mooring, we often go to Costa coffee and spend about half an hour in there, they have mains sockets free to use to charge devices, we were thinking if we took a power bank with us in our bags how much charge could we suck up in half an hour without blowing their fuses

 

Might be worth it if we could power our tablets, WiFi device, phones, and led lamp for the night ? 

 

Every little helps if your off grid. 

 

The devices they intend customers to charge will be tablest and phones - conceivably laptops.

 

If I were a Costa manager I'd think you were taking the piss more than a little -- and it's quite arguable that what you are contemplating is theft. pure and simple.

 

It only takes a few "customers" with flexible morals to bugger it up for the great majority.

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8 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

The devices they intend customers to charge will be tablest and phones - conceivably laptops.

 

If I were a Costa manager I'd think you were taking the piss more than a little -- and it's quite arguable that what you are contemplating is theft. pure and simple.

 

It only takes a few "customers" with flexible morals to bugger it up for the great majority.

 

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21 hours ago, Sapphal said:

Just save yourself £2.50 on your coffee by using weatherspoons unlimited coffee. And you can usually find a table near a power socket. 

Save yourself even more, take a flask and sandwiches wrapped in tin foil while you read the free papers....which you then take home to light the fire made out of their lovely wooden chairs. At a push, strap your fridge to a sack trolley and plug it in for a few hours, so long as the door stays shut it will keep its temp overnight. ?

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7 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Thanks very much, Alan.

 

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17 hours ago, Chewbacka said:

I guess this is why companies that offer unlimited or free whatever always have a fair use policy.

 

 

Indeed - and is why the thread title should have been "stealing power" rather than "harvesting free power" -- although come to think of it, it should actually have been "stealing energy" since power is the rate of energy flow.

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On 13/02/2019 at 19:41, CompairHolman said:

We have no electric on our mooring, we often go to Costa coffee and spend about half an hour in there, they have mains sockets free to use to charge devices, we were thinking if we took a power bank with us in our bags how much charge could we suck up in half an hour without blowing their fuses ? 

 

Might be worth it if we could power our tablets, WiFi device, phones, and led lamp for the night ? 

 

Every little helps if your off grid. 

After me old one died I just bought this:

https://www.amazon.com/AUKEY-20000mAh-Lightning-Portable-Compatible/dp/B0176HQ1O8

 

Basically since changing the central heating pump to 12 V I no longer need the inverter on overnight. As such I now use one of these power banks again. Take it to work with me, charge it up at me desk through the day.

 

Your question was specific about recharge time, for big batteries I use the AC adapter supplied with iPads as it's something like 12 W, it is this that limits your recharge time. The pack I have has a capacity of ~ 74 W

Edited by sirweste
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So effectively you need to work out how many Watts of power you need, and try to find the biggest (with regards power) wall adapter USB supply thingi you can.

The capacity of a iphone X is about 10 W I think

Edited by sirweste
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4 minutes ago, sirweste said:

So effectively you need to work out how many Watts you need, and try to find the biggest (with regards power) wall adapter USB supply thingi you can.

The capacity of a iphone X is about 27 W.

No - (assuming their "acceptable use policy" is 13A for as long as it takes to drink a coffee) - is how many watt hours can I carry and what is the most efficient / most compact / easiest to carry way of doing this.

 

(Don't ask why...*) we discussed this at length when I was with a previous employer and we came up with an insulated container of hot wax (chosen for the right combination of latent heat of freezing and a sensible temperature at which it solidified) which you could plug in at work and liquify, then take home and use the energy.

 

[ * - Another lengthy lunchtime discussion ended with the conclusion that early RADAR scanners probably went at 78 or 33 1/3 RPM ]

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13 minutes ago, 1st ade said:

No - (assuming their "acceptable use policy" is 13A for as long as it takes to drink a coffee) - is how many watt hours can I carry and what is the most efficient / most compact / easiest to carry way of doing this.

Aye?

I don't know what the most powerful wall adapter is on the market, but you'd take the power this (most powerful adapter) can generate and see if that meets the energy required

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