I’m only half kidding. I’m a bit of a prepper and I have lots of powerbanks and devices that charge from USB but besides idling my truck I really had no other way to charge any of them in case of a long-term power outage which seemed a bit of an oversight on my part.

Not like this solves the issue. 30 watts (under ideal conditions) isn’t much but it’s a start.

      • Dookieman12@piefed.social
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        1 day ago

        Time, in hours (H), equals average solar kilowatt hours per month (K), multiplied by the price of one kilowatt hour (P), divided by the total cost © of all the purchased components.

        H = (K * P) / C

        I’m sure if you were patient and dedicated enough, you could approximate each of those numbers using the info OP has already posted and get a general idea (weeks, months, or years).

        • wunami@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Time, in hours (H), equals average solar kilowatt hours per month (K), multiplied by the price of one kilowatt hour (P), divided by the total cost © of all the purchased components.

          H = (K * P) / C

          So you’re dividing the average saving per month by the total cost and expecting to get hours?

          If we generously estimate a very high 3000kWh/month generated and high $0.40/kWh price and it cost OP $9000, then you formula is (3000×0.40)/9000 = 0.133 hours.

          Breaking even after less than 1 hour?!??! Extraordinary!

          • Dookieman12@piefed.social
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            20 hours ago

            It’s pretty easy to cry about bad math, but it’s a lot harder to figure out the right math.

            Don’t worry, I’ll try to do it for you again a second time.

            Power consumption varies. Use the average monthly power draw from the solar array, let’s assume for demonstration purposes 1,000 kWh/month.

            Multiply that by the cost of 1 kWh from the power company, let’s say 20 cents.

            In one month, that means you saved $200.

            Let’s assume the solar equipment costs $1,000.

            The answer is 5 months, or 5,000 kWh.

            Sorry, I’ll make sure the free work I do for you is better quality next time.

            • wunami@lemmy.world
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              17 hours ago

              Bro. Don’t act like this basic arithmetic and unit cancelation is hard. Not my fault you were so confidently incorrect.