At Xtorm, we have a lot of solar products that can all be charged using sunlight. You turn the solar panel of your Power Bank towards the sun and simply start charging. To recharge your Power Station, you connect an Xtorm Solar Panel and the sun does the work for you. At this moment, the sun is considered to be the source of the most affordable, clean and sustainable energy.

A wide variety of factors have an impact on how fast the sun is able to charge your Solar Power Bank or your Portable Power Station through Solar Panels. The most important factors are:

• Season & Location
• Time of day
• Cloudiness

Seasonal impact & Location

One of the biggest factors that shouldn’t be underestimated is the impact the seasons have on the power of sunlight. Optimal conditions are of course during the summer. During the winter the sun can be around 50% less powerful!

Not only does the sun simply shine fewer hours per day during the winter, it also doesn’t appear as high in the sky. This lower angle means the same amount of sunlight is spread out over more surface, making it effectively less powerful. This difference is less apparent around the equator, but increases the more you move further towards either pole.

When placing a portable or integrated solar panel, you should also consider the panel’s placement direction and slope angle. In the Netherlands and Belgium the panel’s placement direction should be towards the south at an angle of 36 degrees. This way, the panel catches as much sunlight as possible during the day and you can optimally benefit of charging through solar-energy.  

Time of day impact

As mentioned in the text above, the angle of the sun has a big impact on the effectiveness of, for example, Solar Panels or a Solar Power Bank. Of course, the angle doesn’t only change with seasons - it also changes throughout the day. The peak solar hours are often between 11am and 2pm, so that’s the best time to place your solar charger at the right angle and charge your devices.

The impact of clouds

Furthermore, clouds have a very big impact on the effectiveness of Solar Panels, as you can imagine. Depending on the intensity and denseness of the clouds, the impact could reduce as much as 90% in power generation. Charging your devices completely through solar on such a day is quite a time-consuming task.

How long does it take to fully recharge my Solar Power Bank or Power Station with the use of Solar Panels?

Because the estimated charging times can vary a lot depending on the circumstances, we have done estimated calculations for 3 different scenarios:

1. Perfect sunny day in summer
2. Mostly sunny day in spring or fall
3. Mostly sunny day in winter

We will not offer estimations for very cloudy days, because it is really not effective enough to charge through a Solar Panel.

In the table below you can see how long it takes to fully recharge your Xtorm Solar Power Bank:

By using an Xtorm Power Station and Solar Panel, you can sustainably recharge your Power Station or stay off-grid for a longer period of time. One or more Xtorm Solar Panels keeps your Power Station full of energy.

In the table below you can see how fast you can be recharged on a beautiful summer day and whether you need one or two Solar Panels to make that happen.

We recommend to fully charge your Power Bank or Power Station with mains power before departure. During your trip you can recharge by relying on the power of the sun!