Trying To Get A Little Green In My Life

[vagabond48]

We live in sunny Thailand and I use my laptop in my room a lot, sometimes leaving it on for hours.

I just recently bought a cooling fan pad to cool the laptop down and just realized that the heat is the results of the a decent amount of electricity being used. Yes, I know it isn't anywhere as much the juice needed to power a TV or an electric stove which I don't use. I was wondering if I can buy a small portable solar power battery unit (I am not sure what they are called) that I could safely plug my laptop in using stored solar energy through batteries.

[GrahamF]

I was just in Tokyo and while in Tokyu Hand Department Store, I ran across briefcases and backpacks that had solar panels built in and various types of plugs. I think they were made for charging laptops, cell phones, etc. I would think you could probably find something similar here in LOS.

[Cuban]

I think you will find the problem is the amount of current that solar cells can deliver compared to the the normal usage requirement of a laptop, look at the current rating of your l/t's psu (500ma etc.) and compare to the supplied current (and voltage) of the solar unit.

In the dim distant past I had a small unit to trickle charge AA batteries - it seldom worked.

[Crossy]

A quick Google will net you a whole bunch of solar chargers, most of which cost a scary 400 US for one that has any chance of actually running a notebook rather than just charging it

Most notebooks need about 60W when running and charging (look at your power unit) and probably about half that when running with a full battery pack.

So a 30W panel will charge your notebook in the morning whilst you're waking up (notebook power off), run it through the afternoon whilst you are working, and then you run the battery flat when the sun goes down. Next day repeat from the start (until you get a dull wet one).

400 bucks is a lot of operating time if you're paying 4 Baht a unit, about 48,000 hours operation if I've done the sums right, payback is therefore around 16 years

[filingaccount]

There are a few solutions, but all of them (except the large and expensive ones) only allows you to recharge the battery while not in use (or makes the laptop drain the battery slower).

You can get laptop bags, backpacks, camera bags, waist bags, clamshell panels, wallet sized and many more "designs".

Generally they have a solar panel capable of between 2 Watts and 15 Watts, and comes with Lithium-Ion batteries up to 8800 mAh (generall a laptop battery is around 5000 mAh. Some more, some less).