Solar powered personal umbrella with battery?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Kattiydid@slrpnk.net⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

https://slrpnk.net/pictrs/image/12498a32-4263-4aa7-bbde-e37c5c129349.jpeg

Did my ability to search for things intelligently on the internet die when Google search did or are there legitimately no personal umbrellas with solar panels and a battery pack? Like I feel like that would be an obvious thing, and there’s a bajillion beach umbrellas and patio umbrellas that have solar panels. How are there no personal versions for wandering around on a sunny day with portable shade that gets you a charged battery pack? Is this a thing and I just can’t find it or does it not exist yet and all of science has failed me in every way possible?

Sorry for the terrible AI picture, I didn’t create it I just found it on the internet and it was the only one I could find because these apparently don’t actually exist.

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Comments

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zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
A device, which is only used when it is really cloudy for photovoltaics has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever.

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- JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Umbrellas are used in sunshine and are often called parasols. It’s not a bad form factor, it just seems to have practical limitations, like being foldable and still useful. Love the idea, though.
  
  Japan is ready. Other places can be made ready. It isn’t hard to prepare people for bikes or whatever. Solar panels on everything are potentially a good idea. I only worry that my umbrellas do not last.
  
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  - CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Wait til a big gust of wind comes through and shatters your solar panels by inverting the umbrella/parasol.
    
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- Alaik@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Im beginning to see more people actually parasoling in the southern US and if im being honest… I’ve been tempted given how our heat and UV measurements are going.
  
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  - zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Interesting. It appears that it is one side effect of climate change.
    
    Side note: PV panels try to absorb a lot of light. Parasols try to reflect it, which is why they usually have a bright color. Imagine now holding an umbrella, absorbing more energy than your skin/hair would, causing you to sweat even more?
    
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- ImTedBell@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Never used an umbrella to shield yourself from the sun?
  
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  - altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yup this is the smart use I’m sunny regions.
    
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  - zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I actually did not, and here around, I don’t see anyone do that. I believe climate and culture are the factors influencing the popularity of using an umbrella as mobile shade.
    
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  - Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I am British, so no
    
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- jasoman@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Some areas still use the for just sun protection. Agree that it would not be a global product for now.
  
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- Steve@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Parasol
  
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- nialv7@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  What about parasols
  
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  - zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Different device, similar features. They tend to be much larger, making the weight an even bigger issue.
    
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- SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Beach umbrellas are mostly used on sunny days so I can see that.
  
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- Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Have you heard about solar roadways?
  
  :-)
  
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  - zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I think there are some test roads in the Netherlands on the bike lane. Roads are used in all weather conditions, 24/7. Umbrellas not. Roads have approximately the same energy yield as any solar panel on the roof, minus the suboptimal angle and minus the road users causing shadows.
    
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kambusha@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Get a wind powered hat instead

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floop@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Probably because it would weigh 40 pounds and cost $700

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- nimpnin@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Nah. You could DIY something like that for 30€ or something, let alone mass produce. The only problem is that the folding would be more clumsy and probably take a bit more space folded
  
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  - floop@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Slapping one together out of spare parts is not at all the same as mass producing one in a factory. And whatever you could slap together for 30 bucks would, as I said, in previous comment, suck and break very easily, not to mention that you wouldn’t be able to bring it anywhere close to the ocean for fear of everything corroding extremely quickly.
    
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  - Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Lol that tiny ass solar setup ain’t charging both a laptop and a phone, least of all with them running.
    
    That can just barely charge a phone (source - I’ve done a lot of math around this, solar panels have very low output per square meter).
    
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  - Valmond@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I have 2, around 25cm x 30cm and, when perfectly aligned to a strong summer sun, they do 1 watt and 2 watts respektively. Amazing.
    
    Also, sitting outside in the harsh sun with a laptop? No thank you 😁.
    
    This is really niche stuff for when you can’t even reload your power bank once every couple of days IMO.
    
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  - Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I’ve got a very similar panel myself, in fact it’s probably a bit bigger.
    
    If you leave it out all day, under ideal conditions, it will put around 10AH worth of charge into a power bank, maybe a bit more, so 40-50 watt-hours if you’re lucky, over twelve hours.
    
    Not a worthwhile amount of power.
    
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- Jimmycakes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  There’s plenty of solar panels that don’t weigh a lot these days
  
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Thorry84@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
People always severely underestimate how little power solar panels actually produce. In optimal conditions they get around 1000 watt per square meter, but are only around 20% efficient. So that means 200 watt produced at the panel. Once you convert that into something useable and transport it to where you need it, you’ll probably lose another 5 - 10%. And that’s a square meter, that’s more than you can comfortably carry. Think a flat panel of around 2 meters in length and 0.5 meters wide and lifting that above your head, pointed perfectly at the sun.

And the reality is, most solar panels even in permanent installations don’t experience perfect conditions. They don’t track the sun, so most of the time they aren’t perfectly aligned to catch all that energy. They are most likely never aligned perfectly, or if they are just a few days out of the year for like an hour a day. The sun isn’t always out, not just because you know night time, but also because of clouds and other weather or human related stuff. Lots of times there are shadows that prevent optimal workings. Dust and grime also plays a part. But another thing is temperature, solar panels are rated at around 20 degrees C. But when you put a black thing in full sun, you know it’s going to get scorching hot. This also reduces the amount of energy you can usefully extract from the sunlight as well.

The annoying thing about solar panels is they aren’t linear at all. It isn’t like when conditions are 80% from optimal, they produce 80% of the power. No, usually it’s more like 60%. And once you drop below 40% of optimal, you just produce basically zero. With a bit of effort this can be improved upon. For example I use microinverters which can regulate each panel individually, but even then it’s not great. And that’s with state of the art panels, which are very fragile, so they have a sturdy metal frame, a very tough plastic backing and a big ass layer of glass on top to protect them. If you get those more sturdy thin and light panels, you’ll be lucky if they get 15% efficiency (most likely a lot less).

So putting solar on anything that isn’t a permanent installation is usually pointless. It’s way too hard to get those ideal conditions and the panels aren’t very good to start with. If it’s moving, it’s hard to point at the sun all the time. Exception are maybe a small panel on the top of a campervan, which is probably the best case for a mobile installation and gets just a little bit of energy. But only if it doesn’t distrub the wind profile of the van, otherwise it probably costs more in gas to push it along at high speed than it ever delivers back in electricity. One of those small foldable panels can also be useful when hiking for example. You can carry it collapsed on your back and if you take a break, you can fold it out, point it at the sun and get some useful energy for a couple of hours while you get some rest. Putting it on when hiking would be pointless, as it would be bulky when folded out, usually not pointed at the sun and under cover of trees for example.

Maybe the technology will improve in the future, but for now any useful personal solar is very niche.

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- herrvogel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  You’re not gonna be lining a flexible handheld device with the kind of solar panels that can achieve such efficiencies even under ideal conditions. If you want an actual parasol rather than an unwieldy, rigid, parasol shaped bed for a bunch of solar panels, this is a job for the more alternative solar cell types that are cheaper and less efficient, but can be made thinner and lighter, and can be stuck on something like that. Unfortunately those generally have piss poor efficiency and they degrade to near uselessness very quickly.
  
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- CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Well it depends for what application. It would definitely be enough for charging your phone a whole day at a festival. I’ve been using one of those “hiking” panels that you can put on a backpack. It produces less than 15 W, but is enough for my phone for the whole duration of the festival week; if it is sunny that is. I would love not having to bring both, an umbrella and the solar panel. E.g. Hellfest this year was really hot as hell, it definitely would have worked for this application.
  
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- humanspiral@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  It’s a better product idea than you make out.
  
  It does require industrial design, and tooling for flexible panel manufacturers to make umbrella patterned panels, as cheaply as rectangular patterned ones.
  
  Flexible panells top out closer to 25% efficiency than 20%. 200-250w is a lot of power. The umbrella itself needs just a hook for a battery rather than coming with one. Solar or USB (up to 240w at 48v power) interfaces. This can power a mini pc with a couple of large monitors with power left over. 1kwh per day/m^2^ is enogh to cover a high power laptop, electric cooking, or if it were a beach parasol, keep a drink fridge cool, and boom box TF out of the place. Because you need an ebike to lug all of the crap to the beach, it can charge it back up. Besides beach use, a parasol would allow supplementary power for van/RV or even a house, when not beach party boomboxing.
  
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Barrington@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Is your plan to walk around with your umbrella up when it’s bright and sunny, or to wait until it’s overcast, dark, and rainy—hoping I charge something?"

Maybe a parasol would be a better idea?

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- ValiantDust@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Funnily enough, the word umbrella derives from the Latin word umbra, meaning shadow. An Umbrella was originally for protection against the sun. I know it now usually is used for the thing protecting you from rain (at least in English), I just thought it was funny that people did walk around with what they called an umbrella when it’s bright and sunny for a few hundred years.
  
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Bytemeister@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
“Rollable” solar panels are still pretty stiff. You would need a beefier mechanism to handle the extra forces required. They also have a pretty significant “minimum turn radius” so they would need an entirely new design for their mechanism to work without damaging the panels.

They do make personal solar array with a surface area comparable to your umbrella idea, but those would take days to charge a cellphone, so the char you get walking around for a few hours is negligible.

It’s a cool idea, and would be a fun project to build and show off, but it’s not going to be marketable or practical without a whole lot of development in solar, battery and umbrella tech.

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Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Get/create a solar backpack with a powerbank instead. That way weight is less of a concern and you can charge it when the sun is actually out without looking like a weirdo 😅

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MicrowavedTea@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Do you usually use an umbrella when it’s sunny or would you do it just to charge the battery? I know it’s a thing but only very rarely see people do that, probably not enough to have demand for something like this. Backpacks with solar panels exist but I think these are pretty hard to find too.

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- Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  This idea is right up there with Glow in the dark sunglasses.
  
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FelixCress@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I know this sub is called “nostupidquestions” but c’mon.

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xavier666@lemmy.umucat.day ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
portability

cost

efficiency

return on investment

market size

I think the umbrella did not satisfy all these parameters enough for it to take off
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TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
why would you have a solar powered umbrella instead of a parasol? isn’t the only difference one is used when no sun lol

also sound like a bad idea either way

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Alsjemenou@lemy.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Why not add a bluetooth speaker and some search lights, maybe a perfume dispenser and a toothpick holder. fucking genius.

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Etterra@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Meh, l stick with analog umbrellas. They don’t need electricity to open or close.

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CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
You could use a Sekiro shield: youtu.be/OCq8adZdKP4 It’d be rigid but… probably quite heavy.

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memfree@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Looks like this guy couldn’t get financed to make something similar: www.homecrux.com/…/74666/

– but my search did turn up alibaba results for similar stuff, so they probably just stole the idea from him.

Nitpick: You want a parasol or sunshade, not an umbrella. Umbrellas are for rain (latin origins aside). It is cloudy when it rains.

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Object@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
It would get stolen real quick too, unfortunately. Also probably very fragile or very heavy.

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morphballganon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Solar cells are crystalline and rigid. You wouldn’t be able to fold the umbrella up and put it away. Also, as someone else pointed out, solar cells work best in sunlight… which you won’t want an umbrella for.

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Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
The weight of a battery pack sounds unpleasant for something you would be carrying for a long time.

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Fleur_@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What exactly is the benefit of having an umbrella mounted solar panel over regular solar panels

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- nimpnin@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Protects you from the sun while you walk. Umbrellas are used for that at least in Japan, as somebody already mentioned
  
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  - Fleur_@aussie.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yeah but umbrellas already exist. Why would you want to carry around a solar umbrella with empty batteries to charge as opposed to a regular umbrella with already charged batteries
    
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Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

Like I feel like that would be an obvious thing,

I would have NEVER thought of this…

How are there no personal versions for wandering around on a sunny day with portable shade that gets you a charged battery pack?

Oh my god! THATS what umbrella man was doing! Whew! Solved a huge conspiracy there!

…wait, but that STILL proves he was a time traveler! Dammit!

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solrize@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
There are foldable and flexible solar panels that go on a backpack. An umbrella would be kind of silly. What are you trying to do? How much power do you need?

Here is a 6.5 watt solar backpack though I robably wouldn’t buy it. It shoud be able to charge a 40WH USB power bank in a day or so. You never get the full rated power from solar cells.

sidedeal.com/…/outdoor-tech-mountaineer-solar-pan…

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- Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  That would be effectively worthless if it was used as displayed, with the panel on the backpack. Solar panels perform best when directly facing the sun, as soon as you start to angle them away, they lose output.
  
  I’ve had reasonable results with leaving them on the ground all day though.
  
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Brkdncr@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Ecoflow makes a hat with panels that charge a battery pack.

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oo1@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
fragile.

You could put them on a fixed awning, but you generally don’t want solar cells flopping around, being vibrated or moving at all if you can help it

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