Rick Hurst Web Developer in Bristol, UK

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Charging a powergorilla from a solargorilla in the UK

solargorilla hanging out of the loft window

Following on from the previous experiment, I wanted to see how long it took to charge the powergorilla from the solargorilla in our not exactly solar-friendly climate.

Yesterday was promising as it was fairly sunny all day, but a days worth of charging (admittedly not making a massive effort to position the solargorilla so it was always facing the sun), only produced 3 out of 6 bars of charge – the first three are smaller than the last three, so i’m not sure if this represents 50% charge, or a much smaller percentage.

Today it is cloudy, and plugging the solargorilla in does nothing except cause the display to flicker. So, er.. i’ve postphoned this experiment too, as I want to make use of the powergorilla in the meantime. I will try again starting from the next sunny day.

Looking on the powertraveller site, the description sais the following of charging from the solargorilla:

“the powergorilla features solargorilla auto recognition, which means when you connect the solargorilla, the powergorilla will shut off unnecessary internal circuits to improve charging time by up to 2 hours and the little solar logo in the LCD screen will confirm this”.

Mine doesn’t have one of these, so i’m thinking maybe that the newer models, both of the solargorilla and powergorilla may be more efficient that the ones i’ve got. (Powertraveller PR dept: Feel free to send me newer versions and any other gadgets you think i’d find useful for review 🙂

Links to other articles about charging the power gorilla with a solar gorilla

  • Gisvold – solar charging in the UK