Power Banks

KoliTech

Posted by Felix Okoli on Tuesday October 21, 2014 at 16:12:52:

Everyone who lives in the 21st century would at least know what a bank is. A Bank is a place where people go to store their money for safekeeping although banks nowadays offer more services than just helping you store your money. However the primary purpose of a bank is to help you keep your money and also allow you to withdraw it anytime you want in the future when you have need for it. This is what financial banks are - They are meant for keeping money.

In the tech world however, there are electronic devices or gadgets that are referred to as Power banks. What are Power banks? Well, just like financial banks, a Power banks is a device that allows you to store power for later retrieval in the future.

In our world of today, electrical power is becoming scarce because it's a limited resource even though demand for it is growing. This is because most tech inventions nowadays tend to have a need for electricity such that without it, those electronic devices would be useless. Imagine how your TV, radio, heater, mobile phone, computer or camera would world if you didn't have electricity. 21st century man needs electricity in order to live in the modern digital world he has created.

Millions of years ago, human beings didn't really know anything about electricity or electronics and what most of them knew about then was just how to make fire from stones. Then, there wasn't really any need for electric charges since there were no machines or devices built with the need for it. However, things have changed in our modern world as more and more human inventions have been designed and manufactured with the need for electrical Power and that’s why there is also a growing need for electrical power.

Sourcing for Power in our world of today is a necessity and one can get it from a national power service or from private companies. In either case, bills would have to be paid on a period basis either in advance or arrears and it’s mostly related to how much power was consumed by the user. N some cases however, there might be unavailability of or insunfficient power supply and the power consumer would have to source for other means of getting electrical power such as by using power generators, solar energy or stored energy. Stored energy is mostly electrical energy or charges that are stored in batteries or power banks.

Powered banks are mostly efficient and useful when there is no immediate source of power and power is needed on the go or in an isolated place. In developing countries too where there is no well established power distribution, the needed to rationing power also arises and so consumers would have to make do with the little electricity they’ve been supplied with. People will need to use electricity to do a lot of things such as recharging their mobile phones, laptops or for washing machines.

When it comes to recharging battery powered devices such as mobile phones and smaller devices, it is easier making use of power banks and they come in various capacities or mah(milliamp hours) such as 1250mah, 2000mah or even 50000mah. The power rating or capacity help determine how much charge it can pass to an electronic device’s battery. A 50000mah power bank for instance can recharge a mobile phones battery about 50 times if the phone’s battery capacity is 1000mah. You get the maths?

Power banks also vary in sizes and some are so big that they are mostly used as a stationery device for charging bigger devices while some are so portable that they can fit into one’s pocket and so can be used on the road. Both of them have their advantages such as lasting longer for the bigger one or being more mobile friendly for the smaller ones.

One of the ways through which I recharge my phone battery while I’m on the road and taking a walk is by making use of a mobile power bank that is built just for topping up 1250mah batteries. I make use of power banks because it allows me to recharge my phone battery while I’m taking a walk to the bus stop, supermarket or just outing as It allows me to have my phone anywhere I am without having to keep it plugged into a wall socket which is more stationery. I can even put it into my jeans pocket and it fits nicely without taking much space.

Power banks provide that electronic top-up your battery needs even when you are in an isolated place like a camp, desert, jungle, road or field trip and where you might not easily be able to plug your phone to a wall socket. It doesn’t matter the time, the place or facilities available, they are just built to be standalone devices for charging small electronic devices and it’s not just phones, you can also use it for your laptops, tablets, digital cameras and so on.

Some power banks are designed to even top up mobile phones much faster than regular desktop charging does and this saves you time. For some people, power banks offer a lasting remedy for failing or weakened phone batteries and hence might replace the need for buying a new phone battery.

Power banks are also recommended for people who use gaming and other power sucking apps on their phones or electronic devices on the go as it helps provide the needed battery top-up which those apps consume. So having at least a power bank in the bag or in your pocket is mostly a needed gadget.

Power banks are also good for people who use electronic devices in developing countries where there is insufficient power supply at it would help keep their devices charged up and fully functional even when there is no electrical supply. In such countries it’s even more necessary given that most mobile phone and phone batteries are refurbished or used products which require more maintenance than new ones.

In Nigeria for instance, mobile phone users actually have to pay battery charging business about N50 per day just to keep their phone batteries charged up and such businesses tend to boom since the country has an inefficient power sector.
Power banks are also useful even for laptops and tablets as it would allow the user use it for a much longer time period. My Toshiba laptop for instance can last up to 2 hrs on battery time but with a laptop power bank, it can last up to 2 more hours. I could even make the laptop last more than 10 hrs by making use of a much bigger laptop power bank.

Power banks come in different sizes and shapes and the bigger they are, the more costly they get and the more work it can probably do. A Power bank designed for a mobile phone for instance is much smaller than the phone itself and a 5000mah power bank for instance can charge a mobile phone’s battery up to 4 times.

Personally, I own a variety of power banks and 50000mah tends to produce more work than the 2500mah power banks. I can use the 2500mah power bank to recharge my phone only 2 times but the 50000mah power bank which I have tends to last more than 10 usages. I think the latter can be used for up to 40 times by my phone.

When it comes to using power banks, many people don’t really understand how it works. How do Power banks really work? Well, first of all you need to understand that it’s just a portable battery that has an input and output ports through which you can either recharge or discharge it. Power banks can come with a micro-HDMI port meant for recharging it and a USB port meant for discharging it’s power. It is through that USB port that it’s normally connected to a phone or mobile device in order to recharge the device.

Modern day power banks can be recharged through their micro-HDMI ports by connecting a micro-HDMI cable to it and then plugging the wire to a USB port which can be on a computer, wall charger, solar charger or other electronic devices. At times, I even connect the cable to my DVD player since it also comes with a USB port for flash drives. Some solar chargers are built to support micro-HDMI devices like Power banks and can be used to top it up. I also use one of such solar chargers to top up my 50,000mah power bank. It’s a 14W, 5V foldable solar charger which I got from Amazon and normally hang on my window.

If you need to buy a Power bank, you can easily buy it online from stores like Amazon or eBay if you are in the USA. If you are in Nigeria, you can buy it from shopping sites like Konga, Jumia or Dealdey.

Comments:

Re: Power Banks Reply by Anon on Saturday December 20, 2014 at 21:34:4:

Hi,

Great job you are doing. Please how long did you did you charge your 50000maH power bank before first usage and how many charge cycles does it give you?

Re: Power Banks Reply by Felix Okoli on Saturday December 20, 2014 at 21:34:4:

Well, it took about a day and it allows me to charge more than 10 times or more. It depends on your phone battery requirement. If your batter is about 2500mah, then it means that the 50000mah power bank can recharge it at most 20 times.

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