UKH

any recommendations/experience in tge field from UKC members please.  

Anker very good but a bit heavy for lightweight backpacking imho. I am going to experiment with a cheapo panel from eBay. I met someone on the GR10 with one which seemed okay. 

Like Anker - mines been faultless for two years now. 

Another vote for Anker, used them in the Himalaya and Alaska -- both times they worked really well. 

Thanks for your comments. Regarding the Anker chargers, 15w or 21w? and did you charge your devices direct or use a battery pack?

thanks

15W. Direct to the phone - lighter, but either works fine.

For the UK or somewhere (usually) sunnier?

I've got an Anker 21w 3-panel, but the battery is the key bit. The trick is to start with the battery fully charged, charge your phone and cameras at night, then top-up the battery by trickle charge via the panel during the day. A lot of devices don't like intermittent power and will stop charging if the sun goes in and out a few times.

I've got an Anker 20100mha USB-A and Aukey 10050 USB-C powerbank batteries. For two/three day trips the small battery is fine on its own. For longer I take the bigger one and the panel. In the tropics it works great - a week or more and you can return with everything fully charged - Powerbank, Sony DSLR, iphone, Petzl Nao. The powerbanks have two outputs so you can charge two items at once. You can't put power in and out at the same time though.

In the UK you're more dependent on the weather and fettling the panel to keep it perpendicular to the sun. Bear in mind a 20100mha powerbank will take 9+ hours to full charge from a socket, so you do want to be starting charged and topping up.

Getting a decent setup was motivated by a trip to Orkney a few years back - in June and decent weather - where we had a couple of small charging panels which were hopeless.

Options for DSLRs/ laptops etc which require higher power than USB are limited, pricey, bulky and heavy - not an option for backpacking. This is one of the reasons I switched to Sony cameras.

Good detailed review here: https://diglloyd.com/articles/power/Anker-PowerPortSolarLite.html

I heard good things about Goal Zero Nomad 7, though it is not cheap.

Its a shame these things aren't sold in the UK, although I'm struggling to think why it costs so much.

https://waterlilyturbine.com/products/waterlily-turbine 

Things lie this that are sustainable surely need to start being cheaper to attract more interest and use(?)

Went for the Powerfilm lightsaver in the end. The quoted 5oz weight swayed it for me. Thanks everyone.

Can you point out a UK stockists? Thanks 

There's a review online which shows that this product doesn't live up to the marketing hype. 

I got one of these https://www.texenergy.co.uk/products/infinite-air/ a bit heavy for backpacking but fine for base camp uses.