Voltaic Systems Converter Full Review
Posted: 19 February 2008 by Adam Vaughan
Solar bags have been kicking around for three years now, but the reason your average high street's not jostling with photovoltaic cells generating clean green electricity is simple -- price. You'd have been lucky to get change from £150 for most solar bags so far. The Converter, by contrast, is just £100 -- not quite a bargain by anyone's standard, but cheaper nonetheless.
Along with the leaner price comes a leaner profile. This is the smallest in Voltaic Systems' range of solar backpacks, with just ten litres of capacity. That's perfect for a super-thin laptop -- say, a MacBook Air with a mercury-free screen -- and a few tiny gadgets. But a week of food shopping or a city break bag? Forget it, this is a lightweight (1.3kg), low-capacity backpack.
The main upgrade from Voltaic's earlier bags is invisible. Instead of virgin plastic, the fabric used for this backpack is fully recycled PET -- usually plastic bottles in a former life. That cuts down on the bag's embodied energy (carbon emitted to make it) and helps drive a market for recycled materials. It also helps the bag play catch-up with those from competitor Reware, which has been using recycled material for a while. The good news is that we couldn't tell the Converter's recycled fabric from the virgin fabric on another Voltaic Systems bag we had to hand.
The little zip compartments and laptop-shaped area in the Converter are very useful
Like all Voltaic's bags, this one is well made. The zips are robust, the design was enough to attract envious stares and internal compartments feel robust. One thing to bear in mind is that the bag starts conversations with strangers, from cyclists and lorry drivers to newsagent owners and solar engineers at railway stations. That's good or bad depending on how sociable you are (we liked it). Continue reading...
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