Lowest power consumption laptop or notebook?

MM5AHO

MM5AHO

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Our electric consumption is pretty minimal, but the battery voltage can get down after a long sail - say 20-40 hours.
Nav lights when dark, AIS, instruments etc all going, but the biggest consumer is the laptop running chart software and Bluetooth fed from the instruments.

Power consumption isn't well stated for these devices, mostly giving life on own battery. But I want power consumption when running from a 12V supply. Currently have a Panasonic Toughbook, CF C1.
This is the hungry culprit aboard, and I'm looking for something that is frugal with power, but has similar processing power and graphics resolution.
The software is SeaClear, not particularly demanding.
Wind charger (Rutland 504) has an output of 2-3A, (5A at 40Knots), but downwind sailing would be less.
Battery size is small. 2 x 55 Ah, and only one is switched in in these conditions, the other kept in reserve for engine starting.

Any suggestions for a low power consumption laptop or notebook.
 
Tablets all seem to be very much lower power than laptops/netbooks, so if you can run the software you want on one, I'd suggest looking in that direction.

By the way, I am writing this on an old Thinkpad X32. When supplied its batteries are 48Wh and last about 4 hours, so seems to run on about 12W. I have a 12V charger for it which does not seem to put undue strain on the batteries - an amp or so seems about right.
 
The biggest culprit of power consumption is generally the screen. Have you set the inactive levels to the lowest possible?
Have you thought about changing the hard drive to a solid state one?
 
You're correct. Staying aboard in the marina I can almost survive on batteries alone, with solar panels for charging. I only put the mains charger on odd days. But, i have the laptop plugged in to shore power as it canes the batteries and the solar panels just can't keep up. I also have a 10.1" Lenovo tablet that lasts for ages, using OpenCPN with VMH charts. If your software will run on Android it's a possible solution. Bearing in mind it isn't waterproof and is hard to see in bright Sunlight.

Label on the laptop states : 19v 3.42a
 
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I've been getting all OCD about my power consumption.

I use the iPad now and make sure it's fully charged before I leave home.

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Does seem a bit light on the batteries front.

Another vote for Lenovo 10-30, very frugal, but Android. Runs Navionics, but not put to the test at sea, yet..
 
Aja said:
I'm struggling with the battery capacity!
2 X 50A ?
Donald
Click to expand...

Indeed, that is small. I assume the OP is stuck for space. It might be worth considering linking the two batteries and carrying a boost pack for emergency starting. Be a cheap way of doubling battery capacity. If the batteries are hard to get to a couple of cables could be run to some posts for emergency use.
 
With regard to SeaClear, the charts the OP is using will most likely work with OpenCPN, which as vastly, vastly, immensely better. If he's using Visit My Harbour charts they should work with OpenCPN (depending on the chart version) and should almost certainly be able to be used on Android with Marine Navigator, which is also better than SeaClear.
 
A1GSS said:
Macbook. Fantastic battery life, 10+ hours easily and only about 5w consumption in use.

https://www.apple.com/uk/macbook/design/
Click to expand...
Just bought one this week and it's freakin' amazing, especially how it runs off a USB cable.

But a £1000+ lappy might be a bit overkill for many folks.

OP's current toughbook is a few years old, and probably a right powerhog by current standards. I'd imagine any current netbook will be a great improvement.

Over the last decade, Intel CPU's have been reducing in power consumption with every generation.

Tesco have several laptops in the £200 - £300 range.

I would look at the HP 250 G4 - the i5 model they list for £299 has the latest-generation Skylake CPU (6200U).

I've been hearing a lot about Skylake in the last year or so. The latest Macbooks, as advocated by A1GSS, feature Skylake CPU's, albeit more expensive ones. A quick search suggests Skylake is particularly power-efficient at idle, which should make it ideal for our purposes - i.e. when you've got a webpage open and are just reading it, the CPU has no work to do to update it, so will consume less watts. It will probably, I reckon, also consume little power when just left open on the chart table running OpenCPN.

The Dell Inspiron 15.6-3552 and Lenovo 100-15IBD have a previous generation (January 2015) Broadwell CPU (5005U), which should have ok power-consumption, but not as good as the Skylake. The Acer ES1-431 is less appealing.
 
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Have an Asus Eee 10" which I put a solid state drive in, very low power consumption, can leave on all day. Also have an 11.6" Asus 1225 which is low power consumption. Can plug either into lcd TV for films. The old 17" HP Pavilion was very power hungry, had to restrict use.
 
I use a Toughbook too. Running on XP, and using MaxSea and Open CPN.

To reduce power consumption I bought a universal charger from Maplins. It takes in AC or DC and spits out DC at a voltage you can set. Much more economical than using a standard inverter. Also, as I don't need to look at the screen all the time, I altered the settings in Control Panel to "do nothing when I shut the lid". What happens is the screen turns off, but it keeps the software runnng. Want to know where you are? Open the lid and it all springs into life with no loss of positon etc.

Also, if I were you, I'd fit a bigger battery bank and a smart alternator controller.
 
To fill in blanks in my info.
I run the Toughbook from a 12V socket, through a standard generic PSU that upconverts to about 19V (or whatever the laptop requires near that), an adjustable device with high freq switching type voltage converter. (DC in DC out). The PSU consumes little of itself.
The Toughbook needs a few amps, perhaps 40W? (I intend to measure it accurately).

As to batteries: I have two 55Ah, with individual switches such that "house" and engine start are the same supply, and can be switched to 1, 2 or both. I have both on when engine running.
Normal operation is 1 = House, and 2 = Engine. The wind turbine only feeds to No 1 through a standard regulator comes with the generator. In addition, an on/off switch for that wind generator that can isolate it, and shunt the turbine when there's not enough wind to generate power. (The standard regulator has IMO excessive standing consumption, so rather than making the turbine another load on the battery, it can be isolated).

The rest of the electrics consume little. LED lights, and few in operation except night sailing with nav LEDs. Instruments are all pretty low demand, and only include depth, speed log, and GPS. Windlass is only run with engine running, through own breaker, normally isolated. Marine VHF and AIS on radio front. Only normally run the HF radio when engine running (100W RF, so about 200W demand peaks on SSB). No fridge, no freezer, Three 12V sockets for phone charging etc, no other electric toys.

Alternator is about 80A output. Engine is Volvo MD2030, so low start demand cranking amps anyway and 55Ah quite adequate for that.
Boat is Rival 32, so total demand is moderate.

Thanks for the various info, especially the Skylake info.
 
I'm trying an Acer Aspire Cloudbook 14" for this season.

Runs for 10 hours on its own battery. Gets good reviews for battery life (2nd only to the MacBook I think). Bluetooth and WiFi and plenty of disc space on board for Nav software and USBs for larger drives if needed.
 
This isn't about battery life if you are sailing for 20-40 hours. You've got to put in what you take out, or at least keep going for much longer than its life. My Lenovo Yoga draws 3-4 amps but sometimes over 5.

If making long passages consider switching it off when you don't need it. Given that everyone aboard can give you decent position if you are in phone range, you may be able to do without the computer for lots of the time. If you want the track for future reference record it on your phone or fitbit (or even a wee hand held GPS). In my traditional wooden boat I recently counted three people and eight devices that could tell me where I was!
 
Similar problem, different solution. I use the laptop for log, e-mail and plotting. Have done for the last 16 years.
Have 320 AH nominal of battery (no separate starter battery), 328w of PV panel, and used to use an external smart charge controller.
Over the years I've gradually replaced the laptops and each has shown a step change down in power demands.
The current ThinkPad I have goes 16 hrs on one charge compared to 6 hrs on the previous one.
To achieve this it has an SSB, Win10 (far superior to XL or 7 and comparable to a Linux OS) and a new type of screen. I'm using a Cosmote Alcatel USB receiver, and Open CPN with CMap 2 charts.
IMHO, you need to increase your boat battery capacity, ditch your current laptop for either an iPad or similar and possibly (depends on OS) change to OpenCPN. I do dual boot all my boxes into Linux as well as current Win - it's only in the latest iteration that Microsoft can equal the low power consumption of Suse Linux.
However getting a gallon out of a pint pot is not entirely feasible.

PS I remember, half-way across Lyme Bay being accosted by a small power boat - when I gave them our position (pre-GPS) it transpired they had no chart. So I told them where to find the nearest petrol and "lent" them our spare gallon. Still that was the days before smartphones!!!
 
Just remembered when I used to take a Lappy to the boat I bought a spare battery and fully charged them both when I went down.

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