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laptop + solar panel?

Newer notebooks draw well over 100W of power. Prescott XPS first gen notebooks over 165W! You may prolong run time but to run the computer AND charge the pack you're gonna need a quarter kW worth of cells and that's expensive and you'll need two picnic tables to hold the panels while you sit in the shade with the notebook on your lap, asbestos boxers on (necessary with prescott for real) and your cooler with beer and whatever else you're eating.

I know someone that has a Honda Insight and they use the car's battery to run their notebook and they get very long run times. A 150W load will kill a conventional auto (cranking) batt real quick as the inverter draw is gonna be 20A+.
 
Originally posted by: C6FT7
Newer notebooks draw well over 100W of power. Prescott XPS first gen notebooks over 165W! You may prolong run time but to run the computer AND charge the pack you're gonna need a quarter kW worth of cells and that's expensive and you'll need two picnic tables to hold the panels while you sit in the shade with the notebook on your lap, asbestos boxers on (necessary with prescott for real) and your cooler with beer and whatever else you're eating.

I know someone that has a Honda Insight and they use the car's battery to run their notebook and they get very long run times. A 150W load will kill a conventional auto (cranking) batt real quick as the inverter draw is gonna be 20A+.
Click to expand...
Damn, didn't realize they drew so much. :Q

 
Originally posted by: C6FT7
Newer notebooks draw well over 100W of power. Prescott XPS first gen notebooks over 165W! You may prolong run time but to run the computer AND charge the pack you're gonna need a quarter kW worth of cells and that's expensive and you'll need two picnic tables to hold the panels while you sit in the shade with the notebook on your lap, asbestos boxers on (necessary with prescott for real) and your cooler with beer and whatever else you're eating.

I know someone that has a Honda Insight and they use the car's battery to run their notebook and they get very long run times. A 150W load will kill a conventional auto (cranking) batt real quick as the inverter draw is gonna be 20A+.
Click to expand...

agreed about the power consumption, to a point. i have a desktop-based P4 monster (big screen, fast processor, lots of goodies). AC brick consumpution can max at ~240 watts, but it will run on my 140 watt cigarette lighter invertor. in older cars (like my gf's 80's camry), when the car is turned off, it can only supply enough juice when CPU usage is low. if it climbs, power cuts out. my 91 accord can supply enough juice to handle CPU spikes plus simultaneous charging. i think my invertor would probably overheat if i sustained 100% CPU load, but for normal tasks, any decent battery can pump out enough voltage to keep the wattage at a usuable level continuously. i have run it this way for up to an hour without running the car, and it started right back up.

a pentium M-based system would draw FAR less power, of course.

i guess my point is, car batteries can run laptops just fine, but it would take a crapload of solar panels to make that kind of juice.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
Originally posted by: C6FT7
Newer notebooks draw well over 100W of power. Prescott XPS first gen notebooks over 165W! You may prolong run time but to run the computer AND charge the pack you're gonna need a quarter kW worth of cells and that's expensive and you'll need two picnic tables to hold the panels while you sit in the shade with the notebook on your lap, asbestos boxers on (necessary with prescott for real) and your cooler with beer and whatever else you're eating.

I know someone that has a Honda Insight and they use the car's battery to run their notebook and they get very long run times. A 150W load will kill a conventional auto (cranking) batt real quick as the inverter draw is gonna be 20A+.
Click to expand...

agreed about the power consumption, to a point. i have a desktop-based P4 monster (big screen, fast processor, lots of goodies). AC brick consumpution can max at ~240 watts, but it will run on my 140 watt cigarette lighter invertor. in older cars (like my gf's 80's camry), when the car is turned off, it can only supply enough juice when CPU usage is low. if it climbs, power cuts out. my 91 accord can supply enough juice to handle CPU spikes plus simultaneous charging. i think my invertor would probably overheat if i sustained 100% CPU load, but for normal tasks, any decent battery can pump out enough voltage to keep the wattage at a usuable level continuously. i have run it this way for up to an hour without running the car, and it started right back up.

a pentium M-based system would draw FAR less power, of course.

i guess my point is, car batteries can run laptops just fine, but it would take a crapload of solar panels to make that kind of juice.
Click to expand...
Yeah.

BTW, a 150W draw from an inverter would be drawing about 13A, not 20. 🙂 Small, but significant difference.

Mmmmm... powah(labeled for the clueless)


 
No the device is a "difficult" load and thus draws more than simple IR load banks.

A 300W pure sine wave inverter was tripping a 20A CB at 14.6 VDC running a 3.4GHz notebook (Prescott) at 100% CPU+100% GPU (X800) Load.

Tungsten loads are purely resistive. (once you get past the extremely high inrush of the cold filament which is like a dead short for a brief moment.)
 
Originally posted by: C6FT7
No the device is a "difficult" load and thus draws more than simple IR load banks.

A 300W pure sine wave inverter was tripping a 20A CB at 14.6 VDC running a 3.4GHz notebook (Prescott) at 100% CPU+100% GPU (X800) Load.

Tungsten loads are purely resistive. (once you get past the extremely high inrush of the cold filament which is like a dead short for a brief moment.)
Click to expand...
Uh, 150 watts is 150 watts.

And yes, tungsten is purely resistive. So?

It's still drawing the correct amperage at 500W. 😉

If your appliance was drawing 20A, then it was using about 240W, not 150.
 
The current draw of the inverter is higher. There are conversion losses and these go up when you use TRUE SINE WAVE inverters. Cheap stuff doesn't count and will burn up switching devices not designed for it. The XPS brick will burn if run on stepped sine wave. Been there, done that.

Tungsten loads are much different than non linear loads. The latter presents a challenge to many electrical systems when multiple devices are used. This is not new information.
 
Originally posted by: C6FT7
The current draw of the inverter is higher. There are conversion losses and these go up when you use TRUE SINE WAVE inverters. Cheap stuff doesn't count and will burn up switching devices not designed for it. The XPS brick will burn if run on stepped sine wave. Been there, done that.

Tungsten loads are much different than non linear loads. The latter presents a challenge to many electrical systems when multiple devices are used. This is not new information.
Click to expand...
Ahh, I see what you're saying I think.

I have no experience with true sine wave inverters, as much as I would like to.. they're too rich for my blood. Maybe sometime.
 
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