Solar battery chargers

Reb posted something about this in the past over at aimoo, and possibly a couple other of the hsp forums. Here is one I'm actually trying to decide if I want to purchase:

http://www.ccrane.com/more-categories/batteries-chargers/solar-powered-battery-charger.aspx

From this company, which I'm sure quite of few of you already know about:

http://www.crane.com

I have an mp3 player which takes one "AAA" battery, a small radio which takes two batteries of that size, and a digital camera which takes two "AA" batteries. Also wireless headphones which take two "AAA" batteries for the headphones, and one 9-volt battery for the transmitter. Have only found one solar panel with 9-volt batteries you can recharge so far:

http://store.sundancesolar.com/pocsolcharfo.html?productid=pocsolcharfo&channelid=FROOG

This would make for an interesting experiment to see what practical uses exist for solar power right now! And it also eliminates much of the "hazardous waste disposal" problem with regard to batteries. I use batteries which are recharged overnight now, but I have to plug the recharger into the AC outlet.

That does look like an interesting experiment and not too expensive. I remember reading something about solar rechargers some time ago in Consumer Reports. I don't remember what was said, but there might be something online about it or at your local library.

If you decide to pursue it, I'm sure we all would be interested in seeing how well it worked.

WD,

i have a solar battery charger on my tractor; so far, no battery problems, but the battery is only like 6 months old-if it sits for 2 weeks, it starts fine-it's diesel, so it takes some 'oomph' to turn it over and run the glow plugs.

i put up two solar security lights on the shop; they work like a charm-not any 1,000 lumens, but enough to see the front sight on the shotgun lol!

i use a lot of aaa and aa batteries; i bought a la crosse technology battery charger that claims to 'recycle regular batteries and rejuvenate rechargable nimh and nc batteries'. so far, it's doing what it claims....

that's the latest in 'renewable energy' from rebland...

ps, somewhere in the last 6 months, i saw an article in 'outside' magazine where some lady tried all kinds of solar stuff on a camping trip...supposed to recharge her cell phone, all kinds of things...she had like 3 or 4 brands/items...she dint like a couple of them, so it's caveat emptor, as usual...
r