Product
Research
I’m fascinated by solar energy and wish all the electricity I use could be sun-powered. I’m far away from that goal, but when the SolarPuff became part of the UncommonGoods assortment, I immediately wanted one, even before I tried it.
Our SolarPuff can fully charge in 8 hours of sunlight and then light up the darkness with LED light for 8-10 hours at 60 lumens on the low setting, and 90 on the high setting. (It also has a blinking/distress setting.) If you only get 5 hours of charging time, it’ll still work for 5-8 hours. It’s designed with sustainable and high-performance PET fabric specifically engineered for durability, flexibility and water resistance, and structured for adaptability and recyclability. A 4 1/3” cube when opened, it flat packs to 0.25 inches, can fit in almost any back pocket, and weighs jut 2.6 oz.
Hypothesis
The SolarPuff will be great to use outdoors for reading at night in my hammock, and will come in handy indoors in case of a power outage.
Experiment
First, I charged my SolarPuff outside and then turned it on in my apartment to see what it was like. The light is so bright! Not TOO bright, just unexpectedly, wonderfully bright for a small solar lamp. You can see the circle of LED lights on the bottom of the inside, above. It really lights up the area right near it, and to a diminishing degree, maybe 6 feet or so around it.
It looks like a glowing alien object from another planet in the photo at top right. I’d say that’s an extra, unadvertised benefit.
Reading with my SolarPuff in my Do Good Hammock
Next, I took it outside to read in my hammock. Success! It provided plenty of light. And because it’s made of soft plastic, I didn’t have to worry about it dropping four stories down to the concrete and smashing. It was so easy to handle, partly because it’s soft and will fit just about anywhere.
Then I got the idea of attaching a carabiner to the handle and hanging it from the fire escape. You could hang it from any number of spots. If you had a bunch of them, you could really light up a party, a room, or a work space. It would be a no-brainer to bring camping or in your car for an emergency light. You could hang it from your bike handlebars to make it easy for cars to see you. It has a million uses.
I brought it along with me to the country in upstate New York and one night there was a huge storm that knocked out the power for about 15 hours. My elderly mother was alone in the house at the time. She found my SolarPuff and it gave her plenty of light for reading until we came home. We used it to get around until we fell asleep. Everybody said they wanted one.
Conclusion
I love this thing. It’s so useful, and easy to port along anywhere I go. I’ve been using it all the time, and want more of them.
Also: It’s unexpectedly good at parties.
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