What equipment do I need to recharge a laptop from a solar panel?

I’m trying to find out what equipment I need. I’d be particularly interested to hear from anyone who has done this themseleves and how they got on. Was it expensive?

5 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Alias says:

    You would first need 12volt plug for your laptop. Then you get a solar panel that hooks up to the cigarette lighter. This panel would probably be big enough for a laptop
    http://21st-century-goods.com/page/21st/PROD/SPTCharge/BATTSAVSE6
    and it has the female cigarette socket.
    I have a larger version of this panel and I use it to charge big batteries units that have both 12volt and AC power on it…or the panel with an inverter although you need a LOT of sun to run an inverter off of just solar.
    Yes, this is expensive. It would cost $150 for the 12V laptop plug (OEM) and the panel.

  2. natlee_9 says:

    nothing.

  3. utkarsh says:

    get a power inverter of the same rating as the supply voltage in your area. Plug the panel to this inverter. Plug in your Laptop Adaptor in this inverter and use normally.In India a cheap such invereter costs the equivalent of 20US $

  4. fed-up says:

    Nothing on the market is reliable yet. Try contacting NASA, their public information officer can give you direction

  5. Ivanbo says:

    For Fed-Up, you’ve got no idea have you. The company I work for does it all the time, duh. See the link below for a commercial solution. It can be done on the cheap though. A solar panel and an invertor are a minimum. You can plug your laptop into the invertor. In some cases adaptors can be obtained to go straight from the panel to the Laptop.

    In Siliconchip below is a circuit "designed to allow a laptop computer to be powered from a solar power setup."

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