I am thinking I might want to use solar panels to power the ol’ laptop while I’m off doing the Peace Corps thing.
How do you find the exact wattage draw of a laptop?
I’m no techy but looking at the transformer for my Toshiba Laptop it’s output is 15v 5A
I x V=W so that would be 5 x 15 =75W
Hope that helps
But if you look at the input to the transformer it’s 100V x 1A or 240V x 0.5A so that’s more like 100W to 120W.
Now looking on the Maplin site that’s almost £1,000.
So I think you would more be looking at a trickle charger & then run the laptop off the battery.
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=99760&doy=19m7
Maplins again, £60, 13W says ideal for laptops, but it only provides up to 12V so not sure how it will work.
Hope you can find something your side.
Surely you should be looking at the DC output of the transformer?
Thats what the laptop needs
OK totally agreed.
Was just thinking ofthe simplest solution of Solar providing (in his case 110V) 3 pin wall socket outlet :lol:
Otherwise you have difficulty getting a lead from the solar that is sutable for his computer.
Anyway, Maplins 80W is still £570, so I still think the idea of a trickle charger is the way to go & forget what the computer really wants. Until a real techy bod comes along as says that’s bad for the battery 
Cheaper to buy a petrol genny then…lol
The trickle charger will do just what it says on the tin. It won’t provide a power source like a wall socket, but it will extend the usage of the battery as it will be charging while in use (albeit charging at a slower rate than its being used by the power draw of the laptop).
If the laptop is in light use, this will be fine, but if you’re relying on it having power then this might not be the way to go. Could buy a second battery and spare charger and have that slowly charging the whole time (off the trickle) then swap them over?
Just asked my boss at work (electrical engineers) and said to be very careful as laptop batteries are notoriously fickle and charging them incorrectly could cause them to fail (think bang). Solar panels would have to have a (slightly) higher output voltage than the input to the battery (12V) in order for current to flow and the battery to be charged. This would have to be fairly carefully monitored as overcharging could cause problems as well.
In total it seems like solar panels and laptops aren’t best of friends. Interesting if anyone comes up with a reliable solution though…
Best to get advice from an expert…maybe these guys can help?
http://www.sunshinesolar.co.uk/khxc/gbu0-prodshow/LAPTOP1.html
It looks like I need this: http://wildernesssolar.com/16AH%20Expedition%20Power%20Center.htm, solar panels, and a dc adaptor and I should be in business. Right?
300 Bucks, just to search for porn! 
Not a lot of wifi hotspots where I’m headed, I was thinking that I had a fantastic digital camera which would be a paper weight after 300 or so shots, not cool. I don’t wanna bring me pops ol’ cluncka… I mean Nikon.
Chuckle…, porn on the go, now theres an idea…
You have three options I guess…
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a Solar panel system like the one you’ve looked up. They work ok but you need sunshine, so depending on where you are going, it might not be the best solution.
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You can get portable hard disk drives design to backup you didgital memory cards. They require significantly less power than a laptop and often run off batteries. They are specifically deisnged for what it seems you need. I’ll see if I can dig out an example for you.
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I’m assuming you are taking your bike? Well theres a source of electricity right there, you just need some way of tapping it. On a car you’d be able to plug into the cigarette lighter, obviously thats a non starter on a bike, but maybe theres an ‘adapter’ available. Worth looking at perhaps…
Personally I’d go with 2 or buy a couple of extra memory cards (theyre really cheap just now) and a couple of extra camera batteries (also pretty cheap) and make do without. Unless you know there’s going to be sun for you solar power system, but both option 2 and the buying of extra parts for camera will be cheaper than $300.
I’m not headed to the resort towns, the only way I can get to the islands is by boat or puddle jumper. That means definitely no bike and a couple extra batteries would be good but there’s a chance I wouldn’t see electricity for about a year.