Solar-powered adapters for laptops?

Question

The battery on my laptop is totally DOA after just two years, apparently because I hadn't been letting it run totally out of power before recharging it to full power, but it got me to thinking, are there any solar-powered adapters that would work for laptops, or would my laptop require so much power to make the idea of a solar-powered adapter out of the question?

For the record, I've got a Compaq Presario M2000. I've had it a little over two years. Are newer laptop models much more efficient in terms of power usage or demand?

Answer 1

Chad, actually newer laptops require more power! Usually they are using faster chips, more ram, more resources == more power needed. Some are a little more efficient but most I have seen are using more than some of the older ones.

Here is an interesting way to get solar. Nice read
http://blogs.experience.com/Patrick/2007/01/portable-solar-power-for-1_116769220143696495.html
The main thing is to get enough cells (battery wise) to supply the current needed for the machine and that may be several.

Now if you want prepackaged.. try this one
http://www.voltaicsystems.com/bag_messenger.shtml
or http://www.sierrasolar.com/prod_store/LAP_laptop.html

and although I haven't see them at any stores yet.. check this
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2006/031006-cebit-msi-solar-laptop.html
a full solar powered laptop.. not sure how good that will be.


Merry Christmas and God Bless

Answer 2

Hi Chad, If your laptop batteries suffered from "memory effect" and died because they were charged without fully emptying them first, then the batteries were nickel cadmium (NiCd, or commonly called "nicad") cells. The newer nickel metal-hydride (NiMh) type batteries do NOT suffer from this memory effect, so they don't have to be fully discharged before charging, and they won't "die" from being recharged too early as your old battery pack did. You may be able to get a battery pack for your old laptop (notebook?) computer that uses NiMh cells; and if not from the manufacturer, from a specialized battery dealer who will make one up for you specially. (They can normally open up the old battery pack and replace the contents with new NiMh cells.) As for finding a solar panel to charge your laptop, that should be fairly simple. You may need to run a couple of small panels in parallel to make 24 volts DC or slightly higher. That way you shouldn't need the expense of a power inverter to create 110v A/C. (The A/C voltage is then only rectified - turned to A/C - and then reduced down to 18 volts DC or so for the laptop's power supply/charger. That is very wasteful because of power losses at every step of the way.) Sometimes you can get 18 volts DC off a single solar panel in bright sunlight. That's why they need regulators! Anyhow, go ask the staff at a couple of electronics outlets... anyone who sells solar panels should be able to help you. Here in Australia I'd suggest you go to Jaycar Electronics or Dick Smith Electronics (DSE), but I cannot suggest who to go to where you are. I don't think anyone at Tandy/Radio Shack is likely to have enough knowledge. (I say that because I used to work for them out here in Sydney, a couple of decades back. lol.)

Answer 3

Looked for the same thing awhile back just to see what was available came across this.

http://www.eclipsesolargear.com/Default.asp

edit:
another link that might be helpful
http://www.ctsolar.com/index.asp
maybe key word for "solar laptop" in the yahoo answer question search bar seems to have alot good related topics.

Answer 4

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