can you use a small inverter directly from solar panel to charge small devices? like this one?

not going to work ... look at the power output of your solar panel ( 20 watts )

use an inverter that has an output of say 15 watts max

why not 20 watts max? i don't think they make inverters with that low wattage.

Last Edited by Daersoulkeeper on 08/19/2012 11:11 AM

What i do is use a small panel to charge a battery ( i use a die hard power pack)
then anything i have that has a lighter plug i can charge with it (making it solar powered). It also has a light and will jump a car.

Because science. You are converting DC to AC then back to DC. Lots of loss doing that. They make small USB adapters specifically for this. Buy one of those.

THIS. Easiest solution especially since solar takes forever to charge better to charge an electronics battery pack like a mophie juice pack and go from there. Make sure if you have higher amp devices like an IPAD or tablet it's rated for 10 amps not 5. The battery pack that is

Last Edited by _____tard on 08/19/2012 11:23 AM

I have a 12 volt lighter plug that also has a usb port so you could charge 2 devices at a time from the battery pack. If i have to i can plug in a 150 watt AC inverter to the battery pack and use a little ice maker!

No, I think it is
Watts / Volts = Amps

20w / 12vlts = 1.6amp


so your solar device at full output in full sunlight is 1.6amp.

What you have is really a toy solar panel.

Solar cost big money, check out solar websites for good info like solarpaneldotcom

Solar- No you should not try to charge batteries on any device unless it is set up for it.

You need a pure sign-wave inverter if you are going to charge a laptop computer pref. at or above 100 watts.

You have to charge a battery. The battery, once charged, will provide the high current pulses needed by a low cost inverter to create AC power. Note that some AC adapters do not like the "Modified Sine wave" output of cheap automotive type inverters. A true sinewave inverter is best but costs a lot more try Xantrex SW600...

The battery could be a motorcycle battery or small lawnmower battery, this would be maybe 40 amp hours. A 20 watt solar panel is not much of a panel. Usually you need a solar charge controller to properly charge a lead acid battery. Your panel should put out 16-22 volts and a charge controller would convert this to 14.4 volts for bulk charge and 13.3 volts for "float" charge.

If you could buy a 90 or 100 watt panel it would work a lot better, look at sunelec.com...