Fuel Cells for Laptops Due Next Week 186
prostoalex writes "AVC and Antig Technology will demo a production-ready fuel cell for laptops next week on CeBIT trade show. According to PC Magazine, 'the CD-ROM size fuel cell will fit within the media bay of a notebook PC, replacing the drive with additional battery power.' The fuel cell battery will last 8 hours."
I'd Buy It (Score:4, Informative)
If true, I'd buy it.
My last laptop (a Dell Inspiron 8000) I kept two batteries in (it was a three spindle notebook). This increased the weight, but gave me over three hours of battery life with normal use (it was a desktop replacement that just loved to eat batteries). I would gladly replace one in that notebook with one of these for the extra battery life (if I still had it).
My currently laptop is a Apple PowerBook (15", Feb 2005 model). I'm not sure it would have the room necessary for one of these to replace the standard battery, but I would gladly do it (I currently get 3 hours of use, or about 45 min if I run a full-on 3D game with the laptop in "high performance" mode).
I would be much more interested if it was a closed system that could recharge it's self (like a fuel-cell could be set up). That said, it's 45w of power and almost 4 pounds. My current battery is 46 watts and less than 1.8 pounds. And I know the newer PowerBooks and MacBook Pros have better batteries than mine.
3 more watts, double the weight. How will that give me 8 hours of battery life? I'm skeptical. Maybe in an ultra-light notebook with a slow processor doing word processing.
Still, at least someone is about to market something other than a "normal" battery.
Re:I'd Buy It (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Power Brick (Score:4, Informative)
Slashdot=stupid (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.antig.com/english/mediabay.html [antig.com]
It used cartridges. There you go your refill.
Re:hate to be a skeptic, but... (Score:3, Informative)
The bad news is, it only likes the really good stuff.
100cc worth of the lab grade methanol it uses (why couldn't they have made it run on ethanol, which is so much better for the environment (and your belly)) is about a buck or two, if I recall correctly.
Re:Amp-Hours, not Watt-Hours (Score:3, Informative)
In either case 45 watt hours is almost certainly incorrect for this device if it could run a laptop for 8 hours. More likely it can deliver 45 watts continuously for 8 hours which would actually be 360 watt hours. IE 1 watt for 360 hours or 45 watts for 8 hours. Which delivered at 19 volts (a common laptop requirement) that would be ~2.37 amps giving me right at 19 amp hours for a 19volt source.
Considering many laptops can draw 60 watts or more continuously if they are being maxed out (HD, CD/DVD, Graphics Card hammering, and USB headset doing VOIP for team commander) that would give you a more realistic idea of how long this device could power your system for under full load. But 45 watts is probably reasonable for average consumption. So my question becomes what can it deliver on a continuous basis. IE can it pump out 70 or 80 watts for 4.5-5.5 hours of run time ? Or does it face throughput issues ? Does it heat up under those circumstances ?
And of course what are the refuling options. Can I just go down to the hardware store, pick up some methanol and pour it in like I would into a zipo or am I going to have to buy some rediculously priced proprietary refuling canister ? You probably don't want folks pouring methanol into a tank on a plane flight. But make it so I can buy 2 or three canisters that I can refuel at home or in safer areas and a system for safely swapping them out under any circumstances.
8 hours of run time is nice. But if its harder to replinish than it is to find a wall outlet this thing will have very limited use.
Curious about the surge capacity as many laptops can suck down more than