laptop question and off grid

[Earthbound]

Looking for some opinions on the best laptop for someone who is living off grid with a small solar setup and a generator? Any things one should look for when buying one living in this kind of set up? Id imagine charge would be a biggy also how long does it take to charge to full capacity...
Tv and movies would also want to be watched off this unit once in a while.
thanks in advance for the input!! Oh, not interested in a MAC.....
corry

[Earthbound]

anyone????
corry

[Batt]

Well, lot of questions, and I'm not sure I can answer them completely. I have a 200 watt solar cell, 4-6V 225AH batteries and a 1250 Watt inverter. Small setup, just for backup. I run the blower on the fireplace insert, radio, 3 cfl lights and an Asus laptop and have yet to run out of power. Course I don't push it or run it 24/7 except for the blower motor.
FWIW.

[radiofish]

Here I have a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop (running Windows XP), and on Ebay I found the external 12VDC power cord for it. I use that when I hook up to my 240 Amp Hour (3 seperate 80 Amp Hour 13.8 VDC batteries) battery bank, that is charged by a combination of 45 watts of solar panels mounted in a window, and a 110V AC trickle charger. The batteries are a backup source of power, for my Amateur (Ham) Radio equipment.. I also have 1400 Watts rated inverters, to supply 110 VAC if needed.

While running my laptop which is over 6 years old, the external 12 VDC power cord will charge the internal battery in less than a hour. Yet I just run the laptop right off of the large battery bank the majority of the time. I have an external mechanical DC Volt Meter to monitor the battery Voltage, to see when they need charging. Also in the past I would also run my small 12 VDC B&W TV, and other 12 VDC items, beside my ham radios without ever fully discharging the batteries. When the commerical power does go out up here, I also loose my over the landline dial-up internet connection.

[rambler]

Originally Posted by Earthbound

anyone????
corry

Well, I think a laptop is a good idea for your needs.

Generally they all use a small amount of electricity for an hour or so to fully recharge.

I would look for one with a longer lasting battery, to carry through low-power-input times. Plug it in when you have excess power to soak up. They use a low amnount over time, so will match up to the solar well, no as much to the generator.

For movies I suppose you want a bigger screen; will take a bit more power, but not a biggie.

For the most part, I'd look for the laptop I like, features I want. They all are going to consume a fairly low power, relatively the same I would guess.

Long lasting batteries - an upgrade usually - would fit you well.

I think the answer is to look for a laptop that fits your computer needs, and it will work with the power you have.

--->Paul

[Gary in ohio]

Most laptop chargers are 16v. You can usually find a 12v charger for a laptop. I would go that route instead of the inverter and 110v charger.

[adamtheha]

Most laptops use between 40-90 watts of power, depending on whether the battery is charging, disks are running, watching a movie, etc...
If you make the assumption that you will be consuming 100 watts x number of hours of use per day (average + small fudge factor) you should be well on track. Remember, you only get about 75% of power produced by any renewable resource when you are charging a battery, because you lose a little every time it's converted!

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Gary in ohio

Most laptop chargers are 16v. You can usually find a 12v charger for a laptop. I would go that route instead of the inverter and 110v charger.

I would do that for communication purposes. I use Skype through my laptop for all of my phone calls now. If I power the laptop with the inverter (modified sine wave) I get a bad buzz when I make calls. I think there's no question that the buzz is from the inverter. There is also a 25% power loss through an inverter.

As for the brand of laptop, I don't think it makes a hoot's worth of difference. They're all the same. I happen to use a fairly new Lenovo laptop, but I selected it because it had what I wanted and was on sale.

[texican]

Like Gary said, get a 12v car charger, and pretty much all of the laptops are going to be good to go. I'm thinking a netbook would use less power, but if you wanted to watch dvd's, you'd end up having an external dvd player, which neutralizes the savings.

Get a couple of six volt deep cycle golf cart batteries, a panel to charge them, a small regulator to keep from frying your batteries from overcharging, and a lighter plug for the 12v car charger, and your set.

With the inverter, you'd be going from 12vdc to 110vac back to 18vdc... and each conversion takes power. Bypass the losses of the inverter and save that power.

Back when I was totally off grid, I had dedicated dc circuits, for any appliance that used 12vdc power bricks.... had to do some jury rigging to get the power into the appliance, but it wasn't rocket science.

[Gary in ohio]

Originally Posted by texican

Like Gary said, get a 12v car charger, and pretty much all of the laptops are going to be good to go. I'm thinking a netbook would use less power, but if you wanted to watch dvd's, you'd end up having an external dvd player, which neutralizes the savings.

Most big screen TV's have VGA inputs, You can always use the netbook for day to day computer work and on the occasion you want to watch a DVD, power up the TV for a couple hour movie.

[cfabe]

I'm no expert on solar power, but if you are running a laptop off of it's internal battery every day expect the battery to only last 1-2 years before it's capacity has diminished greatly. It would be better to power it directly from your large solar battery bank with a DC power adapter.

[Earthbound]

Thank you all for the great advice! Lots to think about. I will for sure pick up one of those 12v car chargers (great idea)
I just need to start looking and seeing whats out there.
thanks again!
corry

[byexample]

I've measured the power usage of about a dozen different laptops over the last couple of years and power consumption is all over the map... even on comparable models. If seen some that draw as low as 25 watts of power and some that are up over 100 watts for around the same level of memory and computer performance.

The other thing is that I've found the power ratings given by manufacturers to be fairly inaccurate when it comes to electronics like computers.

So to really know... I recommend that you go to the local computer superstore kinda place with a kilowatt meter and get actual measurements.

It's a shame that you don't want a Mac... their iBook laptops are the most energy efficient models I've measured... right around 24 - 25 watts of power typically. Of all the PCs that I've been able to measure the 2 Dells I've had my hands on were pretty efficient compared to other manufacturers.

I'd also second texican's opinion that Netbooks are probably going to consume less power than a full-sized laptop.

[Forty Acres]

I bought an ASUS UL80VT about two weeks ago. It is rated to have 11+ hour battery life. This is achieved by a dual-graphics something or other. I don't really understand it, just know that the battery life is unbelievable. It has two modes, one is a battery sucking, high graphics mode, the other is plenty fine for surfing the net and doing about 90% of what I do. Price was $830 from Amazon. Free shipping & bonus $100 gift card.
14" notebook.

[katlupe]

We have a small solar set up for our total power of 185 watts. What we use most of our power for is our two laptops as we run our home based business from them. I'd say our laptops run over ten hours a day. We never used the laptop batteries but keep them hooked up to our power. We use them for watching dvds a couple nights a week in this dark time of year.

My laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad W500 with Vista. Next week my husband will be getting a new Lenovo Thinkpad W700 with Windows 7. They are both energy efficient models as that is what we look for when choosing which one to buy. As soon as the weather breaks a bit we will be increasing our solar array with the addition of two more panels. But that is for other conveniences. I am very happy with our choice in laptops and with the new one my husband has bought, he will be able to add a recording studio.

katlupe

[Earthbound]

Again, than ks a bunch!
I was reading up on green computers and mac did rate high for efficiency, but was not top of the list . I just cant justify the cost for bells and whistles I will never use. I'm on a loaner mac right now and just really prefer pc's. A kilowatt meter is an excellent idea, I think I'll try that. thank you!
I'll check into the lenovo and the asus.
on another note, what do you do for internet and does that add to the energy draw as well? Any opinions on those internet sticks? this laptop will be in a 70's motothome,and ive heard that a router signal can get messed around with the metal of the unit?
corry

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Earthbound

this laptop will be in a 70's motothome,and ive heard that a router signal can get messed around with the metal of the unit?

Not that much. If it's a reasonably strong signal the metal siding won't hurt you much.

I let a neighbor who lives in a mobile home suck Internet from me and there's a big different between inside & outside, but he's 250 feet from my router. Since the rating is only 100 feet you can't really begrudge the router signal. But even at 250 feet and behind siding he still gets a good enough signal to keep using it. I think you will be fine in your motorhome.

[Earthbound]

Thanks Nevada, good to hear. Im still curious about these new internet sticks....
I was wondering with the router, will it need to be plugged in? or does it use the charge of the computer?
thanks!!
corry

[Nevada]

Originally Posted by Earthbound

Thanks Nevada, good to hear. Im still curious about these new internet sticks....
I was wondering with the router, will it need to be plugged in? or does it use the charge of the computer?
thanks!!
corry

I was thinking that you were going to be getting wireless Internet from an RV park, so you wouldn't need a router. If you have your own router then that's different. Routers are usually powered with 110v power adapters, typically drawing around 50 watts.

[badlander]

We use our generator to charge up the Toshiba (recommended to us by our computer geeks that service our office comps) lap top. Usually only use it in evenings especially with it getting dark so early. For service we use a US Cellular modem that plugs directly into the comp and works off the cell towers. Signal was kinda useless where we live so DH used an old satellite dish from defunct tv service and mounted the modem on an extension arm in front of the dish which he then mounted to a tripod. The device sets in a window where it can be turned to pick up the strongest tower signal. It has boosted our signal from 40-50% to nearly 100%.