Travel solar panel devices

[timmygobang]

Hi,

I'm doing the Arc at the end of this year on a friends boat, and knowing power consumption needs to be kept to a all time low I would like to get a travel solar panel pack like one of these

http://tinyurl.com/87nckp3

I need it to charge my laptop and a GoPro camera.

Has anyone had an experience of these Gorilla chargers or of any others?

I know charging a lappy would take a long time so I'm just looking for something that will make the best of the situation I'll be in.

Would be great to here other peoples experiences and examples of charging times on similar devices.

Cheers

Tim

 

[stevensuf]

you can get the briefcase ones much cheaper and with more outputs and more power!

 

[sam_uk]

Charging a laptop from solar requires quite a bit of expense + space on solar.

What do you need the laptop for? Internet? Writing notes? Could you do it on a phone with a keyboard?

£120 would get you this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Motorola-...bile_Phones&hash=item19cd72d3e2#ht_1180wt_702

The Gorilla thing would probably then keep pace with that and your Go pro.

 

[William_H]

Charging laptop and phone

I think you will find if you discuss with your skipper that he would prefer you use the ships 12v supply than add bits of solar on the deck. Indeed I don't think your solar charger panel would last very long before someone stands on it or kicks it. good luck olewill

 

[charles_reed]

Hi,

I'm doing the Arc at the end of this year on a friends boat, and knowing power consumption needs to be kept to a all time low I would like to get a travel solar panel pack like one of these

http://tinyurl.com/87nckp3

I need it to charge my laptop and a GoPro camera.

Has anyone had an experience of these Gorilla chargers or of any others?

I know charging a lappy would take a long time so I'm just looking for something that will make the best of the situation I'll be in.

Would be great to here other peoples experiences and examples of charging times on similar devices.

Cheers

Tim

My experience is that next to the fridge, the computer uses more power than anything else on the boat.
That's with a CULV CPU and 13" screen.

The $64K question is how often you intend to use the computer, as well as its CPU, screen-size etc. If 4-5 minutes a day your proposal might work, more than that it's totally impractical (I've 330 watts of PV and an MPPT controller but use the computer 6-10 hrs/day).

 

[timmygobang]

I wanted it to watch the occasional movie, write a blog or copy pictures from my camera to clear up space on my sd cards.

I'll take a punt and buy one of those brief case solar panels, if its too big or not powerful enough I'll make use of it some other way I'm sure

Shall let you know how I get on.

Thanks

Tim