6 ms·

How often do people use their headphones outdoors? I would be very surprised if the average time outdoor over the lifetime of a headphone to be over 5%.

metadat 4y ago
The article states that the kind of PV charger they're using works under any light source, including artificial lighting. It's about half as efficient at converting light into electricity as current best rooftop panels, and these ones are way thinner.
- adrianN 4y ago
  My whole room is lighted by maybe 20W of LEDs, so it gets what, 5W of light? Very few of those Watts hit the solar panel.
- teraflop 4y ago
  OK, but efficiency at converting light into electricity doesn't mean much if the total amount of light available for conversion is very low -- which it is in almost all indoor situations. The illumination level in a brightly-lit office is typically on the order of 300 lux, compared to 100,000 lux for direct sunlight. (Residential spaces are often even dimmer.) So if, as they claim, this device can gain 1 hour of charge in 20 minutes in direct sunlight, it would take on the order of 100 hours to collect the same amount of energy indoors. The statement that "the panels can also create some power from artificial light" is technically true, but "some" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
  - metadat 4y ago
    > this device can gain 1 hour of charge in 20 minutes in direct sunlight, it would take on the order of 100 hours to collect the same amount of energy indoors Depending how frequent and heavy of a user you are, the economics may work out such that they'll be passively charged enough and never require active charging. Related idea: It'd be cool if cellphones could charge in light whilst powered off. Then when they get old, they'll sit around and always be topped up and ready to go.
- syntaxing 4y ago
  The physics just doesn’t work that way. Our sun produces about 11MW/m^2 (changes significantly due to atmospheric conditions) but there is no artificial lighting that will even be 0.0001% of those number.
eyelidlessness 4y ago
Depends on the person I guess? Or maybe how much time they spend walking. I used to use headphones almost exclusively while walking, and generally only used stereo speakers at home. I don’t listen to anything while walking these days because I’m generally paying full attention to my pup, music would be an unwanted distraction. But I do see lots of other people wearing headphones while we’re out walking. And I don’t have that stereo anymore, I generally only use my MBP’s built in speakers at home now. I really don’t like wearing headphones at all though.
hnlmorg 4y ago
Indoor solar powered devices have existed for decades (like calculators). The article even explicitly states that these can be charged from indoor light.
- teraflop 4y ago
  Sure, there are pocket calculators that can run off of ambient indoor lighting, but they have to be designed to run on a truly miniscule energy budget -- on the order of a fraction of a milliwatt.
  - dspillett 4y ago
    You seem to have missed the second sentence in what you replied to (and the relevant bit if TFA): > The article even explicitly states that these can be charged from indoor light. These apparently can also gain useful charge from much smaller energy sources than direct sunlight, including typical indoor light levels. Even if it isn't enough to run them indefinitely, it could extend their run-time between plugged-in charges.
    - teraflop 4y ago
      No, I didn't miss it. You'll note, if you read carefully, that the article only says they can be charged from indoor light, which I don't doubt is true. It doesn't say they can get a useful amount of energy indoors. The only concrete numbers quoted are for direct sunlight, which is several orders of magnitude more intense than ambient indoor lighting.
      - dspillett 4y ago
        > No, I didn't miss it. It seemed so, or that you were ignoring it, from what you write. Perhaps offer more clarity in future to avoid such confusion. > the article only says they can be charged from indoor light The article says they can be charged from indoor light. Adding “only” there I think is needlessly negative. The article goes on to describe how this is expected/hoped to be useful, charging between uses even if (unlike direct sunlight) it is not enough to maintain power during prolonged use, which strongly implies a useful amount of energy if thought to be harvestable in typical indoor conditions.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dmd 4y ago
I wear headphones constantly outdoors (walking/running) but can’t recall the last time I had them on indoors. If I’m indoors I’m using good speakers.
OJFord 4y ago
I only use earphones, just because I find it more comfortable, but almost exclusively. I have no (extremely little) need for them indoors, I (almost always) prefer speakers there.
SteveGerencser 4y ago
I use headphones exclusively outside on our farm. All of the equipment makes a lot of noise and decent headphones help with the noise. And because my wife gets the 'new tractor' with a cab, radio, and AC, I get the 'old tractor' and get to sit out in the sun from sun up to sun down during hay cutting 3 or 4 times a year. I've yet to have a pair of headphone last a full day. This could be cool and keep me from having to keep 3 pairs on hand. I freely admit that I am an outlier, but I'm used to people not understanding that a large segment of the popular leads totally different lives with totally different needs than most people.
- oneplane 4y ago
  You'd think someone would have come up with some form of auxiliary power pack for headphones, maybe one of those dual-battery solutions where you have a small cell on either side and can replace them in turns to keep it nice and balanced while still being able to keep using it all day long. Maybe the market is too small, or it already exists and we don't know about it yet.
  - eertami 4y ago
    Sounds like you just want the ability to swap in a charged battery with minimal downtime? Pretty sure those exist already, I know Steelseries produce some headphones with that feature.
    - oneplane 4y ago
      That's pretty neat, they even look like BL-5C batteries (if you squint..) https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/battery-pack https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/battery-pack Didn't know they actually went through with that. I was thinking along the lines of those very old laptops that had dual NiCd banks so you could swap them without shutting down.
    - idontwantthis 4y ago
      Bose QC were powered by removable battery until the QC 35. I'm sure you can still get a QC 25 online somewhere.
closewith 4y ago
I guess I'd say that's a reasonable estimate for time spent outside as a percentage of total time, but of time in use, I'd imagine that could be off by an order of magnitude. Probably depends where you live and the weather outside.
teamonkey 4y ago
I don't mean to be blunt, but am I right in saying that you are from the US? I ONLY wear my headphones outside. I bought them especially for commuting to work on public transport and walking to the shops. That doesn't seem unusual where I'm from. A lot of people wear their headphones outside. I mean, I also have a headset at my desk for calls, but that's not what these are for.
astura 4y ago
Eh? Most people use speakers at home instead of headphones and most indoor time is spent at home. So I'd imagine plenty of people use speakers outdoors. I, personally, exclusively use headphones and I still use my headphones outside all the time - while walking, working outside, gardening, snow shoveling, etc. Even just relaxing.

metadat 4y ago

The article states that the kind of PV charger they're using works under any light source, including artificial lighting. It's about half as efficient at converting light into electricity as current best rooftop panels, and these ones are way thinner.

adrianN 4y ago
My whole room is lighted by maybe 20W of LEDs, so it gets what, 5W of light? Very few of those Watts hit the solar panel.
teraflop 4y ago
OK, but efficiency at converting light into electricity doesn't mean much if the total amount of light available for conversion is very low -- which it is in almost all indoor situations. The illumination level in a brightly-lit office is typically on the order of 300 lux, compared to 100,000 lux for direct sunlight. (Residential spaces are often even dimmer.) So if, as they claim, this device can gain 1 hour of charge in 20 minutes in direct sunlight, it would take on the order of 100 hours to collect the same amount of energy indoors. The statement that "the panels can also create some power from artificial light" is technically true, but "some" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
- metadat 4y ago
  > this device can gain 1 hour of charge in 20 minutes in direct sunlight, it would take on the order of 100 hours to collect the same amount of energy indoors Depending how frequent and heavy of a user you are, the economics may work out such that they'll be passively charged enough and never require active charging. Related idea: It'd be cool if cellphones could charge in light whilst powered off. Then when they get old, they'll sit around and always be topped up and ready to go.
syntaxing 4y ago
The physics just doesn’t work that way. Our sun produces about 11MW/m^2 (changes significantly due to atmospheric conditions) but there is no artificial lighting that will even be 0.0001% of those number.

eyelidlessness 4y ago

Depends on the person I guess? Or maybe how much time they spend walking. I used to use headphones almost exclusively while walking, and generally only used stereo speakers at home. I don’t listen to anything while walking these days because I’m generally paying full attention to my pup, music would be an unwanted distraction. But I do see lots of other people wearing headphones while we’re out walking. And I don’t have that stereo anymore, I generally only use my MBP’s built in speakers at home now. I really don’t like wearing headphones at all though.

hnlmorg 4y ago

Indoor solar powered devices have existed for decades (like calculators). The article even explicitly states that these can be charged from indoor light.

teraflop 4y ago
Sure, there are pocket calculators that can run off of ambient indoor lighting, but they have to be designed to run on a truly miniscule energy budget -- on the order of a fraction of a milliwatt.
- dspillett 4y ago
  You seem to have missed the second sentence in what you replied to (and the relevant bit if TFA): > The article even explicitly states that these can be charged from indoor light. These apparently can also gain useful charge from much smaller energy sources than direct sunlight, including typical indoor light levels. Even if it isn't enough to run them indefinitely, it could extend their run-time between plugged-in charges.
  - teraflop 4y ago
    No, I didn't miss it. You'll note, if you read carefully, that the article only says they can be charged from indoor light, which I don't doubt is true. It doesn't say they can get a useful amount of energy indoors. The only concrete numbers quoted are for direct sunlight, which is several orders of magnitude more intense than ambient indoor lighting.
    - dspillett 4y ago
      > No, I didn't miss it. It seemed so, or that you were ignoring it, from what you write. Perhaps offer more clarity in future to avoid such confusion. > the article only says they can be charged from indoor light The article says they can be charged from indoor light. Adding “only” there I think is needlessly negative. The article goes on to describe how this is expected/hoped to be useful, charging between uses even if (unlike direct sunlight) it is not enough to maintain power during prolonged use, which strongly implies a useful amount of energy if thought to be harvestable in typical indoor conditions.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dmd 4y ago

I wear headphones constantly outdoors (walking/running) but can’t recall the last time I had them on indoors. If I’m indoors I’m using good speakers.

OJFord 4y ago

I only use earphones, just because I find it more comfortable, but almost exclusively. I have no (extremely little) need for them indoors, I (almost always) prefer speakers there.

SteveGerencser 4y ago

I use headphones exclusively outside on our farm. All of the equipment makes a lot of noise and decent headphones help with the noise. And because my wife gets the 'new tractor' with a cab, radio, and AC, I get the 'old tractor' and get to sit out in the sun from sun up to sun down during hay cutting 3 or 4 times a year. I've yet to have a pair of headphone last a full day. This could be cool and keep me from having to keep 3 pairs on hand. I freely admit that I am an outlier, but I'm used to people not understanding that a large segment of the popular leads totally different lives with totally different needs than most people.

oneplane 4y ago
You'd think someone would have come up with some form of auxiliary power pack for headphones, maybe one of those dual-battery solutions where you have a small cell on either side and can replace them in turns to keep it nice and balanced while still being able to keep using it all day long. Maybe the market is too small, or it already exists and we don't know about it yet.
- eertami 4y ago
  Sounds like you just want the ability to swap in a charged battery with minimal downtime? Pretty sure those exist already, I know Steelseries produce some headphones with that feature.
  - oneplane 4y ago
    That's pretty neat, they even look like BL-5C batteries (if you squint..) https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/battery-pack https://steelseries.com/gaming-accessories/battery-pack Didn't know they actually went through with that. I was thinking along the lines of those very old laptops that had dual NiCd banks so you could swap them without shutting down.
  - idontwantthis 4y ago
    Bose QC were powered by removable battery until the QC 35. I'm sure you can still get a QC 25 online somewhere.

closewith 4y ago

I guess I'd say that's a reasonable estimate for time spent outside as a percentage of total time, but of time in use, I'd imagine that could be off by an order of magnitude. Probably depends where you live and the weather outside.

teamonkey 4y ago

I don't mean to be blunt, but am I right in saying that you are from the US? I ONLY wear my headphones outside. I bought them especially for commuting to work on public transport and walking to the shops. That doesn't seem unusual where I'm from. A lot of people wear their headphones outside. I mean, I also have a headset at my desk for calls, but that's not what these are for.

astura 4y ago

Eh? Most people use speakers at home instead of headphones and most indoor time is spent at home. So I'd imagine plenty of people use speakers outdoors. I, personally, exclusively use headphones and I still use my headphones outside all the time - while walking, working outside, gardening, snow shoveling, etc. Even just relaxing.