Super long battery life netbook?

[Krusty]

I'm in search essentially of the longest running netbook possible. With the screen turned off and the processor running at low usage, I'm hoping to have a laptop that will run for up to 24 hours. This will be used for doing some time lapse photography.

To start things off, I'm certainly getting a netbook with an n450 processor as they use the lowest power. From there, I'm hoping to find some kind of netbook plug-in third party battery that plugs into the normal charger outlet, or a 12 cell battery (that comes from somewhere not in China)

Right now, I'm looking at these two netbooks:
Newegg.com - MSI Wind U160-006US Black Intel Atom N450(1.66GHz) 10.0" WSVGA 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook
Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC 1005PE-PU17-BK Crystal Black Intel Atom N450(1.66GHz) 10.1" WSVGA 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook
Though anything with an n450 will probably do. Anyone know of a good place to get batteries that will extend the usage?

 

[Duner]

Have you thought about a car battery with an AC/DC inverter?

 

[Krusty]

Have you thought about a car battery with an AC/DC inverter?

Thought about it, but thath would bee too large. I need to be able to strap the netbook to rafters in the ceiling. A car battery would be way too much. I am, however, entertaining the idea of an external laptop battery such as this one:

http://www.bixnet.com/unpowbat.html?gclid=CLqL7OyIwaECFRP_iAodY32-_g

I just need to find one from a reputable reseller that will work with the selected netbook.

 

[moz_21]

Car battery with a dc-->dc converter? Alternatively, car battery with a dc-->ac converter, with the netbook charger plugged into that?

Edit: Beaten to it.

 

[Sir Barton]

I used to have a Wind, the U120 with the Atom N270. If the U160 is anything like it, the battery wont last hardly at all. I had the 6 cell battery on mine and I could squeeze 3 hours out of I was lucky. I know the N450 is more power efficient, but quite a bit of reviews say MSI needs to get their power management down pat to get that long battery life the other manufacturers do.

 

[Krusty]

I used to have a Wind, the U120 with the Atom N270. If the U160 is anything like it, the battery wont last hardly at all. I had the 6 cell battery on mine and I could squeeze 3 hours out of I was lucky. I know the N450 is more power efficient, but quite a bit of reviews say MSI needs to get their power management down pat to get that long battery life the other manufacturers do.

The wind claims 15 hours of battery life at an absolute maximum. Considering I'm going to have the screen turned off and the cpu at the lowest speed (though the hdd will always be on), I think it might be able to actually hit that time length.

I still want something to get it past 24 hours though. That 150WH external battery is the most elegant solution I've found so far for large batteries. Too bad the reseller is a complete nobody. It turns out their business is just a few blocks from my office, so I may stop by there some time though.

 

[nd4spdbh2]

shouldnt be too hard with an external source....my dell mini 9 does 3.5hrs easy under normal web browsing usage... turn the screen off and run the cpu at min ur lookin at another hr of life... and thats on the stock 32whr batt

so if say 4 hrs = 32whr then 153whr+32whr = 185whr total... = 23.125 hrs of bat life on my dell min 9. And thats on my mini 9 which isnt known to be the best on bat life.

 

[Krusty]

I wound up placing an order for a couple of these guys for now:

http://www.energizerpowerpacks.com/us/products/xp18000/

It's only 90WHr, but it's made by energizer instead of some nobody company. Hopefully that means it'll work out nicely. The 90WHr claims to extend laptop battery life up to 6 hours. I'm hoping it extends the battery life of this netbook by like 20 hrs since a normal 6 cell netbook battery is less than 60WHr.

 

[petteyg359]

Do you really need it to be a netbook? Look at this laptop: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002XZLURC/ref=noref?ie=UTF8&s=pc

Near 12 hours of battery life, stock, and that's with applications running and screen on, according to reviews. Turn the screen off and get an external battery to plug the thing into, and you'll have all the time you want.

 

[mbigna]

Thought about it, but thath would bee too large. I need to be able to strap the netbook to rafters in the ceiling. A car battery would be way too much.

OK, now I have to ask: What--pray tell--are you taking pictures of from the rafters in your ceiling?

If you have access to a roof, they make solar chargers these days.

http://www.nextag.com/solar-computer-charger/shop-html?nxtg=61360a240519-43401095820E4F39

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/7-portable-solar-laptop-chargers-worth-considering.php

 

[Krusty]

A netbook would be the best option as size really does matter in this instance. While 13 inches is not big, it's 3 inches larger than a 10 inch netbook which may make or break fitting the thing in a small gap or strapping it to the bottom of a catwalk.

plus, the MSI netbook claims 15 hours while that one is 2x more expensive and claims only 11 hours.

 

[Krusty]

OK, now I have to ask: What--pray tell--are you taking pictures of from the rafters in your ceiling?

If you have access to a roof, they make solar chargers these days.

http://www.nextag.com/solar-computer-charger/shop-html?nxtg=61360a240519-43401095820E4F39

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/10/7-portable-solar-laptop-chargers-worth-considering.php

Right now, we have a Mac pro plugged in and doing some time lapse photography of the build out of a datacenter. Next week, it's the build out of stage equipment for a rock band competition. We're also doing some time lapse stuff for the buildout of blizzcon this year.

Unfortunately, the use of solar panels would be no good as most of this stuff will wind up being done indoors. On many occasions, it'll be near a power outlet, but I'm looking to make sure we're still able to do things away from an outlet and won't be limited by the location of an accessible outlet.