Low Power Usage Computer

I debated where to ask for recommendations for a new computer, and finally decided to ask in this forum because I want a device that has the lowest possible power consumption while still meeting my computing needs.

I currently have an HP 3105m notebook. It's a good fit for me at 11.6" and 3.5 lbs. Its keyboard is somewhat liquid resistant and has held up to small juice and latte spills. Surprisingly it hasn't complained after being dropped several times.

So, it's replacement would also need these attributes -- about 11.5", about 3lbs, keyboard that's liquid resistant, and fairly rugged.

What I don't like about my HP 3015m notebook is the heat that it generates, and its casing is scratched and falling apart (a bit from the drops, but mostly from normal wear and tear). I've been using it for about 3 years.

I'm on the computer a lot, online and offline, communicating, researching, maintaining websites, writing, photo editing, etc. I rarely watch videos other than short streams. My 5GB data plan is sufficient. I'm most comfortable with Windows-based systems, going to the command prompt occasionally.

I will be spending the winter boondocking in the desert SW, with lots of fine dust.

I'm hoping that my two 6v golf cart batteries will be sufficient for my power needs. To recharge them, I will purchase a suitcase solar panel (100W ?). About every 10 days I plan to drive about 12 miles which will also recharge the batteries to some degree. If needed, I will use a 1000W generator for recharging. For about 8 hours/day, my primary power needs will be to run my computing device (w/12v power cord), Verizon hotspot (Jetpack), and maybe a Wilson Sleek signal booster. In addition, I will be recharging a smart phone and running a Fantastic fan when hot. Lighting is LED.

That's a lot of background. Is there anything else you need to know?

Since purchasing my current notebook, more options have become common on the market -- tablets with detachable keyboards, solid state drives, touch screens, etc.

I'm looking for both product suggestions, as well as device attributes that I should use as criteria for a purchase.

Thanks much for any help you can provide to keep my power consumption as low as possible.

Suanne

Hi Suanne....I don't know much about its consumption, but my Acer has sure held up well for the last 5 yrs. This is my second one and the other was 7 when it caught a virus I couldn't cure without spending a bunch. I figure it had a good run
One thing I like is that neither one has had a heat problem, even during Az summers. I use canned air to combat dust.

Now, Margie's Gateway gets so hot it will shut down sometimes.

I've never spilled anything on mine, so I don't know how it would act. I keep my beer away from electronics

Someone with better math skills will have to help with the power demand numbers.

I wish I could help you in the laptop hunt, but I've no experience with the power requirements of other laptops other than the two I've owned over the last 13 years.

I don't know if the capability of the power adapters is even a spec given when shopping, and this wattage only represents the maximum of what the laptop can ask for from the adapter, not necessarily what it will pull during use, nor how efficient it when performing the tasks asked of it.

While most on this forum are more worried about power consumption than the general public, most have no idea how much they are actually using as this requires specialized equipment to count the amp hours in and out of the battery bank. It either works, or at some point it does not. Voltmeters can give a general idea, Glass turkey baster style Hydrometers on flooded batteries can give the best idea.

I'd think on more computery based forums the actual power consumption is not really considered as stick and brickers have little idea of such things, beyond how long it takes before they need to plug it into the wall. Perhaps you can compare laptop battery capacity (mAh) to how long people are actually able to use the laptop before needing to plug in and recharge.

I have noticed sometimes mine gets uncomfortably warm doing light tasks and other times runs cooler doing what I would consider a more cpu intensive task. Heat is battery power wasted so a cooler running laptop should in theory, use less electricity, but it could just have a stronger fan which does not allow the heat to build up.
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A pair of GC batteries is about 220 amp hours and usually the 1 watt of solar per 1 amp hour of capacity is the general rule.

100 watts of Solar, on this size battery bank, might negate your usage, but can't be expected to negate usage and properly return the pair of GC's back to full charge.

Of course any solar is better than no solar, but I urge you to increase the wattage to capacity ratio. I used to have 198 watts for 230 amp hours of capacity and was not getting good life from my batteries, even though the blinking green light was telling me that they were reaching full charge every day.

I've now lowered my capacity to 130 amp hours, specifically to increase the solar to capacity ratio. I use the same amount overnight, and while cycling the single battery deeper, it is being recharged closer to the minimum 10% bulk rate that the manufacturer recommends and is performing well. I am not missing the extra capacity, and I am expecting/hoping to get more longevity from this single battery than I was getting from a pair of group 27's, but time will tell.

Notice that I have well in excess of 1 watt per 1 amp hour of storage now, yet this still barely can meet the manufacturer recommended minimum bulk recharge rate, and this does not include the fact that I am actually consuming a portion of this solar current before it can make it into the battery. My battery would likely perform better if I has 2 watts per 1 amp hour of storage, but my roof is pretty much maxed out with 198 watts and I have little interest in a portable setup to increase the ratio. For me it was easier to reduce capacity and so far I am not missing the extra capacity and the battery seems to be holding on to its original capacity better compared to when I had more capacity and the same amount of solar feeding it.

While a 100 watt panel can likely negate your usage, it will not be able to negate the usage and be able to recharge the pair of GC's they way they would like, and after 2 weeks they might be in the dangerously low arena and require 12+ hours on a plug in charger to get their specific gravity back upto the maximum base line. There is really no substitute for the Hydrometer.

Voltage is not a good indicator of how well the recharge regimen is doing, and often this is the only method used by a battery depleter to judge how their charging sources are doing. I can get my battery to read 12.8 volts rested and then dip my hydrometer into the cells and it will read below 1.230 where it should be 1.275+.

Without a return to 1.275+ at least every two weeks, the batteries will lose capacity fairly quickly and not perform very well. GC batteries are the most tolerant of this abuse, but they are hardly immune to it.

Also the short drive into town is not nearly enough for the alternator to make a big dent, even if it is wired with fat cables to the GC batteries. It will help, the batteries will feast on the higher current, but to reach 100% state of charge, takes time, lots of it, unfortunately. take advantage of all charging sources available, but the biggest shinyiest chromed alternator is not going to force that last 20% into a battery any faster, though it might take it back upto 80% faster.

We who van dwell are cycling out batteries daily. Much of the solar recommendations out there on the web are for those who might do a week of daily cycling, give or take, then get to go plug into a stick and brick for more than long enough for a charging source to 'reset' the batteries. Without this 'reset' the batteries become a punch drunk boxer at some point, and they go senile much faster.

You should be able to see the wattage of each laptop at your local department store. Look on the power supply (power cord) and it will tell you what the *max* wattage for that laptop.

For reference;
My large gaming laptop has a 140watt power supply, but really only uses 50-60 for normal use (more when gaming)
My HP netbook (10in screen) has a 40 watt power supply (only uses about 10-20 watts normally)
Most budget-style laptops will consume 40-60 watts (3-4 amps)

I don't know what your budget it, but newer laptops that use solid-state drives and such will produce less heat, but cost more. Mac's are a great example (very low power use, high cost).

In the most general sense, smaller less-frills laptops will consume less power. Big screens, big hard drive space, big RAM memory, and big graphics cards all consume more power. A small, bare-bones laptops may suit you best.

Thanks Jay. I'll definately look into the Acers. You are not the first I've heard to sing their praises.

SternWake, You've given me lots to think about. Thanks much for your thorough explanation. It seems that I need to figure out how to get more solar power, as well as replace my GCs with a reduced capacity battery. It looks like the purchase of a hydrometer is in my future.

Thanks Van-Tramp. Although I'm frugal, I know you get what you pay for. So, to save power, I'm willing to pay more. But, the "less-frills" means less power is a good point. I wonder if the lesser amount of heat produced by SSDs translates into less power usage ... you'd think so.

For sure... No fan to cool a SSD means less power consumed to keep it cool. It is one of the primary reasons a tablet is so much easier on it's battery than a laptop (that and less powerful processor and video)

You can spend $2000 on a Mac that will last you 5 good years, or spend $300 on a budget PC laptop and it will last you 2 years (or more, depends on what you do) then just buy another. PCs are cheaper because of the quantity sold each year (making manufacturing cost less for each item), not necessarily because of lower quality components.

Good advice would be to just backup your important files so even if your laptop crashes, you are only a Walmart (and $300) away from being up and running again. I actually use Google Drive, which automatically uploads the files after EACH save. So, after I finish up with Quicken or Excel, the file is instantly backed up. If my laptop crashed today, It wouldn't hold me down for longer than a few minutes to re-install Google Drive on a new laptop.

Best of luck to you

Definitely grab something with a low-end dual core or quad core processor based on your needs and budget. The lower end, the less watts it will take.

My work laptop is an Intel i5 (3rd gen) that has a 90 watt adapter, and it has an SSD and 4GB of memory. If you get an AMD dual core, or an intel i3, you're looking at the basic 45 watt adapter. 45 watts is about as low as you can go with a regular laptop when it comes to adapter sizes, but if it stays charged, you're only trickling about 10 to 20 watts per hour to keep it charged, versus 45 when charging.

Now if you get a netbook (mostly rare now) or a tablet-PC with a keyboard doc, you will easily go down to 25 watt adapters, but you lose a lot of power doing that, and screen real estate. You can find easy deals all year round for laptops under 300 bux that have 45 watt adapters. I prefer the ASUS brand, but they're pretty quality and may not have a deal that cheap. Acer is indeed a good bargain brand, as well as dell, hp or compaq. However I do not recommend HP to anyone these days. (or compaq, owned by HP.)

Generally for Windows based laptops/netbooks ....

Smaller screen = less power
Atom CPU less power than i3 CPU or Celeron
All the above CPU's are less power than Intel Dual Core

Thanks kyonu & vagari ... you both provided great information for directing my research into the best low-power device for me. It looks like, for laptops, Atom CPU w/a small screen is best. My interest is especially peaked by the tablet-PC idea. Off to go check out what's on the market.

here's the tablet I have, and the adapter (which I upgraded to) is 17.5 watts.


Note I got a used one so the price was cheaper, so you can look at those as well. This particular tablet runs full windows 8.1, not the crappy Windows RT thing. I used ClassicShell to give me a traditional start button. This program has been around since Windows 8 release and has millions of downloads (for obvious reasons.)

if i didnt game, i would go for a tablet with keyboard. Practically nothing in power consumption. tho some of your activities like webmastering may be hindered by app availability and screen real estate. i use my tablet 90 percent of the time when im in the van.

Suanne, please don't get rid of a functioning set of 6v batteries based on my info. My intent was to show that higher solar wattage to battery capacity ratios can be beneficial and still meet one's capacity needs vs the common conception to have as much battery capacity as possible and feed it with whatever solar you can manage.

Large 12v batteries, even the quality deep cycle batteries, are peculiar things and will not give as good service as a pair of 6v Golf carts wired in series. The 12v's seem to require more babying, higher voltages for longer to reach 100%, likely wasting more energy to reach the desired high states of charge.

If you can get more solar, then your whole battery system will work better for longer. Too many people act like a 100 watt panel makes 100 watts all day long instead of basically maxing out at ~85 watts for ~2 hours on each side of noon. With Solar more is better, pretty much without exception, especially with a Van dweller who cycles the batteries each and every day and is sucking off a percentage of solar current whilst recharging.

My batteries were no longer meeting my needs after a timespan and needed replacement. That is when I decided to change strategies and lower the overall capacity to better match solar wattage, and so far it has worked well. But I would never have trashed or traded in the tired batteries earlier than required, just to have a better solar wattage to battery capacity ratio.

The info was planned to help people setting up a solar and battery system initially. Some solar is better than no solar, but planning only enough solar to replace the expected overnight usage by sundown is not going to work as well as a higher wattage solar system which can get the batteries in the mid 14's before noon and hold them there long enough for the SG to approach 1.275 daily, while also powering all the loads on the system.

Sorry if this is off topic to the low consumption laptop topic.

kyonu & DazarGaidin ... I'm starting to agree with you both ... that a tablet with a keyboard is the way to go ... Atom CPU, Windows 8.1 w/classic shell. I still need to do more research to make sure that a tablet has all of the features I need. Maybe I should go to Best Buy or some similar place to test drive a few.

SternWake, I will probably begin a new thread to help me flesh out my solar needs. I just need to think about it a bit more before I know what questions to ask. But, I do want to let you know that I was never planning to get rid of the two 6v. I'll explain more when I start that new thread. Thanks much for the concern

After this and a few other threads I was wondering if there is a 12 volt laptop, I have only seen 19 volt power. But I came across this site with all kinds of 12 volt converters for lap tops. http://www.powerstream.com/ADC.htm I hope it helps someone.
Also my 2c, you will want a way to hook up 112 volt charger to top your battery occasionally. How often depends on your use. But your vehicle alternator will not come close, and 100 watts is not enough solar.

3 words for my suggestion: Tablet. Tablet. Tablet. Tablet.

Okay, maybe that was 4 words...can't count, hah!

If you need Windows, there's a bunch of low priced Windows tablets available nowadays at Best Buy and Frys Electronics. Just get a Bluetooth wireless keyboard to go with it. Will last for 8 to 10 hours on a single charge via USB cord into a 12 volt outlet. I prefer tablets that can run off a micro-USB cord, which is the same cord my smartphone uses. Although the wattage will be different (usually 2.1 amps for a tablet versus 1.0 amp for a phone), just get an adapter through Amazon that will supply 2.1 amps (up to 3.1 amps) for powering a tablet via a 12 volt car outlet.

If you really insist on a traditional clamshell design laptop, then buy a 3rd party 12 volt power cord through Amazon for $25. I also have this too and works well for my laptops. Or get one of those very portable inverters that you plug into your car's cigarette lighter 12 volt outlet. Again, Best Buy carries these very small inverters that range between 75 to 200+ watts and costs around $50 to $100. I also have a bunch of these, but don't like the fan noise it usually generates.

Many of the new Atom tablets/laptops are fanless, have great battery life and, in the case of the tablets, have IPS screens.. also dirt cheap. Supposedly, the new Atoms are on par with some of the Core2Duo chips performance-wise. ..Willy.

I would love to get the new Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet version 3 that just came out. Extremely powerful. But way too costly in my opinion. Plus I don't need another tablet anyway, haha.

If you're willing to spend $2,000, the below is probably the most advanced and powerful Windows tablet to date. Microsoft's entry level model goes for $800.

Surface Pro 3 - 512GB / Intel i7
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...ntent=tP8K3ydh&WT.source=google&WT.medium=cpc

You can grab up a Surface 1 or 2 (not a Surface RT) for reasonable prices now (when used) since the Surface 3 came out. I will probably be getting a Surface 3 for work soon so I can say how well it performs, but so far a Surface 2 with their little snappy keyboard seems like a good deal.

A used one is only 639 + shipping and the cost of the keyboard, which is a good deal since it outperforms many lower end laptops for the same wattage.

You're getting a Surface 3 soon?? I'm officially...............JEALOUS!!!

I will "probably" be getting one... There's still a chance I won't be. I work IT and they like to have us up to date with portable solutions.