Solar Power Camping Tent
Sunday, April 24th, 2011Before you read on, check out the great deals for Solar Power Camping Tent products below before they expire:
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24 VDC 600 Watt UL ®™ LISTED Low Voltage Submersible Water Heater Incoloy PO |  |
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How can I power a laptop whil camping?
Hi. I am planning a camping trip and need to take my laptop with internet dongle. What power soluions are available. Carrying the equipment is not an issue. I just need to be able to use and charge it from the tent indeffinately. I have an initial thought of using a car battery wih a solar panel charging the battery.. I am not gr8 at this kind of thing so any other ideas would be greafuly appreciated. The more power the better,
First, get a car charger for your laptop so you can efficiently use a battery.
Next, get a marine deep discharge battery. They have them at Wal-Mart with 105 A-hr capacity for about $60 US, or a little bigger for quite a bit more. Deep discharging a typical car battery will kill it after just a few charges.
This should last for 40 or so hours of opertion for a typical laptop, much more for a low powered netbook. This should be enough for a short vacation. If you need more, you can charge from your car using cables, either from the battery or through the cigarette lighter or other wires (with the car running, of course).
If you don't have a vehicle, I would get a small generator <1kw for ~100 with a 12V charging circuit, and use that. Last choice would be a 50W or so solar panel if you use the laptop intermittently. Don't forget the solar panel requires an electronic box with a charge controller. Harbor freight has some for not too much money.
If you are charging it, a small digital multimeter can be used to determine charging current (put a small resistor, 1Ohm or less in series) by measuring the current across a resistor. Also, the voltage of 13.6V or so when the charger is taken off indicates full charge. Good luck!
Solar Tent Fan