Laptop vs. Small Desktop: Best Bang Per Watt?

Deagol writes "Tomorrow I take possession of a remote, wooded lot with a cabin. 15 miles to the nearest utility pole, my electricity options are limited to those I can generate myself, solar being my primary goal. I'm sitting here staring at my power meter, seeing my desktop & monitor draw about 250W -- a non-trivial amount to generate over a 8-to-12 hour workday. I'd be happy with equivalent computing horsepower (1.4GHz T-Bird, 512M RAM, though more is always better). Should I get a small PC with an LCD monitor, or should I get a laptop? Will laptops draw less power (in general), and if so, will losing the modularity and lower cost of commodity PC parts be worth it? I'd love opinions from those who have been in a similar situation."

Comments

One word: Batteries!

[metrazol]

The big problem you'll face on solar is the ol' "It don't work when the sun ain't around." That means you're better off getting a laptop for a few reasons. 3 or more hours of battery life can be very handy and you can march around with it, meaning you could leave lights off at your desk and stroll over to the kitchen with your laptop, saving electricity in two ways, the lights and that stored in the batteries.

Another option is get a UPS for your desktop. You can run the machine off of that when the power goes out, night, etc. and they are relatively cheap...if you get a 4 hour one... and can power other devices. The laptop and the UPC will trickle charge while juice is flowing, so you can be pretty sure that when the sun does set, you won't miss a beat with your tech.

Now... how exactly are you going to get on the net? Satellite? Pigeon?

Any rivers?

[nocomment]

If there's any rivers nearby, you could relatively easily make a multiple solution generator. Build a small water-wheel type generator, a windmill, and a solar generator. Then run these into a UPS (or 2), and you should have power as long as

• you have daylight
• the river is flowing
• there is a breeze

If all of the above fail, you have 2-8 hours of UPS power (depending on how big and how many UPSs you get), and 2-3 hours of battery in the laptop (make that 4-6 if you get a spare battery). You could make it through a frozen, long, dark, and still Alaskan night with that setup. You'll be set...and still nerdy ;-)