A fellow Hive member and friend asked my opinion on what power bank to buy.
After reading all about how unreliable the power situation is in Nigeria I can totally understand why they would want a reliable source of power for their devices.
There are two ways to look at the purchase though: An Expense or An Investment. I personally hate expenses but like investments. Here is my take on their question (and hope you find it interesting).
They were looking at an item like this one :
which I found an image of on jiji.ng
which I also found the image on jiji.ng
Between they two they were thinking that they would go with the less expensive one.
I had to do a lot of thinking on that one.
The Oraimo one is more than twice the price and only 50% more capacity. At first glance you would think why pay so much more. Usually I would absolutely agree with that. However, I will say that the fast charging option is really nice. My phone supports fast charging so with this unit it would charge to 80% in less than 30 minutes. When I need to go places that is important. Even if I am just helping a friend with a charge being able to get them to 80% while enjoying a drink together is great!
The second unit only has regular speed charging. On my phone that is up to 6hrs of charging time. It is perfect for charging overnight but not great for helping a friend during the day or getting a quick charge before going out.
Of course if my phone didn't support fast charging then I would absolutely go with the cheaper one...
......or would I?
In both those cases those power banks are an expense.
I spend the money once and get to use my phone longer but those power banks aren't making me any money while I have them and have very little resale value if I want to sell it later.
Honestly at my home I have a lot of small power banks like the ones you see up top. They are great for a little top up for my phone. However, mostly they don't get used because of either long charge time or a bit bulky for me to carry with me.
Once I got a more versatile battery bank I use it all the time and find it indispensable.
If my friend is reading this I'd suggest you let me help you buy this power bank instead.
Because the first two power banks are an expense. They are something you buy and get some use out of but they make you no money (usually).
The Yoobao unit, if it is like my Pafish unit (and from the specs it is very similar), could absolutely make you some money and be an investment. Here is my rationale:
This battery bank is high capacity and more versatile. But how does that make you money?
It gives you the option of selling electricity to others.
From our discussion about electricity in the #Frugal community I've heard that people are paying 50 Naira for a partial charge and 100 Naira for a full charge on their cellphone.
With the small units you can charge your phone but there won't be any power left to charge someone else.
With the Yoobao unit it can EASILY charge a cellphone multiple times. In fact its 100W of power could give even the largest, m3st powerful, cellphone like the Samsung Galaxy Ultra S23 FOUR TIMES. It could charge an Iphone 13 SIX TIMES and basic cellphones with smaller batteries even more than that.
If you got even four people to pay for a complete charge or eight people to pay for a partial charge that would be 400 Naira / day. That would be 12,000 Naira per month so in 6 months the unit could pay for itself.
Now you may counter But I have to charge the unit which is absolutely true. However, again from the #Frugal community I know that you can pay for 1 unit of electricity at a cost of about 50-100 Naira/unit (there were various responses). Charging the Yoobao unit would only take about 1/10th of a unit so a complete charge from the power company would only cost about 5-10 Naira for a product which sells for 400 Naira.
That's pretty good profit if you ask me!
Now perhaps you won't want to try and sell electricity directly. I know I certainly wouldn't. Many people have businesses and getting people into your business is important to make sales.
Giving people the option to charge their phone while shopping could be a nice draw to your business. It only costs 5-10 Naira to charge the unit and it could provide a slow charge to a cellphone (5W/hr) for 20 hours! Or it could charge two phones slowly for 10hrs.
That could make a lot of customers pretty happy!
Now a small power bank can give a cellphone one and maybe two extra charges. But what if you want to do a lot of power posting on Hive to make some money?
A large power bank like the Yoobao would be able to power your phone for an entire day. No outages. That's a great way to be able to engage fully on Hive!
Or perhaps you are just going to work or even just staying at home. If you get one extra charge per day you will need to be selfish and use it for yourself. If you get SIX or more charges you can share with your family or co-workers. The extra goodwill can easily add up to favors which can be worth far far more than the 5-10Naira it costs to give out those favors.
However, the true power of the Yoobao unit is that is provides 220V output. That may not seem like much but it is HUGE!
Consider 
In short she could use the device to make sure she can work late into the night to get an order done. Or she could use the device during the day to have a fan while working.
Or how about a student?
It can power a laptop AND an inkjet printer. I had another #frugal member say how much people were charging to print assignments. Imagine how useful it would be to be able to print anytime power or no power. To be able to use the laptop all the time with far less worry about a dead battery!
I bet students would pay for the opportunity to use a power bank during those stressful times.
Of how about for medical devices?
The Yoobao unit could power many small medical devices. CPAP machine--yes. Ventillator--yes. Blood pressure machine--yes. Nebulizer--yes.
In an emergency this little power box could even power a small freezer! Ask 
Or how about for mom's who are worried about their infants? It could power up a baby monitor so they could get some sleep. Or power up a bottle warmer to get their babies formula ready.
The list just goes on and on.
The fact is that because the Yoobao can power ANY device that uses 150W of power or less means that it can be use for so many things and it won't become obsolete easily over time.
Now if I haven't mentioned it already a small power bank, especially one that only does a slow charge, will only become less useful over time. If you have an old cellphone that only does slow charge sure the power bank is great for now...but what about in 2 years when you upgrade to something that DOES have fast charge? What will you do with it then? They have poor resale value and when its capacity runs low who wants to buy something that gives them only a partial cellphone charge?
The Yoobao is far more future proof.
Sure its battery will degrade over time. However, in a couple years time it can only charge your phone 3-4x instead of 5-6x. That's still very useful!
But what if a new cellphone charging type comes out? Don't worry that 220V output means that it will still power whatever device may come out in the future.
What is people no longer use cellphones? No worries. The Yoobao can power any other small device you may have in your hours.
Because it will be useful for years to come it will retain its value for years to come.
Of course the other reason I really like the bigger item is that the simple addition of a solar power can turn it into a really REALLY interesting item.
For about 12HBD you can purchase a 10W solar panel with a USB-C output. The Yoobao charges by USB-C.
Imagine being a farmer and leaving your Yoobao connected to a panel like that in the field and having the Yoobao continually be charged! Free electricity with no worries about an unreliable power network.
True, it will only give you the equivalent of 2-3 cellphone charges per day from a panel like that. But for the poor #Frugal member who said they haven't had power for months something that simple could be unbelievably useful.
Buying a small power bank can be very useful. I have no doubt about it and I have absolutely bought my share of small power banks.
However if I were in Nigeria I would absolutely buy a bigger bank like the Yoobao so I could have versatile power for my phone and so much more. Maybe even to make some money off of it. Although probably to make friends with those around me.
Adding on a solar panel would give me more energy security and that would be something I would absolutely look into as well.
I know the price tag is large: 62,000 Naira is a full months wage or more! Then again I'd much rather have something that I can use for many years for many items and in many ways .... and even make money from ... than something which becomes worthless fairly quickly.
....
If you don't know I'm the leader of the #frugal community. My motto isn't to not spend money its to spend wisely and get the most from every penny. I'm too cheap to spend on a small power bank if I have another option. My other motto is "Don't be stingy" and the larger bank allows me to share electricity with others.
.....
So, to my friend who asked. I'd much rather lend/give you the money for a better power bank than have you spend on a small one. There are of course risks!
Overall though I think the potential benefits outweigh the negatives.
Final note: If purchased as an investment remember than not all investments make money. Some turn out badly. However, in this case if the investment goes bad you still have an awesome power bank.
Thanks to my friend who asked the question. I really enjoyed writing this article. I just wish I had time to proofread it...but I have to go to work. Hopefully there aren't any too awful errors in it!
