Boing Boing Blogger Tests Solar Gadgets in the Woods
by Mairi Beautyman, Berlin, Germany on 04.23.08
Well this is a nifty idea -- even if it isn't quite going as expected. Joel Johnson of Boing Boing Gadgets has packed his bags (and they are heavy, he says) full of solar powered gear and gone native. The blogger is currently somewhere in Harriman State Park, one of the largest parks in New York, attempting to blog using only solar power and satellite internet.
The kink in his plans is a missing a connector, so his solar run may be short lived. Power is rapidly depleting on his Lenovo X300 laptop.
Among his products are: the Brunton Solaris 52 foldable solar panel (above) and the Brunton Solo 15 charger (below).
via ::Boing Boing Gadgets More on Brunton ::Brunton Solar Power For Personal Use ::Q&A Remote Portable Power ::Testing Solar Gear on Kilimanjaro More on solar gadgets ::A $20 Solar Charger Runs All My Gadgets ::Voltaic Systems Unveils "Generator" Laptop Charging Solar Bag at ... ::Making Gadgets Greener
Image top: Courtesy of Boing Boing Gadgets. Image middle, below, courtesy of Brunton.
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99.9% of these portable solar items will never see the appx. 1000 days of continuous use needed to pay back their energy and carbon debt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoltaics#Energy_Payback_Time_and_Energy_Returned_on_Energy_Invested
Update: The laptop is charging! See http://twitter.com/joeljohnson/statuses/795235298
Hi Joel,
Great news- saw your tweet! Keep us posted and if you have any questions let us know! We're going to be doing an event in NYC in June with a similar set-up- powering people working remotely!
what happened to going camping to escape the very things this guy is trying to do?
is having everyone in the wilderness connected really something society needs? of course not.
and by the way, my laptop runs off 4 AA batteries, which could be charged with a much smaller array, and weigh under 3 pounds total. but if i really needed to update a blog while backpacking, i would forego the extra weight and just enjoy the wilderness
The purpose of the great outdoors is to get away from this crap.I do not want this junk out there.
I rather like sitting beside the campfire cooking dinner.Add a friend and some beer.Then i am happy.I do not want another leash to my work in the woods.
Well, it's pretty cool that he's been able to do any blogging at all! I wonder how much energy those two Brunton devices are supposed to yield...and how they compare to more portable devices like the Solio Universal Classic Hybrid Solar Charger. Somehow I doubt that those little panels are efficient enough to keep his Lenovo running for too long given that they suck up a decent amount of electricity.