Evaluating ambient conditions for solar chargers with the help of sensors on smartphones

In this paper we investigated the opportunities to improve the energy collection of solar chargers with the help of sensors on smartphones. We focused on the information of the ambient light sensor and the accelerometer in order to find suitable positions for solar modules. In particular under indoor environmental conditions, the location and orientation of solar chargers is crucial. If users are able to allocate beneficial positions for their chargers, the amount of power from solar modules can be increased up to 100 times. This is why we investigated the performance of sensors on smartphones, in particular in terms of their accuracy. We present experimental results obtained with the help of nowadays mobile phones and compare the measurement results against values which were collected with conventional measurement equipment under different light sources.