What are you guys doing about power stuff
I am wondering what you guys are buying to power stuff with. I bought a set of plug adaptors for my iBook. I do not need a convertor for it as it can run on 220 volts. Everything else I have (flashlights, radio, alarm clock, digital camera), or am going to have can be run off of AA batteries. The three possiblites for batteries are a 220 volt battery charger, a Solar battery charger, and simply bringing alot and having my family mail extras to me. I am leaning towards a 220 volt charger, since the only inexpensive solar battery chargers seem way too inexpensive (aka crap) and since the Benin Country Desk email warned about paying customs charges for packages. However, my village probably won't even have electricity and I would only be able to charge stuff when going to PC functions in capital cities. What are you guys doing?
5 Comments:
I'm not bringing anything with a plug-in. Mostly because I've had too many bad experiences with adapters, but if your not going the solar battery charger route - then I say bring the volt charger. You'll probably have to rely upon neighbors or car batteries to plug in, but it's better than bringing regular batteries and not having any way of disposing of them.
Hope this helps.
I am thinking that I will bring the best rechargeable batteries I can find, and lot of them, and charge them whenever possible. I don't want to have a lot of waste. I've heard that solar chargers (thanks Ben) aren't the most efficient. I'll probably take regular batteries too, just in case.
random, extended musings on batteries:
NiMH rechargables is the way to go. Most chargers are dual votage - but make sure you check when you buy.
Pro's - last a lot longer in most devices than normal batteries, pretty cheap, recharges 100's of times, not as bad as NiCad when you toss them from an env POV.
Con's - they "leak" power - so if you charge them, set them on a shelf, and come back in 3 months, they're only ~70% charged. They also only put out 1.2 volts per cell, vs the 1.5 that "normal" batteries put out, so some devices don't like them - try it on everything that's important to you before you go, but 98% of stuff will be cool with it.
For AA's - look for ones that have at least a 2100 mAh raiting (higher the number, the longer it will last per charge).
For those considering Worldspace - "C" sized ones are hard to find, but they are out there, up to 4500 mAh, though 2500 and 3000 are easier to find.
AAA's are around now too, 700-1100 mAh.
Costco/sams club are good sources of cheap NiMH batteries, and normal ones, if you have a membership. Amazon also sells the NiMH ones pretty cheap.
My experience when traveling in Togo was that AA's are easy to find, and surprise, pretty cheap, but that most vol's hesitate to put them in anything they really care about (quality concerns) D Cells were also around. AAA's were hard to find, expensive, but they were out there. C cells simply did not exsit - so if you have something that needs them, rechargables are the way to go.
As cara says, less power needs == less complication in your life. I wish I could follow that advice, but I'm not that zen yet. :)
Hmmmm.... scratch the need for C or D sized NiMH's -
http://store.greenbatteries.com/battery-adapter.html
or
http://www.adorama.com/LRPROAA2C.html
Some info on solar chargers here - more positive than what I had ever seen before.
Seems to focus on cell phones and PDA's - but one of them will also do iPods.
http://www.treknologies.com/archives/2005/06/solar_cell_char.php
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