Use of netbooks
A point I havent seen noted here is that netbooks are nominally much more efficient than laptops. I recently obtained one of the Acer Aspire One units which nominally requires about 10 W or possibly less - nominally this means for a 13 AmpH 12 V deep cycle lead battery (4.3 kg) I could get 15 hours viewing depending on losses. The alternative battery size noted by comparison of 110 AmpH weighs if not a tonne at least something that looks like it.
A point to note about netbooks - some have small electronic 'hard disks' and some that look very similar. Mine has a full blown hard drive - 120 GB operating a windows XP system and can be plugged into a full 1900X1200 monitor. They are the size of a book instead of a brick and are the real ideal control unit conceptually at least. The only thing missing is a CD read write system which can be an extra.
This said the points made by other contributors though of course must be recognised especially:
- the inefficiencies involved in converting up and then down.
- the fact that a deep cycle lead cell should not go below 70% discharge.
- if you discharge batteries quickly the resistance goes up and the nominal output goes down.
So what needs answering is just how efficient these things are in reality. There seem to be other netbook discussions around which may help to.
|