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Written by Bjorn Stromberg
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Friday, 31 August 2007 |
Steve "Chippy" Paine's Solar UMPC tour continues into it's fifth day, with rain in the forecast for tomorrow he took some extra time in the sun today to charge up his batteries. Ruminating over how much energy his solar charging system was wasting, he got so caught up that he didn't notice he had sunburnt his legs, ouch! His conclusion:
When I did my first tests and calculations about the use of solar power to drive a PC I was quite amazed at the inefficiency of the process and today's 'laboratory conditions' test proves just how much room for improvement there is. It's thanks to devices like UMPCs that this is project is at all possible because I really doubt it would have worked with even a 'power saving' notebook PC.
It sounds like with some improvements to his setup he could improve his efficiency quite a bit and possibly (with the help of the UMPC) make solar computing a real option for people on the move. I've always been fascinated by solar energy and I think it's incredible that Chippy could combine it with the UMPCs that I love. Just two more days on the tour, let's see if he can make it the rest of the way!
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