3 ms·

No. The available surface area is too low.

aetherspawn 4y ago
We’re not talking about powering a car here. Most headphones have a tiny tiny energy draw to maximise the energy of their tiny lightweight battery.
mthomasmw 4y ago
'Currently the tech can create one hour's worth of power "from just 20 minutes of English or Swedish summer sunshine".'
- LightG 4y ago
  So ... 20 minutes use per year. Nice.
  - zdragnar 4y ago
    Presumably, it is referring to strength of sunlight at that latitude. 3:1 runtime to charge time for strong solar lighting really isn't bad at all if the cells are durable enough for a wearable item and the speakers don't suck.
    - OJFord 4y ago
      I think GP is joking about getting just 6m40s of sunshine per year in England/Sweden.
TOMDM 4y ago
From the article: "The solar-powered headphones still have a built-in battery that can power up to 80 hours of playback time. It is this that the Powerfoyle strip charges. Mr Fili says that currently the tech can create one hour's worth of power "from just 20 minutes of English or Swedish summer sunshine"." A very bold claim, I do wonder if that's with the strip placed optimally facing the sun, and not integrated into a headset. The idea of a solar jacket to keep a hikers satellite phone topped off sounds more attractive though.
- abdullahkhalids 4y ago
  Back of the envelope calculations. Assume: * solar panel is about 1.5cm x 20cm = 0.003m^2 * Efficiency = 10% * solar insulation is 1000W/m^2 Power = 0.3W In 20 min you gain, 0.3x1/3=0.1Wh of energy. Now, these random Sony headphones [1] have 30h life with a battery of 3.7V, 1200mAh [2]. This means they consume 3.7*1200m/30 = 0.148Wh per hour. Seems like claim is roughly in the ballpark. [1] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0863TXGM3 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0863TXGM3 [2] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08YQX76B1 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08YQX76B1
  - reportingsjr 4y ago
    To add to this, each apple airpod earbud has a 93mWh (0.093Wh) battery and can in theory last about 6 hours. So, a headband that can capture 0.1Wh of energy in 20 min would recharge about 3 hours worth of airpod listening time. It's definitely in the right order of magnitude, this could definitely be doable. This could make a lot of sense for the student market, where you listen to music/podcasts/whatever between classes and then the headphones get a decent charge when you walk between buildings, walk home, etc.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  Summer sunshine is also like an order of magnitude more W/m^2 than overcast winter day, at least up north.
agumonkey 4y ago
depends on what kind, you could have head-band style with thin film over the surfaces and low power in ear transducers, i'd probably buy none (granted the pv film doesn't degrade in a year) which reminds me that I regularly find old PV pocket calc, with I forgot what kind of oxide they used, still working fine..
UncleOxidant 4y ago
Solar hats. The next must-have.

We’re not talking about powering a car here. Most headphones have a tiny tiny energy draw to maximise the energy of their tiny lightweight battery.

mthomasmw 4y ago

'Currently the tech can create one hour's worth of power "from just 20 minutes of English or Swedish summer sunshine".'

LightG 4y ago
So ... 20 minutes use per year. Nice.
- zdragnar 4y ago
  Presumably, it is referring to strength of sunlight at that latitude. 3:1 runtime to charge time for strong solar lighting really isn't bad at all if the cells are durable enough for a wearable item and the speakers don't suck.
  - OJFord 4y ago
    I think GP is joking about getting just 6m40s of sunshine per year in England/Sweden.

TOMDM 4y ago

From the article: "The solar-powered headphones still have a built-in battery that can power up to 80 hours of playback time. It is this that the Powerfoyle strip charges. Mr Fili says that currently the tech can create one hour's worth of power "from just 20 minutes of English or Swedish summer sunshine"." A very bold claim, I do wonder if that's with the strip placed optimally facing the sun, and not integrated into a headset. The idea of a solar jacket to keep a hikers satellite phone topped off sounds more attractive though.

abdullahkhalids 4y ago
Back of the envelope calculations. Assume: * solar panel is about 1.5cm x 20cm = 0.003m^2 * Efficiency = 10% * solar insulation is 1000W/m^2 Power = 0.3W In 20 min you gain, 0.3x1/3=0.1Wh of energy. Now, these random Sony headphones [1] have 30h life with a battery of 3.7V, 1200mAh [2]. This means they consume 3.7*1200m/30 = 0.148Wh per hour. Seems like claim is roughly in the ballpark. [1] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0863TXGM3 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0863TXGM3 [2] https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08YQX76B1 https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08YQX76B1
- reportingsjr 4y ago
  To add to this, each apple airpod earbud has a 93mWh (0.093Wh) battery and can in theory last about 6 hours. So, a headband that can capture 0.1Wh of energy in 20 min would recharge about 3 hours worth of airpod listening time. It's definitely in the right order of magnitude, this could definitely be doable. This could make a lot of sense for the student market, where you listen to music/podcasts/whatever between classes and then the headphones get a decent charge when you walk between buildings, walk home, etc.
marginalia_nu 4y ago
Summer sunshine is also like an order of magnitude more W/m^2 than overcast winter day, at least up north.

agumonkey 4y ago

depends on what kind, you could have head-band style with thin film over the surfaces and low power in ear transducers, i'd probably buy none (granted the pv film doesn't degrade in a year) which reminds me that I regularly find old PV pocket calc, with I forgot what kind of oxide they used, still working fine..

UncleOxidant 4y ago

Solar hats. The next must-have.