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looking for advice on a great Portable Fold-able Solar Panel for Laptop and phone

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  • looking for advice on a great Portable Fold-able Solar Panel for Laptop and phone

    So I am just looking for something to charge my laptop and my phone while I am camping in South America.

    There are so many on Amazon that my head spins when I see them all and read some of the reviews... gets even worse when I ask a question about one of them and I get replies like "I would not ever buy one from that manufacture!!"

    So anyone here know which ones are best? Which ones to avoid?

    I was thinking a 60-65 watt system with like a 20000 battery attached would be more then enough??... perhaps over-kill?

    .... I leave October first so would like to try and purchase soon so I can test it and get used to using it...

    Thanks for any help on this hard to decide shopping experience.

  • #2
    Most modern, efficient laptops are 45-50 watts. Phone takes about 5. Add up the hours you use each, and factor in a 80% recharge efficiency for the 20a battery.
    You will need a larger battery and larger panel I believe. There are only about 5 useful sun hours daily
    Powerfab top of pole PV mount (2) | Listeroid 6/1 w/st5 gen head | XW6048 inverter/chgr | Iota 48V/15A charger | Morningstar 60A MPPT | 48V, 800A NiFe Battery (in series)| 15, Evergreen 205w "12V" PV array on pole | Midnight ePanel | Grundfos 10 SO5-9 with 3 wire Franklin Electric motor (1/2hp 240V 1ph ) on a timer for 3 hr noontime run - Runs off PV ||
    || Midnight Classic 200 | 10, Evergreen 200w in a 160VOC array ||
    || VEC1093 12V Charger | Maha C401 aa/aaa Charger | SureSine | Sunsaver MPPT 15A

    solar: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Solar
    gen: http://tinyurl.com/LMR-Lister

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    • #3
      Googling at random, the first system I ran into that looks like it could give about one hour of laptop use per day is http://www.voltaicsystems.com/17-watt-kit
      Review at http://davehoggan.com/voltaic-system...-field-review/ shows it's not powerful enough to charge its own battery fully in one day, but was still useful.
      It's rather underpowered - you probably want more than one hour a day of laptop use - but the nice thing about this one is that it has a 19 volt output, matching what laptops seem to like.
      So get shopping, hopefully you can find something better that still has good laptop compatibility.

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      • #4
        Unless your apps on the laptop are "mission critical", I'd look into power conservation first if you don't actually do a proper power-budget. Ie, you'll be wasting money on a "winging it" system that doesn't perform, OR you go over the top dragging around 10 times more lead and gear than you have to. Both are $$ to waste.

        A smarter option if your applications on the laptop are not mission critical, is to put the money into say a medium quality large-screen tablet, bluetooth keyboard, mouse, rechargeable power-bank (think Anker and the like), and perhaps a folding panel from same. Toss in some high-power mobile usb-5v adapters to charge from the RV while on the road. Add a rechargeable cellphone wifi-hotspot.

        All of this stuff is much more efficient and likely to work if you can't nail down your laptop's exact power needs, geographical solar-insolation, days of autonomy and so forth.

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        • #5
          I use a Goal Zero Yeti 150 Its a lot to carry around you might want to try their sherpa 100 It will charge faster but not charge as much. They are honestly pricey for what you are getting but it is packaged nicely and they have a decent record for standing by what they make from my standpoint anyway. I also have a 20 watt folding panel a 7 watt folding panel and a 100 watt folding panel.. Not worthy of backpack camping with imho the 100 watt one. car camping or boat camping yes back packing Its large and pretty heavy for that. plus its not compatible with the sherpa 100 charging pack I dont believe. You can chain the 20 watt panels if you get 3 of them tied together it should charge fairly nicely for you plus if you plan on back packing you can tie probably 2 of them to your pack and charge as you walk. Good luck with your decision
          [B]N00B[/B]

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          • #6
            The Goal Zero is certainly a "wing it" option. I can understand MrRobot's dilemna.

            Unfortunately, to do solar right, the consumer needs to do a little math first before buying into a system:

            How much power does his laptop draw per hour?
            How many hours per day does he use it?
            What is the solar-insolation period (not just visible light!) where he is going to go? (depends upon geographics and season)

            These 3 variables determine the gear you purchase, unless you want to wing-it with your wallet.

            Sadly, many consumers don't know about multimeters and / or something like a P3 International Kill-A-Watt meter to figure this out:

            http://www.p3international.com/products/p4400.html

            And solar insolation maps to figure out if you'll be able to recharge properly from the size of the panel and battery combo necessary, especially if doing daily cycles.

            Without knowing those 3 variables above, about 99% of solar-forum replies are mere conjecture.

            That's really the reason for recommending the least power-intensive solution.

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            • #7
              Thank you all for the feedback! And thank you ArchAngel72 for you recommendations of the Goal Zero product line.... I had been reading the reviews of that exact gear over on Amazon and it does look to be very good equipment indeed and might be just the thing I am looking for!

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              • #8
                Also I would love to point out and Im no salesperson, but their lights they offer are very nice and work well. I used the light a life 350's chained in our cabin out in Casco bay. I also used their light house 250 and honestly I would have gone with the mini had it been offered , Just today they announced a lighthouse 400 which is to me EH.. for lighting purposes the mini is more than worth it instead of the extra weight bulk and lighting especially for a tent or camp light.. If were talking more need a handy flashlight is better suited imho. Good luck on your choices
                [B]N00B[/B]

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