Replying to The Correct Way To Use A Laptop Battery With Ac Power Plugged In.

ok... .. so how are you coping with the current power outages? in regards to your pcs/laptops?

I am from Pakistan. And believe me or not, but power and electricity system is really really bad here in the present.

Precisely where you stated : "Location : myComputer"

lol... i'm just wondering because of the power cuts/outages discussed

where are you guys actually living or from?

Precisely where you stated : "Location : myComputer"

where are you guys actually living or from? i always wonder because i'm currenly living in NZ and power outage is very very rare, and when it happens we are notified a week or so before and these cuts don't last longer than an hour or two

I just checked that site for the mobile generators pricing yordan. But none of them have the price and they want clients to call for the pricing. Maybe some marketing gimmick to give some random discount etc. In any case site does show some poweful models for the solar energy panels. I am not sure anyone here tried it out otherwise i could have used it long back.

I have seen that most of these models can be easily moved from one to another place. Just not sure if you are not travelling with huge RV then how come it is going to be benficial. I mean if you are travelling via plane then surely you need small solution for the battery. Earlier I posted link to amazon which shows some of the small options for laptop and mobile charging, maybe that could be solution for folks like me.

I do not meant a new UPS. But a new one will work, yes it is more expensive. Look: this is an extreme situation. If you are use to have power for sure 99.9999% of the time, Oh! sure my proposal is non sense. But if your power is cut anytime for any long, as it have been in Cuba during the 90´s (during the worst years of the Periodo Especial), then this is a valid solution. And it is not a vague idea, I, myself used to have that system and it worked better than any other I tryied after and before.
Also it may be hard to replace or just have an extra laptop battery pack.

This are solutions for the 3rd Word (maybe for the 4th too)!

Kalisto Kilowatt


Read carefully my original post again. I am suggesting to use the UPS at home or just where you spent most time, while you have power. Keep your batteries charged to 80%, as LiIon batteries live longer that way. Take batteries off the laptop where they get hot and keep it cool as that way they live longer. If you foresee a need for portabilitiy just top laptop batteries to 100% charge. But if the power is cut without warning you still have the remaning energy on the UPS, plus the 80% charge on your laptop batteries. I just forget to point out: recharge laptop batteries as soon as power returns!

I am thinking that you work on that laptop, have deadlines to keep, and that your earnings depend on that work, as it was at that time for myself. This is not a suggestion for gamming or Facebook posting or Twiter.

man i feel so lucky where i am having not to go through some serious power issues like you... but it seems to me that UPS would probably be your best solution...

I do not meant a new UPS. But a new one will work, yes it is more expensive. Look: this is an extreme situation. If you are use to have power for sure 99.9999% of the time, Oh! sure my proposal is non sense. But if your power is cut anytime for any long, as it have been in Cuba during the 90´s (during the worst years of the Periodo Especial), then this is a valid solution. And it is not a vague idea, I, myself used to have that system and it worked better than any other I tryied after and before.
Also it may be hard to replace or just have an extra laptop battery pack.

This are solutions for the 3rd Word (maybe for the 4th too)!

Kalisto Kilowatt


Read carefully my original post again. I am suggesting to use the UPS at home or just where you spent most time, while you have power. Keep your batteries charged to 80%, as LiIon batteries live longer that way. Take batteries off the laptop where they get hot and keep it cool as that way they live longer. If you foresee a need for portabilitiy just top laptop batteries to 100% charge. But if the power is cut without warning you still have the remaning energy on the UPS, plus the 80% charge on your laptop batteries. I just forget to point out: recharge laptop batteries as soon as power returns!

I am thinking that you work on that laptop, have deadlines to keep, and that your earnings depend on that work, as it was at that time for myself. This is not a suggestion for gamming or Facebook posting or Twiter.

I also have a similar opinion. I personally am in favor of desktop computers because I think they are faster than their laptop couterparts. Furthermore they are easy to upgrade and repair. But I bought myself a laptop because I wanted to make sure that I would be able to work even in the absence of electricity and I could carry my work with me when I travel to distant places. The price at which I bought my laptop, I could have bought a Desktop with a much better hardware configuration plus a nice UPS to be protected against power failures. But then there was the question of portability and it was so important for me that I went for the more expensive and less performing option.

Now if I am to buy a UPS, the portability reason would just die and it would become extremely difficult for me to carry my stuff around when I move around. So I don't think this option is practical for me. Plus I think it is better to use your battery without caring about its life span and when you feel that battery doesn't last enough to let you work, then buy another one instead of buying a UPS. I think both solutions would cost the same.

You cannot say "this does not work", you should simply say "this is still very expensive".
Here is an exemple of solar generator, http://www.mobilesolarpower.net/ you can today buy commercial solar generators.
Simply, if you need something comfortable, you will need several square meters of captors and a lot of additional materials, inverter, regulator, and of course a huge battery for storing the whole thing. In the near future, we will urgently need this kind of things, when petrol will start being an unreachable resource. And we will have to choose between having a huge solar cell, or stop using my laptop.

I doubt if there are any such batteries out there that can keep the laptop running for 3 or so hours. I mean we can't just get good supply from solar chargers as of now. I know there are some AC batteries out there that can give us some good backup but solar chargers for laptop with high efficiency? not sure. Though I will check for some green sites that are promoting such products.

Amazon doesn't give you much results for the better products in this category. I mean most of the results that were thrown for the laptop based chargers are not much of cheap. Also there are only warranties of 1 year or so. You get that bag which is at cost say 49 bucks or so. Check here for results.

By the way 49 bucks mean 2550 bucks in my country. Not much expensive but not much cheap either. By the way anyone here using the solar charger for the mobile? it would be good to read the personal experience.