Solar Power for your ThinkPad?

[doppelfish]

So, while everybody's complaining over the heat, wouldn't it be nice to be able to take your TP into the park, sit in the breeze, and actually get your work done? OK, those of you who get some 8+h of battery life can stop reading now, but everybody else is invited to brainstorm:
What does it take to power you TP off of a solar cell? What size would such a cell need to have? Would you get a slightly enhanced battery life, or could you even charge the battery? Any pros out there?

cheers,
-- fish 8)

[jjesusfreak01]

So, while everybody's complaining over the heat, wouldn't it be nice to be able to take your TP into the park, sit in the breeze, and actually get your work done? OK, those of you who get some 8+h of battery life can stop reading now, but everybody else is invited to brainstorm:
What does it take to power you TP off of a solar cell? What size would such a cell need to have? Would you get a slightly enhanced battery life, or could you even charge the battery? Any pros out there?

cheers,
-- fish

Well, I just did a little research. A Thinkpad consuming 90 Watts (like the T60), would need an array of photo cells about the size of a window pane. Until photo cell tech gets better, I dont think we can count on solar power.

[440roadrunner]

I'm not trying to make fun of either of you, but here's the thing.


So much of the time you see some nutcase that can make "fuel out of water" or some other magic, that we lose track of the reality of generating and using energy.

So photoelectric technology is still too big and bulky to power a laptop directly? Big deal

SO DONT CARRY IT WITH YOU

Leave the photoelectric generator at home where it can be optomized for directivity and output, and allow it to charge a battery bank.

Use that power to charge up a one or two or three extra laptop batteries and carry THOSE with you

My point is, that so much of energy saving "theory" seems to be misapplied, that it never really gets used.

The fact is, that at this time and the forseeable future, many energy smart devices, like photoelectric and fuel cells, and certainly windmills don't make sense for everyday portable use, but instead can be better utilized in large scale, permanant applications, and unfortunately, THOSE take real money.


Here in the Pacific Northwest, for example, solar energy is almost a waste of time in most areas. There is so little available in winter (when we really need it) that most of the time it doesn't make sense.

[Kyocera]

I used to carry a pocket calculator that had both, i used it years after the battery was toast. It would be nice to have that type of set up where the photo cells would be addititve to the battery not necessarily actually charge, but help prolong the life.

[doppelfish]

I'm not trying to make fun of either of you, but here's the thing.

This doesn't sound much like You're trying to make fun of me. That's a valid point You're making. The calculation that jjesusfreak01 presents shows how, er, realistic my idea is. But let's talk again in a few years from now, shall we?

cheers,
-- fish

[Thinkpaddict]

Imagine if you could connect a hand crank generator (or foot pedal generator) to a portable voltage regulator with a buffer battery, and then connect this to the AC of your thinkpad to charge its own battery.

Actually, that doesn't sound very practical either.

[sunkssss]

how come you're poking fun at the $100 laptop's hand crank/foot pedal? at the present it's more plausible than the window sized photo cell.

[Thinkpaddict]

how come you're poking fun at the $100 laptop's hand crank/foot pedal? at the present it's more plausible than the window sized photo cell.

I wasn't poking fun at the concept. As a matter of fact, I didn't know that someone else had beat me to it.

My wife and I used to have a hamster that kept spinning his little wheel all night long. We still joke saying that we should had put a generator on it to produce electricity for our home.

[christopher_wolf]

As a technological acheivement, the $100 Laptop is impressive.

As part of a socio-economic incentive? I, as well as others, have doubts; but that isn't the issue at hand.

What would be *really* impressive is if we could get a Thinkpad to run off either power harvested from the human operator or from a mass of highly-metabolic cells. There are already projects that have developed devices that can use cells, feeding on a substrate or photosynthesizing, to generate enough of a potential to run electronic micocontrollers.

[Thinkpaddict]

What would be *really* impressive is if we could get a Thinkpad to run off either power harvested from the human operator or from a mass of highly-metabolic cells. There are already projects that have developed devices that can use cells, feeding on a substrate or photosynthesizing, to generate enough of a potential to run electronic micocontrollers.

Yes, that would be really impressive. Regarding the harvesting of energy from the human operator, I suppose we could start measuring battery capacity in calories. I can already see it: Honey, I'm going to the Burger King, because my Thinkpad is running low on batteries and I have to stay up all night working on that report.

[jjesusfreak01]

Actually, they make a good point. If you were to create a handcrank generator, with a couple capacitors, it could easily be used to charge a thinkpad. Handcrank generators create a whole lot more power than solar cells do. Of course, a small solar panel, along with the (capacitor equipped) handcrank should allow you to crank for a minute and let the battery charge for ten minutes maybe (possibly even more). What we need is a kineticly powered laptop.

[BigWarpGuy]

http://www.ascscientific.com/solar.html

http://www.kayaktexas.com/solar.htm

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet ... s&gifs=yes
Solar Powered Module for Portable Computers

http://www.backcountry-equipment.com/br ... ris-26.php

rollable solar cell panel?

http://www.powerfilmsolar.com/products/ ... /index.htm

http://www.solar-world.com/

Google and solar cells; portable or rollable

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=& ... tnG=Search

[Thinkpaddict]

Great links!

Actually, the Powerfilm product is rather intriguing. 1.2A operating current? That's only slightly less than the discharge rate of my X24.
Also, the prices are not as bad as I expected, and the weight is pretty manageable too.

[nem0]

What about some kind of recumbent stationary bicycle hooked up to a generator? Wouldn't be very portable, and I'm not sure how much energy one could produce, but it'd be a good incentive to exercise while working

[bigtiger]

I like those sort of discussion. There is never a bit of idea that is too insane to be plausible. You never know.

[SeanHayward]

It seems that most of the listed panels require that the laptop have a car adapter power cable to connect to the panel. I assume because these adapters can handle the fluctuations in outputted power.

Is it possible to find adapters the latest thinkpads? Specifically the x60s