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by ctdonath 1689 days ago
I regularly work outside during summer, powering a MacBook Pro exclusively by sunlight (panel about 1m^2). For a few hours I can get a good 50+ watts, buffering thru a 100Wh battery. Keeping the load typically around 10-15 watts isn't hard, so long as paying attention.

Of note, I persuaded Atlassian to remove the (rather nice) animated clouds from their "you have been logged out" web page because it pulled 30 watts (even when web page was hidden). Running on solar/battery exclusively, that was a problem; kudos to them for acting on it.
1 comments
turtlebits 1689 days ago
50W seems rather low for a a 1m^2 panel. I have some older 250W panels (1.6m^2) and get around 220W in the summer.

Also, how are you measuring a 10-15W load? When plugged in, the charger is going to pull it's rated load from your battery bank (I'm seeing ~84W including inverter losses).

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ctdonath 1689 days ago
System peaks around 57W, with battery charge rate limits and frequent environmental disruptions (clouds, angles, etc).

Battery (Goal Zero Sherpa 100AC) shows output load. Lowest draw on MacBook Pro 15" is 7W, usually idling 10-15W, pulls about 50W when charging.

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