Post by Mike J on Aug 1, 2015 11:59:06 GMT -8
Hi, I am a newb to the solar panel club, doing my research before diving in. My situation is I'm looking to do some boon docking with our van and I'm obviously looking for some power options.
My main goal is to have a system good enough to power a 12v fan, maybe a few 12v lights and run at least one laptop. The fan would be all night to keep us ventilated, the lights in the evening hours before sleep, and the laptop, not sure..... some hours during the day maybe while the system is being charged, and maybe a couple hours on the battery to watch a movie or something before sleep. 2 laptops would be nice, but I am trying to keep the charging system as inexpensive and small as possible, so I'll be happy with one for now.
What's confusing me is how to figure the power draw of the laptop. I am looking at a 12v adapter for it, and these are the specs:
Max. Power Output: 90W
Voltage Output: 19V
Max. Current: 4.74A
DC Input: DC 10-15v ~ 10A
Do I need to just worry about the 4.74A it's putting out, or 10A that it needs for input? And does the 90W come into the equation somewhere? I'm hoping to get by with one panel, 100 or 150 watt and one battery, but the 90W and 10A has me a bit worried that it won't be enough?
When I look at the calculator on the Renogy site it just asks for watts that my devices will use. This adapter looks like it uses a lot of power. I would of thought this route would be less power consumption than using my little 450W inverter, I don't know it's specs off hand, but it seems to me the inverter should use a hell of a lot more juice than a 12v adapter.....
Any help/ideas/suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.
My main goal is to have a system good enough to power a 12v fan, maybe a few 12v lights and run at least one laptop. The fan would be all night to keep us ventilated, the lights in the evening hours before sleep, and the laptop, not sure..... some hours during the day maybe while the system is being charged, and maybe a couple hours on the battery to watch a movie or something before sleep. 2 laptops would be nice, but I am trying to keep the charging system as inexpensive and small as possible, so I'll be happy with one for now.
What's confusing me is how to figure the power draw of the laptop. I am looking at a 12v adapter for it, and these are the specs:
Max. Power Output: 90W
Voltage Output: 19V
Max. Current: 4.74A
DC Input: DC 10-15v ~ 10A
Do I need to just worry about the 4.74A it's putting out, or 10A that it needs for input? And does the 90W come into the equation somewhere? I'm hoping to get by with one panel, 100 or 150 watt and one battery, but the 90W and 10A has me a bit worried that it won't be enough?
When I look at the calculator on the Renogy site it just asks for watts that my devices will use. This adapter looks like it uses a lot of power. I would of thought this route would be less power consumption than using my little 450W inverter, I don't know it's specs off hand, but it seems to me the inverter should use a hell of a lot more juice than a 12v adapter.....
Any help/ideas/suggestions will be welcome. Thanks.
