In the UK, where the BBC is hosted, solar-powered headphones are mostly a waste of time. It rains a lot and you spend a lot of time avoiding being outside. Most people are at work when the sun is highest in the sky. As others point out, most people can get through the whole day on one charge.
It would be much more efficient to put solar-panels where they can maximize their potential energy output and instead just charge normal headphones from renewable sources. Bare in mind that the creation of the solar panels themselves has a carbon offset that the application of headphones is unlikely to recoup.
Or maybe someone could invent headphones that are powered by the sound-outputting device and don't have any battery at all. The signal could be transferred by a wire, for example.
I think I've only seen two kinds of devices where an integrated solar panel actually made sense: calculators as their power draw is so low the one I bought almost 20 years ago for school still works with the original (non-rechargeable) battery. And more recently a GPS sports watch which can extend the battery life with solar for hours, or days when GPS isn't used.
Other than that I agree, if you compare the power output to roof-mounted ones it seems quite pointless. Even relatively large, unwieldy USB charging panels you need to unfold can't hold up considering their area.
I have no idea how much headphones normally draw, so I googled and the first replacement battery I found was for the Bose QuietComfort 20, and the product listing for the battery said 240mAh/3.7V (which is 0.888 Wh) while the product listing for the headphones said "lasts 16 hours", implying 55.5 mW.
At 10% efficiency, a 3cm by 10cm PV in direct sunlight will produce 0.3 W, enough to fully charge that in about 3 hours, and the potential for charging faster than it drains whenever ambient light is at least 18.5% of direct sunlight.
Indirect sunlight on a clear day is about that at best; Overcast days are about 1% of direct sunlight; Normal office lighting is about 0.3-0.5% of direct sunlight.
So, a 1 hour lunchtime walk on a sunny day while using them, would likely be somewhere between neutral and recharging by 4 hours 20 minutes.
That said, I have no reason to expect Bose (first random search result) to optimise for minimal power draw, given how small and light the battery is and still gets 16 hours, and I don't know if there's room for improvement with these in that regard.
Ok, but let's not fool ourselves that this is to save the mains electric grid from the power used to charge these things. This is for convenience, not environmentalism.
The amount of power used by headphones is tiny. Which is lucky, because the amount of power that a small inefficient solar cell like that can collect in artificial lighting is tiny as well. For reference, my Bose noise-cancelling headphones use something on the order of a tenth of a Watt. My microwave oven uses 5W just to keep the clock flashing "--:--".
I have a 14-year old wristwatch, which is solar powered. I haven't had to change a battery in it ever. It's convenience, and it's neat, but that's it.
Whenever I see efficiency gains, I tend to look for reductions in materials utilizations, and sometimes I might find a case for environmentalism (on some axis).
I work in the technical area that enables flexible solar panels to exist at large volume (replacing energy intensive rigid glass with flexible barrier films). The manufactures of these headsets note that it allows for a larger volume reduction in batteries when integrated across 100,000s units compared to the addition of the panel itself.
Also, the technology supports the global supply chain to continue to lower the cost of PV which is good for the environment.
An eventual goal is the ability to quickly unroll massive installations of PV on rooftops that are as durable as the roof itself.
I bought the Urbanista headphones mentioned in the article. That was 6 months ago, I've used them daily indoors for meetings and listening to music, and I had to charge them with a cable only once in those six months. My desk is by a window and I live in Barcelona, so the headphones get quite a lot of indirect sunlight. Still, they feel like magic to me.
How powerful of a computing device could be powered by a small solar panel these days?
We had solar powered calculators in the 1980s, but with chips being so much more energy efficient now, I imagine we could build a much more impressive device with no battery.
Calculators are kind of a special case. When you are not pressing a button they are doing literally nothing, and maintaining the state of the LCD takes only microwatts.
They use so little power that many "solar" calculators are fake, the "solar panel" is decorative only and a hidden button cell battery provides a decade of battery life: https://youtu.be/uLTDuGhqE2w
You could probably get 2W from a wide over-ear band in direct sunlight. Maybe that's 2-4 hours per day, with indirect light scattered around the day.
If you get say, 2W*6h=12Wh/day, you could afford about 15mA/hr @3.3V. That might be able to power a set of wireless headphones with a reasonably-sized battery, if you left them on a windowsill in direct sunlight when you weren't using them.
Modern designs will probably use monocrystalline cells, but old solar-powered calculators used amorphous cells. Those are less efficient, but they can recover a trickle of energy from weaker light sources such as indoors or cloudy days.
I also wonder what sort of materials they'll use. Plastics don't usually handle excessive UV exposure well.
Not really. To power an Arduino you need a much bigger solar panel than a calculator. Those calculators aren't necessarily inefficient, they just hardly do anything at all. You really can't do much more with a solar panel that size, it hardly captures any energy.
The quicklook of these on LTT was pretty favorable. They actually seem pretty neat. I prefer earbuds for running though so not for me. Like the idea though
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%.
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.
Indoor solar powered devices have existed for decades (like calculators). The article even explicitly states that these can be charged from indoor light.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Wired headphones get power from whatever they are plugged into.
Once you decide you don’t want to physically connected to the grid while wearing the headphones, you’re going to carry a battery around (or generate power with solar or something). If you’re also carrying some additional device (eg. a phone or mp3 player) along with the headphones and you’re wired into that device, you could have that device handle the power.
Nowadays I’m frequently switching my listening and speaking between different devices, some of which are on my person and some aren’t. So plugging the headphones whatever I’m currently using would be inconvenient and restrict my freedom of movement. Therefore it’s nice to have for the headphones to contain their own battery and do automatic switching between different input devices.
Solar sounds like a gimmick to me, the battery life of the headphones is not any issue anymore.
Only if they are wired. The article is about wireless headphones and people forgetting to charge them. It's a bit advertorial-ish because this is exactly the product that a brand has launched just now.
Technically it could help but just like solar-powered garden lights, it's a race you can't win with ambient light.
If someone were to find an amazing headmounted-solar-power-source, it would have to be so good you'd be able to charge your mobile devices with it (or you'd have to walk in the sun all day long to keep it going and have enough of a charge for the night).
Yeah, since you're already listening to something using a powered device it'd certainly be far better for the environment to not add another toxic battery in your headphones and just plug them into whatever your listening to.
I do. But the biggest e-waste manufacturers in the world (Apple, Samsung, etc.) decided they can now sell you Bluetooth earbuds too, so removing the jack was a nice nudge to force you to buy more of their e-waste.
I'm not against Bluetooth earbuds but I'm against removing the jack.
Around 10 years ago Logitech sold solar-powered wireless keyboards (maybe they still do). They were pretty nice, and not having to deal with wires or batteries ever is something I miss now that I've switched over to mechanical keyboards.
Hopefully the "make everything solar powered" idea catches on at some point. I feel like solar-powered phones and tablets with e-ink displays should exist by now.
That was my first thought as well. It will be interesting to see future applications of this technology. If they can get the costs down and the charging is actually efficient enough, it'll be worth it.
[+] [-] bArray|3 years ago|reply
It would be much more efficient to put solar-panels where they can maximize their potential energy output and instead just charge normal headphones from renewable sources. Bare in mind that the creation of the solar panels themselves has a carbon offset that the application of headphones is unlikely to recoup.
[+] [-] maratc|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alpaca128|3 years ago|reply
Other than that I agree, if you compare the power output to roof-mounted ones it seems quite pointless. Even relatively large, unwieldy USB charging panels you need to unfold can't hold up considering their area.
[+] [-] ben_w|3 years ago|reply
At 10% efficiency, a 3cm by 10cm PV in direct sunlight will produce 0.3 W, enough to fully charge that in about 3 hours, and the potential for charging faster than it drains whenever ambient light is at least 18.5% of direct sunlight.
Indirect sunlight on a clear day is about that at best; Overcast days are about 1% of direct sunlight; Normal office lighting is about 0.3-0.5% of direct sunlight.
So, a 1 hour lunchtime walk on a sunny day while using them, would likely be somewhere between neutral and recharging by 4 hours 20 minutes.
That said, I have no reason to expect Bose (first random search result) to optimise for minimal power draw, given how small and light the battery is and still gets 16 hours, and I don't know if there's room for improvement with these in that regard.
[+] [-] ChrisRR|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dzhiurgis|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mnw21cam|3 years ago|reply
The amount of power used by headphones is tiny. Which is lucky, because the amount of power that a small inefficient solar cell like that can collect in artificial lighting is tiny as well. For reference, my Bose noise-cancelling headphones use something on the order of a tenth of a Watt. My microwave oven uses 5W just to keep the clock flashing "--:--".
I have a 14-year old wristwatch, which is solar powered. I haven't had to change a battery in it ever. It's convenience, and it's neat, but that's it.
[+] [-] mensetmanusman|3 years ago|reply
Whenever I see efficiency gains, I tend to look for reductions in materials utilizations, and sometimes I might find a case for environmentalism (on some axis).
I work in the technical area that enables flexible solar panels to exist at large volume (replacing energy intensive rigid glass with flexible barrier films). The manufactures of these headsets note that it allows for a larger volume reduction in batteries when integrated across 100,000s units compared to the addition of the panel itself.
Also, the technology supports the global supply chain to continue to lower the cost of PV which is good for the environment.
An eventual goal is the ability to quickly unroll massive installations of PV on rooftops that are as durable as the roof itself.
[+] [-] quicon|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] akamaka|3 years ago|reply
We had solar powered calculators in the 1980s, but with chips being so much more energy efficient now, I imagine we could build a much more impressive device with no battery.
[+] [-] LeoPanthera|3 years ago|reply
They use so little power that many "solar" calculators are fake, the "solar panel" is decorative only and a hidden button cell battery provides a decade of battery life: https://youtu.be/uLTDuGhqE2w
[+] [-] chernofool|3 years ago|reply
If you get say, 2W*6h=12Wh/day, you could afford about 15mA/hr @3.3V. That might be able to power a set of wireless headphones with a reasonably-sized battery, if you left them on a windowsill in direct sunlight when you weren't using them.
Modern designs will probably use monocrystalline cells, but old solar-powered calculators used amorphous cells. Those are less efficient, but they can recover a trickle of energy from weaker light sources such as indoors or cloudy days.
I also wonder what sort of materials they'll use. Plastics don't usually handle excessive UV exposure well.
[+] [-] alar44|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reerdna|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] FrankTheDank|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] SteveGerencser|3 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] hnlmorg|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmd|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eyelidlessness|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OJFord|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teamonkey|3 years ago|reply
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|3 years ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] closewith|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metadat|3 years ago|reply
It's about half as efficient at converting light into electricity as current best rooftop panels, and these ones are way thinner.
[+] [-] unknown|3 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] bawolff|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fshbbdssbbgdd|3 years ago|reply
Once you decide you don’t want to physically connected to the grid while wearing the headphones, you’re going to carry a battery around (or generate power with solar or something). If you’re also carrying some additional device (eg. a phone or mp3 player) along with the headphones and you’re wired into that device, you could have that device handle the power.
Nowadays I’m frequently switching my listening and speaking between different devices, some of which are on my person and some aren’t. So plugging the headphones whatever I’m currently using would be inconvenient and restrict my freedom of movement. Therefore it’s nice to have for the headphones to contain their own battery and do automatic switching between different input devices.
Solar sounds like a gimmick to me, the battery life of the headphones is not any issue anymore.
[+] [-] oneplane|3 years ago|reply
Technically it could help but just like solar-powered garden lights, it's a race you can't win with ambient light.
If someone were to find an amazing headmounted-solar-power-source, it would have to be so good you'd be able to charge your mobile devices with it (or you'd have to walk in the sun all day long to keep it going and have enough of a charge for the night).
[+] [-] autoexec|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChrisRR|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckNorris89|3 years ago|reply
I'm not against Bluetooth earbuds but I'm against removing the jack.
[+] [-] noipv4|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] superkuh|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yellowapple|3 years ago|reply
Hopefully the "make everything solar powered" idea catches on at some point. I feel like solar-powered phones and tablets with e-ink displays should exist by now.
[+] [-] user_named|3 years ago|reply
I wear them 8 hours per day at the office, at the gym, while jogging etc. Light and stay on your head well. Highly recommended.
The new version looks to be twice the cost so I don't think I'll upgrade anytime soon but I'd probably get them if these fail out of warranty.
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