2009 March | Solar energy

laptop solar

Posted March 28, 2009 By admin and has no comments yet.

laptop solar
What would the required solar wattage for my laptop?

Laptop power brick says: 19v — 3.95amp
The battery says: 10.8v — 3.95amp
Label on bottom of laptop: 19v — 3.95amp
Laptop model #: Toshiba Satellite A215 – S7413

I run the laptop at lowest brightness, almost never use the dvd drive, and power saver settings (for those that this might mean something)

I would like to run the laptop essentially from the second sun energy is viable until it gets too dark, so I need something that will provide it with all the required power in that time.

I’m looking at an irregular watt panel, 86.4watts (12v — 7.2amp), but I was hoping to find out if what I want to achieve is feasible. If it is feasible and in fact uses less that than the panels I’m looking at, if I used a solar controller would it be able to use the leftover to charge a battery even just a little for when the sun goes down?
There’s another panel that runs at 24v — 3.6amp, just in case.

Wattage is voltage times amperage. 86.4W is more than enough to run the laptop and charge the battery through the power brick (75.05W), though you’ll need a 19 volt output from your solar panel. That 24 volt unit probably won’t do.

There’s a special caveat with solar power which is that it’s not constant. What happens when output is only 50%? Ideally you would run all of this past someone with a real electronics background. The power brick generates regulated DC power and I have no idea if and how that might complicate the matter.

MacBook Solar Powered Laptop System