Efficiency/Conversion rate of a Power bank.
In our last write up in this series things to consider when buying a power bank, we talked about knowing battery capacity of your phone as the basic fundamental consideration when going for a power bank.
In this write up we are going to look at the conversion rate/ efficiency of a power bank as one of the things to be considered when buying a power bank.
As it is natural in the law of nature and science, you cant get 100 percent of your input at the out put source. In science we are meant to understand that work most be done to over come friction or inertia in order to move or lift an object and in that process energy is lost as heat. Also in biological science we are meant to know that our body cant use up all stuff we eat some are lost through our anus as waste.
Same goes with a power bank, it cant give 100 percent of the energy/charge inputted into it, some must be lost, at some point . The reason behind this is that there is an energy loss during the power transfer from the power bank to your smart phone or tablet .But at the end what matters is how many amount of the energy stored up on the power bank, is wasted and how many is left for you as a user; this is where the question of efficiency comes into play.
Generally there are 4 ways through which power banks looses energy
- Loss arising from the power bank internal configuration, circuit design and the internal resistance of the power bank battery.
- Loss arising when power bank is in its dormancy state(not in use)
- Loss arising from the usb charging cable use in charging the Phone through the power bank.
- Loss arising from the internal resistance of the battery, in the phone which is being charged.
- The last can be lose due to carelessness of the power bank user.
| LYCASS 2800MAH HIGH EFFICIENCY POWER BANK WORTH YOUR MONEY |
The first kind of loss is what is really considered and use as a yard stick in measuring the generally conversion rate of a power bank. The circuit design and component used is design implementation, internal configuration and the internal resistance of the battery of a power bank determines how efficient the charge in the power bank battery is converted to energy use in charging the phone.In short this is what is generally referred as the efficiency of a power bank all other loss a complimentary and some how out side the control of the manufacturer of the power bank.
The standard output efficiency for high grade power bank is 80 percent up. Some brands have claimed up to 90 percent efficiency.
So let us go practical now supposing we have a top grade power bank of 10,000 mah and we want to use it and charge a HTC vivid of capacity 1800mah.
In ideal situation we suppose to have something like this 10000/1800= 5.5 times expectancy. That is in the ideal case the power bank is suppose to charge the Htc Vivid five times and extra half from zero percent to 100 percent.But considering the power loss associated with a power banks internal arrangement we will no have some thing like this.
10,000mAh X 0.8 / 1800mAh = 4.4 times expectancy for the
HTC vivid. Now you are getting a picture of what we are saying.
The above illustration is for top grade power banks with efficiency of 80 percent up. As a power bank user the lowest you should accept is in the range of 75 percent, any power bank with efficiency below this is not wort spending a penny. The problem is that very cheap items appeal to many people and same goes with power bank hence we get low quality and go about complaining.
HTC vivid. Now you are getting a picture of what we are saying.
The above illustration is for top grade power banks with efficiency of 80 percent up. As a power bank user the lowest you should accept is in the range of 75 percent, any power bank with efficiency below this is not wort spending a penny. The problem is that very cheap items appeal to many people and same goes with power bank hence we get low quality and go about complaining.
This is also associated with internal configuration of a power bank but not use as a measure in determining conversion rate of a power bank.
This arises when a power bank is in dormant state or kept for so long with out use. For example if you don't use you power bank for one year, even if it was fully charged before you stopped using it. When you resume usage, the charge in it will not be 100 percent filled up. For top Grade power banks, they retain about 75 percent of charges stored in them after 365 days.
While the ripoffs and inferior ones,wont hold any thing back for you after sometimes.
But please note when power bank is put away for some time, please try and recharge at least at an interval of 3 months when not in use.
Loss arising from the usb charging cable use in charging the Phone through the power bank.
Generally we know that there is usually loss in energy when electric signals and charges are transmitted along cables, this also applies to the usb cable.
This is quite ineligible, but also depends on the type of usb charging cable used, always recommended to use default usb for power bank or that of your phone.
This is another source of energy loss when using a power bank but not considered, or connected to power bank efficiency. It is based on the internal configuration of the phone and how it is designed to use or convert energy being transferred to it. So this boils down to the phone begin charged and its internal conversion capability.
Lose due to carelessness of the power bank user.
Yeah some readers will now be saying, what is this guy driving at, ok don't be annoyed, may be if you are a power bank user, you might have been doing this without, knowing while contentiously blaming the power bank from under performing. This loss can be
- After charging your phone falling to disconnect the cable from the charging port of the mobile charger, hence the energy stored up on the bank continues to discharge, thus lost and waste of charge stored up on the power bank. For power banks with intelligent circuit loss is negligible but for those with out such circuit especially lower capacities, the loss is substantial irrespective of the power bank quality.
- Also leaving the power bank on after charging your phone( for those power banks that have power buttons) constitute another source of power loss.
Now apart from the above mentioned loss the charging indicators the touch light that comes with the power banks also uses up some of the energy stored up in the power bank, all this add up to the loss associated with a power bank..
So generally when the complementary power losses arising from the phone, the U.S.B cable, careless usage adds up to the 20 percent standard power loss associated with mobile charger efficiency, you will discover that a top class power bank will have approximately 72 to 75 percent energy/ juice left in it. Then imagine what all the inferior fakes will have left for you, some will leave as low as 35 percent for you at the end which is a totally bad news for any power bank user.
Now generally efficiency of a power bank is very much something of great consideration when buying a power bank. Ask your vendor whats the efficiency( many make false claims or don't even know). The general rule of the thumb and our recommendation is:
- Buy Reputed brands Like Anker, Romoss, Iwo, Pineng , New Trent, GOLF, Xiaomi etc that are know to have good efficiency of 80 percent and above.they might cost you more put the extra cost is always worth it.( note make sure you are buying the original of this brand especially Romoss, Pineng, Iwo and Xiaomi that have been faked and replicated by many road side companies in China)
- Buy from reputable Vendors that know the product, not those that sell and dont know what they are selling. Such vendors value their market reputation more than any thing and cant afford to trade it for some piece of inferior stuffs. Golden technics is one of those few vendors in Nigeria.
- When buying high capacities like 10,000 ,12000mah, 20,000mah avoid OEM, go for known brands. From our experience many OEM power banks quality ones as well don't really measure up with the top brands and also large percentage of the OEM products don't have good capacities.
![]() |
| ORIGINAL ROMOSS SENSE 6 20000MAH POWER BANK , GET MORE VALUE FOR YOUR MONEY |
So next time you are about to budget for a power bank remember the efficiency. Remember if you must bring out money to buy a smart devices like Samsung galaxy tab, Apple Ipad etc because of there quality, then you have to go for quality power banks too because of their efficiency
Now you have known check out our our Iwo P38 10000mah power bank and our original 20000mah Romoss sense 6 with top grade efficiency. Start shopping Now.
In our next write up we will still continue on this series of fundamental thing to consider when buying a power bank, we will be looking at the cycle time of a power bank. Until then you can visit our store on kaymu for quality power banks and other products too.
