Many of us never think about being prepared for an emergency until there’s an emergency. The power goes out and you grab a flashlight, phone, or radio and the batteries are dead. But new technology takes care of that.
At CES in Las Vegas this week there are dozens of companies from around the world introducing new portable batteries, whole home backup power, solar power, along with other sustainable power technologies.
Eton is one of those companies. It has partnered with the American Red Cross for the last ten years to offer affordable emergency weather radios and power banks.
“Everybody’s power gets knocked out. These devices are really designed to bring value and utility to them on a daily basis,” explained Eton’s John Smith. “They give them vital details and information and light and power when they need it most.”
Eton emergency radio devices have five power sources. There’s an internal lithium battery, alkaline batteries, it can be powered and charged by plugging into a USB source, there’s a solar panel to stay charged, and if all else is depleted, a hand crank can power a radio and flashlight and even recharge the internal battery.
Eton’s new Odyssey device also offers AM/FM radio, weather band, and shortwave radio sources to listen to news and information from around the world.
“Additionally it has a built-in flashlight as well as a siren with an audible alert,” said Smith. LED light is visible for miles so as long as you have a line of sight, you can activate the bright LED light with a wide or narrow beam and be seen for miles”.
Anker introduced a new home backup system with solar panels that provides enough power to keep essential devices in the home running for hours. Even if you neglect to prepare ahead of time.
“It connects to our app, and we have something called storm warning mode,” explained Anker’s David Taylor. “It’s hooked up to the National Weather Service so if you have imminent weather coming, it automatically will charge from the grid and you’re going to be set up perfectly.”
Goal Zero, a leader in the space, introduced new portable refrigerators, and power supplies with over 4,000 cycles and charge from 0 to 100% in about an hour, that’s small enough to take anywhere.
“Anything you can plug into a wall that takes less than 500 watts, you can plug into one of these and it’ll last several hours. Up to, depending on what you’re charging it could even be several days,” said Goal Zero’s Chris Allen.
A small 500kw power bank weighs less than 20 pounds and is about half the size Goal Zero’s original power banks were 10 years ago. “The battery itself will last over 4,000 cycles. That’s over ten yeas of using it every single day. Charging to 100% and discharging to 0%,” Allen said.
“As battery technology has advanced over the years and chip technology and everything else, we can just fit so much more in a compact unit.”
When I first came to CES 12 years ago Goal Zero was the only company with portable battery stations. This year I cannot count the number of companies with similar products. You can find them starting at around $200.