Power for Your Bug-Out Camp

When you are living in a remote location - perhaps having evacuated to your bug-out camp - you need not give up all of the convenience and technology of modern society. Portable power banks and solar chargers allow you to have a source of power that you can carry with you to almost any location.

Packable power generally comes in the form of standard batteries or power banks (which are just big batteries).  The greater the milli-amp hours (mAh) of your power bank, the longer it will last. So, carry the power bank with the greatest number of mAh, balanced against the weight of the device itself since you will have to carry it. I like the RAVPower 26800 mAh Portable Charger, but any power bank with 20000 mAh or more should work out well for field use.

While most power banks can be charged by plugging them into your home’s electric power, this will not be an option for extended stays in remote areas. This is where solar panels come into play. Solar panels convert direct sunlight to energy which can then be stored in your power bank. Remember that a solar panel alone does not store power. You can run a device directly from a solar panel, as long as the solar panel remains in direct sunlight, but when the sun goes away, so too does your power. Connect your solar panel to your power bank, thereby keeping your power bank charged, and use the power bank to provide power for any devices you want to run.

I recommend carrying at least a 20-watt solar panel, although lower wattage panels will also work. Lower watt panels just provide a lower level of charging power for your batteries and power banks. A few solar panels to consider are:

RAVPower 24W Solar Charger
SunJack 20W Solar Charger
Anker 21W Solar Charger
Nekteck 20W Solar Charger
BigBlue 28W Solar Charger

With your solar panel and power bank you can provide power for devices in your camp almost indefinitely. As long as you have direct sunlight to keep your power banks charged, and of course don’t use more power than you can replenish, you can use your electronic devices in the field.

Power banks are often used to recharge cellular devices such as your smartphone or tablet. Other devices you might want to have in your camp are use powered LED light bulbs, such as the SunJack CampLight, the SunJack LightStick, or USB rechargeable Solar Camping Lantern.

Solar panels and power banks are not just for emergency, bug-out type, use. A week-long camping trip, or a weekend fishing at a mountain lake, hiking along a forest trail, or a cross-country road trip may all be places where you want to have portable power for some device. Even in your home, having a source of back-up power can be useful when there is a power outage, or just to make you less dependent on the local infrastructure.