Dell, Lenovo Adding Solar Option for PCs

An anonymous reader writes "Lenovo just announced a solar power option for PCs, and Dell is about to do the same, according to Advanced Energy Group. But the solar hardware weights 86 pounds and costs $1,300! Lenovo officials admit they had to do this to reach the 75% mark to gain EPEAT Gold status; Dell couldn't be reached for comment. Hopefully the technology will get smaller and more affordable."

Wait for what?

[DaleGlass]

Solar laptop solutions are sold by many companies already. You can get it as a foldable panel, panels on laptop bags, panels that can be glued to the back of the screen (probably suboptimal), and even a solar jacket [scottevest.com]

They're available in all sorts, from cheap ones that can only slowly charge the battery (though they seem to be able to provide part of the required power while the laptop is on, extending the battery's life), to more expensive ones that produce enough power to keep the laptop on, assuming favorable light levels of course.

Or build your own for $1000 less

[Plocmstart]

Build your own for around $300: http://www.energyrefuge.com/how-to/solar_power_generator.htm [energyrefuge.com]
This is essentially the same thing: a solar panel, battery charger, deep-cycle battery, and (optionally if you don't have a 12V laptop adaptor) a power inverter. The solar cell is what costs the most. The battery is what weighs the most.

Re:Wait for what?

[CaptnMArk]

Unfortunately most laptop screens dont view at all well in sunlight.

Re:Batteries Included

[NeilTheStupidHead]

Unfortunately, cellphone batteries are used for vendor lock-in, you can only easily get a new battery directly from the manufacturer at a steep price. I agree that the battery should be an insert with a simple cover over it, but then, when someone makes a phone smaller than a 'standard' cell phone battery, the whole thing goes out the window. And there seems to be this fascination for making cell phones un-usably small. I have a samsung A860, which is the largest phone I could find at the time and I'll be keeping it when I renew my contract as all the new phones I look at have buttons that are too small to push.

When it comes to watch batteries (properly called button cells): Why do we need different types of 'normal' batteries? (i.e. AA, AAA, D, etc) I seem to remember from school that larger batteries tend to have better output in terms of Amp-Hours, but large batteries are not always practical. Would you carry around an MP3 player that used a D battery instead of an AAA or AA? Very small devices, like hearing aids and watches, need very small and/or very thin batteries, but things like calculators can have larger batteries for longer life span. As far as visually undistinguishable batteries, take a close look at the package, they're often the same battery from a manufacturer with a different numbering scheme or the same battery with different innards (like Ni-cad vs Li-ion). Just look at the wikipedia entry for the extremely common LR44 [wikipedia.org] battery, there are dozens of manufacturer or retailer part numbers. The IEC [wikipedia.org] defines standards for naming, but can't force anyone to use their system of nomenclature. I would double check, but in my experience, two identical-looking button cells are often the same battery but for a manufacturer's stamp.

Re:Doesn't help.. need an "inside-out" online UPS

[Technician]

What you are looking for is here;

http://www.outbackpower.com/ [outbackpower.com]

My dad has one of these in his house. When the batteries are topped off, it kicks over an auxiliary load (part of the rest of the house such as freezer and some additional lights) and when that drops the charge, it switches the auxiliary load back to shore power. His computers used for video editing of home movies is on the solar system 24/7. The solar system and windmill is his UPS. His system provides about 30% of his total load. It still doesn't pick up the electric water heater, electric stove, electric dryer, etc. It just isn't big enough yet.

He sized the system to never have a surplus. The idea of buying power retail and paying for a bi-directional installation (cogen) and selling at wholesale rates didn't make any sense.

You're underestimating the size of the solar panel

[stefanlasiewski]

I agree this could be provided cheaper, but you underestimated the solar power requirements by a long shot.

The solar panel suggested in your link is an 18-watt ($175) solar panel, and is inadequate to charge the 60-Ah battery included with the Xantrex Xpower 1500 Powerpack. A complete charge would take several days of full sun.

The Lenovo & Dell packages include a 110-watt solar panel, which sells for about $6-700 dollars at Real Goods [gaiam.com] or Mr. Solar [mrsolar.com].

For $1500, you could by a decent laptop for $1000, and then assemble your fun $300 solar/battery kit.

Re:Wait for what?

[Turmoyl]

I use a fold-able, portable, 6 panel, 3 pound solar solution for my ThinkPad X60s which puts out about 12W in direct sunlight. I have tuned the laptop's power usage to be between 12W and 15.5W when operating.

With this setup I can run on the smallest battery Lenovo offers for the unit, a 4-cell Li-Ion good for about 1.5 hours, for a little over 10 hours. If I simply close the lid, thereby turning off the screen, the usage goes down to about 6W so the laptop can charge while running. Shutting it down for a full charge in direct sunlight takes about 2.75 hours.

However, my desktop unit, like everyone else's, needs much more power. Even excluding the monitor my primary desktop takes about 85W at idle and up to 300W when gaming, burning a disk, etc. I even saw 450W once when I was pushing the system harder than usual.

The PV setup for my laptop is about 1.5x the size of the laptop. Now think about how big an array I would need (at the same efficiency for my desktop. You're talking desk-sized at the smallest, wall-sized at the largest.

Unfortunately most laptop screens dont view at all

[falconwolf]

in sunlight.

Ah but if you can afford one of these solar power packs, you can also afford a hood [steves-digicams.com] or shader for a laptop as well.

Falcon

not much to it...

[zogger]

..do a site survey, use those maps from the link as part of it, look at your wallet and go for it. to me it is like computers, if you wait for the next great thing and price drops-you'll never own a computer. Comes a time you need to just take the plunge, knowing full well ten years from then there will be better deals. so it goes. but..in the meantime you have some guaranteed juice, and it is a lot cleaner as well, both from an environmental standpoint and from the actual sine wave standpoint. As geeks, we all dig electricity, and we all can understand backups and uninterrupted power supplies..so, extrapolate, it's just as good of an idea for your home..

  The good thing about solar is it scales, from a one panel rig (like in the article) at around a grand for the panel and charge controller and battery, etc, to whatever you want to spend, and you can start small and add to it as you want/need.

With that said, and as I mentioned previously, MORE insulation! You just can't beat not needing any more energy for the same lifestyle! You work it both ways to the middle, drop demand, add to production, eventually those lines cross and you are energy independent, whatever energy bill you are looking at. The big computer guys/server farms finally get it, more efficient servers and virtualization, etc.

  It used to be years ago the electric bill and filling the gastank at the station was a "ho hum, big deal.." cost, but it ain't that way now! Electric energy independence, and eventually transportation independence, two disruptive technology concepts that go to enrich the working dude, instead of keeping him in wallet thralldom forever and a day to the power monopoly guys.

OK, to really directly answer your question as to the solar heated swimming pool, it was dogsquat easy, you can do it in one afternoon. Several hundred feet of hose, laid out over a south facing garage roof with dark shingles. That's it! You can go a lot fancier but that works. You need a *lot* of hose though. It got hot up there. Tapped into the existing pool pump on the downstream side of the filter, so that the water first got run up through the hose where it picked up heat, then into the pool. Really that easy. It had to be manually turned on and off in the morning using kentucky windage guesstimates and an outdoor thermometer, and that wasn't any big deal either. Today, you could automate that easy with some off the shelf parts and a diverter valve- to the heating coil/not to the heating coil, binary based on outside temps. You could lose heat if you run it too early in the day in other words or space out and make it run all night. I think also different today I would use a single long loop of high temp black hose tubing rather than shorter hoses connected together, but, like I said, was pop's pool I was the grunt helper and that was my first foray into alternative energy. After that we built a solar enclosed patio, just a nice solarium/sunroom, it was quite nice during the winter to be able to go outside and get a little warmish sun in it.

Any other questions just ask away, glad to oblige.