It’s day four of our off-the-grid experiment here at DVICE. To celebrate Earth Week, my goal is to blog, work and live from my home office in San Francisco without plugging into the municipal power grid. It’s sorta like camping, without the rest and relaxation. Needing a break from the solitude (and the cardiopulmonary workout of step-charging my laptop), I hit the streets for a much-needed field trip. Find out what happens when you try to offer free off-grid cellphone charging after the Continue jump…
Enter the Free Phone Charge Challenge! My mission: take the baggie of my HYmini’s sad, unused tips and try to put each one to work. The HYmini is the one and only portable wind-powered charger among the gadgets in my green quiver. It includes adapters for charging cellphones from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG and Sony Ericsson (in the baggie in my left hand, above).
After about 20 minutes, I rode to a coffee shop. Conclusion: 4pm is not coffee time in my hood. Eventually I got one eager taker with a Sony Ericsson (note: the guy’s name is Leif, go figure!). Unfortunately, I’d just tested the HYmini on my phone, which apparently drained all the power (my 20-minute ride = about two minutes of charge time). Lesson learned. As advertised, the wind turbine is only a “supplemental” power source. Leif humored me, though, and I swapped in the Sony tip. No charge, but I’m giving myself an A for effort on that one.
Which brings me to this a.m. I hit the dog park near my home, where my pug Gus came in handy, yet again. Dude is a social butterfly, so not long after my arrival, I spent about 35 minutes total charging a pair of Motorola phones, including a Q, which isn't exactly the most NRG-efficient PDA. (note: the Hymini's 1200mAh battery never reached a full charge, but two 5V solar panels kept the charge light going and both phones registered a charge; probably not a whole lotta talk time, but again, A for effort).
Last came my idea to use the sign (pictured above; note: that lady would not talk to me). I returned to the coffee shop, where people were surprisingly curious, and one woman with a stroller not only stopped to let me charge her Samsung for a minute, but she also snapped the pic of me. Now, I wish I could tell you I found someone carrying an LG. That would make a great ending to today’s long, epic post and solar saga. Regrettably, I didn’t, so that lonely adapter from the HYmini's set was left unused, notching up my carbon footprint just a bit.
Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of Off the Grid, though maybe by then I’ll have tracked down an LG to charge!
Off the Grid, Part 2: Do watched solar pots ever boil?
Off the Grid, Part 3: How to jump-start a MacBook with foot power
editor@dvice.com
By Insaneboy at 7:14 PM ON 04/24/08
I love these off the grid segments.
I hope that you dont die of starvation.
P.S
Gus rocks!
By Bob at 7:59 PM ON 04/24/08
Just wish it was Earth Month and I could keep reading about Steve's efforts.
Isn't it amazing how much effort it takes to crank/peddle/step some power? And when you think that you need to do that sort of effort for hours, you just want to die!
Thank goodness for the sun and wind and waves, etc.
By TheAdlerian at 10:35 PM ON 04/24/08
Want to reduce your "carbon footprint" (nonsense) then stop buying crap you don't need. You need two or three pairs of pants, you could probably have one cell phone for life, etc. That's how to do it.
We should be calling for people to stop buying stuff they don't need, and demand that companies stop buring through resources making mountains of redundant products we don't need, and that won't ever buy.
By jiffyjeff at 3:58 PM ON 04/25/08
Everyone can do this: charge your devices off your car's cigarette lighter! I use a splitter to charge my cell, MP3, elec. razor and power tool batteries during my commute. Wall charger transformers draw power 24/7 whether hooked to a device or not so I'm saving there too.