most efficient laptop for solar powered charity project?

[benwilkinson]

Hi All,

I've been asked to set up a solar powered computer station in the remote Malaysian mountains. There is no possibility of grid access so it will have to be run entirely from solar.

The charity has achieved 10'000 USD seed money to get it up and running, however this money will have to provide solar power sufficient to run 10 computers and this will be stretching the budget.

I need to limit the cost of the solar and therefore need to obtain the lowest possible energy consumption laptop. The computers won't be doing anything strenuous, simply data entry and some basic web use (not videos). They will however be used by an individual for hours at a time so the screen brightness can't be dropped below what would be a reasonable level for this purpose.

Can I get some help with identifying a relatively cheap and very low power consumption laptop and some figures as to what the power consumption would be (in terms of Watts). My internet access is very limited out here so I have little chance to research this.

Many thanks for any assistance.

Ben

For those interested the charity is working to preserve communities in remote Malaysian locations

 

[strollin]

It sounds like the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) might be a good candidate for this. It was designed specifically to be used in places where power is hard to come by. There are articles stating that the laptop can be powered directly from a 10W solar panel on a sunny day.

 

[benwilkinson]

This is interesting, thanks for the suggestion strollin... a friend I asked also suggested this... but having read through the wiki page on them it appears they were only being sold to governments as computers for students...
we are a charity as oppose to a government and the computers are not intended to be used for educating students?

Any more suggestions or anyone know of a way we can obtain OLPC laptops as a charity?

 

[strollin]

This is interesting, thanks for the suggestion strollin... a friend I asked also suggested this... but having read through the wiki page on them it appears they were only being sold to governments as computers for students...
we are a charity as oppose to a government and the computers are not intended to be used for educating students?

Any more suggestions or anyone know of a way we can obtain OLPC laptops as a charity?

Check Ebay, they are available there for $100-$200. I sold the one I had on Ebay. Just make sure you buy from a reputable seller with a return policy.