Yeah - realistically a bunch of stuff to think over with a number of options. Battery technology is evolving pretty fast now. It might be reasonable to get a battery bank with an 8 year life and expect to be able to purchase newer technology batteries when the initial bank is past its useful lifespan.
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Yeah, building a really big battery bank is an investment. Hence our decision to go with 1 battery with the use case of recharging diabetes stuff, small electronics and lights. With that said, if you are looking for a lot of energy, but affordable, you can got with a bunch of the golf cart batteries connected in series to get 12 or 24 volts.
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The reading I did also suggested this was a good approach. Sounds odd at first read but the reasoning is well given.
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That can probably bridge you until the battery technology gets better. I agree with you, it is changing pretty rapidly now thanks to the interest in solar.
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If it still alive - I saw an interesting device several days ago on camping. It`s a kind of stove and charger in one peace -
I do not know how effective it is, but the idea seemed interesting to me. I have a small solar charging Anker for hiking. It is convenient because it can be folded compactly, and the area of solar panels is quite extensive. I once had a Powerbox from Vivo that could be recharged from the sun, but its performance was minimal - in fact just a powerbank but no more. Since charging from the sun’s rays was extremely ineffective.
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@Alakey Welcome to FUD!
That is s very interesting looking device. Does the battery charge from the energy produced by the fire, or is it just an attached battery that has to be recharged via an AC connection?
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From the fire. If it was from battery that wouldn`t be so exciting for me)
That. Is. Awesome! Great find.
Do you have the name of this device, or a link you could share?
@Alakey, welcome to the forum! This looks like a great device—now I am really curious about it.
You can introduce yourself in the welcome thread if you wish!
With a great pleasure) But… Tomorrow, I`ve got a very nervous day, gonna go for a sleep now
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I have found it by keywords Stove Charger in google, but I don`t have their official site, sorry(
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This one looks pretty cool too.
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Wow, that’s the whole set. Although the stove was less than I imagined, I wonder what its efficiency is.
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I was so intrigued by both that I spent some time reading the reviews for both. The one you saw gets raves for build quality but pans for charging capacity. The other one gets raves for heat and control, but pans for eating batteries. Both are close to 1.5 kg, to me too heavy for backpacking. For my purposes, I think a folding solar charger probably suits us better. But there is mega gadget power in both 
Yup, I see. 1.5 kg is pretty much for me too. But this stove draws attention to the unusual design. I’ve come across something similar to it some months when I`ve found an article about a wi-fi stone in the forest. The bottom line is that it’s enough to make a fire under the stone and it will start making WIFI with free access to the Internet. Here is the photo -
As it said int the article -
“Keepalive” (2015) takes the form of a modified 1.5-ton boulder that lies in a forest clearing next to a small creek, on the grounds of the Springhornhof, a museum of site-specific outdoor sculpture. Unlike an actual rock, however, “Keepalive” houses a fire-powered wifi router that, once activated, connects users through their phones to a list of downloadable survival guides — transforming the boulder into a hard drive of stone. "
Also, I’ll try to assemble the stove myself next month, at first glance the design does not seem too complicated for me. I’ll think about the details.
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Interesting discussion. Thermoelectric generators are interesting to be but are pretty inefficient. After I had a bit of a think, I realized that they are likely cheaper than an equivalent power solar panel and would work well at night for camping. Although you would need to sit around the campfire for a while.
I had a quick google and found a 5V, 5W thermoelectric generator that is about 1.4" x 1.4" x 0.1" - so pretty small to get a voltage/power that would charge a USB device. They are on ebay for a couple of bucks so I may buy a few and give it a try for fun 
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I just saw this portable USB battery on Amazon. Looks nice.
6-1/2 ounces - reasonable although not “lipstick” sized.
This one has a Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 port (backward compatible to older devices) which is advertised to be able to recharge a compatible smartphone/device from 0 to 80% in only 35 minutes.
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I agree. The solar charger is a novelty. Buy a robust battery pack there are many options and capacities available.
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