How to Choose a Portable Power Station for Phones
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You might have noticed that technology is developing faster these days. We have creative, educational, entertainment, and social media applications for organizing our daily life. Moreover, we access all these things via our phones. Without any doubt, we always wish to roam around with our phones wherever we go. Nevertheless, there is an issue that the faster growth of technology has not addressed. Yes, it is about the battery life of our phones. In other words, when we start using our phones, the battery in our phones drains. This is where portable power stations for phones are again a gift from technology.
In general, phone chargers use around 5 watts of electricity. When you take the case of faster chargers, they use nearly 20 watts. Nevertheless, most standard chargers are more around the 5W range. When you take the case of phone chargers, they generally use one or two amps. They connect to a 120-Volt outlet.
When talking about the power consumed by smartphones, how many times you recharge your phone also will have an impact. Let us consider that it takes one hour to charge your phone fully. Considering this imagination:
· When charging your phone once a day, it will consume 0.035 kilowatt-hours of electricity. When this value denotes charging for a week, recharging once a day for a month will take 0.15 kWh per month, and it will take around 1.83 kilo-watt hours per year.
· When you recharge your phone two times a day, the electricity consumption per year will be 3.65 kWh, per month 0.3 kWh, and per week, it will be 0.07 kWh of electricity.
When 5W is the average wattage of phone chargers, nowadays, some phones come with fast chargers. These chargers will consume higher wattage of electricity. Based on how much wattage power charger you get with your phone, the electricity consumption per year will be as follows:
Wattage of Phone Charger | Electricity in kWh consumed per year |
20 | 7.30 |
15 | 5.48 |
10 | 3.65 |
5 | 1.83 |
Here, kWh denotes how your utility bill evaluates your energy usage. In other words, it is the electricity consumed over some time.
If you are wondering whether you need a portable power station for a phone that you own, here are the benefits of a power station you should consider:
Smart devices with full batteries are essential if you do many daily activities over these devices. Whether you use your phone for entertainment, work-related activities, or school-related stuff, you need a completely charged battery to use the device for the entire day without any hindrance to your activities. One of the crucial benefits of portable power stations is their ability to provide stable power when required. Nowadays, most of us spend time on the internet. It would be best if you had a power station handy for browsing, playing games, doing work, or even watching some videos all through the day on your phone.
When you have a power station, you need not worry, even when there is a power outage.
The diversity they offer is one of the important reasons why portable power stations for phones have gained a great name and fame. Yes, you can find portable power stations in different sizes, different watt capacities, and different brands. You can even find them in different designs such that you can choose a fitting design for your needs. A 3000 mAh power station will suffice if you wish to use the power station only for recharging your single small smartphone. But, if you wish to get more like recharging laptops, cameras, and tablets, you can opt for a power station with a 50000 mAh battery capacity. With this much capacity, you can also power your family’s smart devices.
Your phone will be the only point of contact when you are away from your family on a trip. You should not leave your family in a panic when they are not in a position to contact you due to battery draining in your phone. You can make them feel secure that you are traveling safely when you have your phone handy. They can contact you at any time and can know your whereabouts. Even you can contact the police when you are in a risky situation when your phone has the battery charged. To make this happen, you should carry a portable power station for your phone wherever you go.
It would be best if you considered different factors when choosing the best portable power station for a phone. Here are a few of them:
The first and most important factor to consider is the charging capacity of the portable power station for a phone. This capacity is evaluated in milliampere hours, shortly called mAh.
So, if you are a person frequently traveling for two or three days, you can consider the second option above. The first option will suit if you recharge your phone from the power station once a day.
When you compare different portable power stations for phones, it is better to consider the number of USB ports in them. It is better to go for a power station with a minimum of two USB charging ports. This facility allows you to recharge your phone and another device or two phones simultaneously. In general, the charging ports of portable power stations will have varied charging outputs. With this facility, you can recharge larger and smaller devices simultaneously without any disturbance.
However, remember that when you recharge multiple devices on your power station, you will have to recharge it frequently.
Naturally, you will consider how long it will take to recharge the power station. The charging time relies on the capacity of the powered device, denoted as PD, and its input current, which is equal to the output power of the power-sourcing device called PSD.
You can calculate the charging time of a portable power station for a phone by dividing battery capacity by the actual input current as given below:
Charging Time = Battery capacity/Actual input current
We can take the case of a 10,000 mAh power bank, for example, with a rated input 5V/2A capacity. If you use a 5V/1A power adapter to charge it, its actual input current is 1A = 1000 mAh. It means 10,000 mAh/1,000 mAh is equal to 10 hours.
On the other hand, let us consider that you use a 5V/2A power adapter. In this case, it will take 5 hours to charge the power bank, which arrived as follows: 10,000 mAh/2,000 mAh is equal to 5 hours.
Unfortunately, no portable power station for phones can recharge itself when it is empty. You will have to recharge the power bank. Only when it is fully charged can you use the power it has stored to power your phone and other devices. Most power banks will have a cable that comes along with it. You will have to plug the supplied cable into the input port of the battery pack. You will have to attach the other end, which will generally be a standard USB, to a wall charger or other power source.
The input of power banks ranges from 1Amp to 2.4 Amps. So, the bigger the input, the quicker will be the charging time. Using wall chargers that deliver up to 2.4 Amps will power your portable power station quickly. If you have a 1 Amp adapter, it will take twice the time to recharge.
You can also look for other ways to recharge. For instance, some might be charged from a solar panel.
The portability of a power bank is directly connected to the charging capacity. The more milliampere-hours the power station has, the larger the power bank will be concerning the dimension. So, it will not be portable. The more powerful the power bank bigger will be the dimension.
Portable power stations for phones are undoubtedly useful innovations. They can be more user-friendly with features like LED indicators, quality power cables, universal USB ports, and portability. Nowadays, most phones come with type-C ports. So, buying the quick charging capability will help power present-day phones. Are you ready to choose a fitting power bank for your needs?
This post was last modified on October 29, 2022 5:02 pm