Comments on: Power Your Laptop with Solar Energy

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:43:21 +0000

Now I remember when I use to be at School we had this challenge to create a circuit that could charge a light bulb on forever. What we did is we got an old circuit replace light bulbs on top and connect black and red wires to metal pieces at the end to allow the power to run through to light bulbs up and when we linked metal pieces to light bulb. It worked.

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:16:11 +0000

@Ricky – Thanks for all of your comments and feedback, much appreciated. I am very happy that you like the blog and I hope to see you here again!

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:28:57 +0000

@Palak - It sounds like a great idea, but there are a few things you have to keep in mind. The amount of electricity required to run a calculator, compared to the actual size of the calculator, is quite small. But these days, to run a laptop you would need a pretty large solar array, such as one of these: Brunton 26 Brunton 52 If you look at the pictures of those devices, you can see that their surface area is much bigger than the size of a laptop. Additionally, if one added solar panels directly to a laptop, that would mean one would need to put the laptop in the sun in order to charge it - thus overheating the laptop, and also leaving no way to charge the laptop during rainy weather etc. A calculator uses so little energy, that it can even charge in the light from an indoor bulb. So this is not a problem. But, currently, our laptops use a LOT of power and this is what would make it difficult to design one which runs on built-in panels. However, this might change as technology progresses - and this will be interesting to see!

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:23:22 +0000

@cameron – Yes, it’s great to see how technology has been progressing along these lines

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:22:10 +0000

@Queanne – I agree – actually there are many products these days which can run on solar energy, including portable devices. You can find a lot of examples at http://findportablesolarpower.com/store/categories/30/portable-solar-power/

Thanks for your feedback!

By: Anna

Anna — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:20:55 +0000

@Ricky – Thanks for your kind words. I am glad you like the blog! I hope to see you around again

By: Palak

Palak — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:13:06 +0000

can we make a laptop that contains inbuilt solar cell? like the one used in scientific calculator..

By: cameron

cameron — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:52:33 +0000

this is cool, i’ve actually seen panels you can attach to your backpack or something, where only a year or two ago they didn’t have the technology to make solar panels big enough for laptops.. just phones.

By: Ricky

Ricky — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:04:46 +0000

I really like reading your blog. It support the used of solar energy. I am an advocate of alternative energy and reading your blog makes me feel that I’m not alone who wants to have a better change. keep it up!

By: Queanne

Queanne — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 13:15:55 +0000

Hi! This post is very interesting. This is one way of conserving our energy. This would really be very efficient. I hope that one day, laptops are not the only ones that could use solar energy..lol!