HomeBinhi: Letran-Calamba Student Research Journalvol. 9 no. 1 (2008)

Universal Solar Power Charger

Adrian D. Boado | Jose Nero M. Mazaredo | Paul A. Teope

Discipline: Electrical Engineering

 

Abstract:

A universal charger was designed to charge the battery of an electronic gadget by using a renewable source, the solar energy. The device harnesses the ever present solar energy by using solar panel and converts that energy into a direct current, and then stores it in a battery storage.

 

The storage battery supplies 12 V, 2.4 amperes which is sufficient to operate the cigarette jack charger. The cigarette jack charger regulates the voltage coming from the battery storage, and then charges the battery of the electronic gadget.

 

After testing the prototype, and based on the interviews conducted with professionals, the researchers arrived at the following findings. First, the amount of energy that a solar panel can generate depends on the intensity of the light present and to the size of solar panel. Hence, the larger the size, the larger the power it can generate. Second, by using a battery storage, it is possible to regulate the energy used in charging the electronic devices. Finally, the universal solar power charger (USPC) is more convenient to use than the hand crank and hand grip portable charger because the user can charge USPC for much longer use by simply exposing it to the sun.