So you're saying that you want to go out during the day with your beach umbrella, charge it up (presumebly it has a battery), run your phone and electronics, then come home and plug your charged umbrella into the house to assist in powering things? It all sounds good until you realize that a flexible photovoltaic in the 2-square-foot range produces 10-20 watts. Even charged all day, you'd get enough electricity to run your flat-screen for five minutes. We use alot of energy in our homes when you think of dryers, A/C, dishwasher, vacuum, etc. None of those under 500 watts.

So you're saying that you want to go out during the day with your beach umbrella, charge it up (presumebly it has a battery), run your phone and electronics, then come home and plug your charged umbrella into the house to assist in powering things? It all sounds good until you realize that a flexible photovoltaic in the 2-square-foot range produces 10-20 watts. Even charged all day, you'd get enough electricity to run your flat-screen for five minutes. We use alot of energy in our homes when you think of dryers, A/C, dishwasher, vacuum, etc. None of those under 500 watts.

Hi Hrench,thank you for your comment but my idea is not targeted for our kind of lifestyle. i intend to create it for third world countries (south east Asia, central Africa, etc). The purpose is to create a power generator easy to setup , easy to carry , with a daily usage (batttery charge) and a nightly usage for light or small portable devices. for the lighting i plan to use LED in order to use lower consumption components.regards Marine92

I have a friend from Morocco and he told me that every house that's not on the grid (in rural areas) has a car battery and photovoltaic cells on the roof. They run lights and little TV's, radios. Nothing motor powered.