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Solar-powered monitors not so bright? |
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Written by Kacey Green
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Monday, 15 January 2007 |
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I have been watching reports of this product floating around the web for a few days now, and this report from Crave put things in perspective for me. They have some good points about the size of the panel, but I certainly hope that any potential customers plan on mounting the panels outside. Crave also brings up a valid point that if you are going to use a device like this just for your monitor, why not get a solar system that can power the whole PC?
File this in the "not there yet" folder. A bunch of blogs have covered a new, solar-powered system for NEC monitors, yet none show how it looks. My mind's eye pictured a tidy, laptop-size solar panel. But when I received this photo from NEC, I couldn't stifle a chuckle. Who wants to claw their way to a corporate window seat only to have mammoth solar panels block the view? Oh, and try not to kick that battery pack.
The equipment is designed for big businesses that aim to cut costs with clean, off-the-grid energy sources, but the $1,999 (monitor not included) price tag seems hard to swallow. NEC maintains that the 800-watts-per-day panels, made by Carmanah Technologies, are "very light" at 32 pounds each and "do not distract [from] any work space." A company could install them on a roof, for instance. Maybe the picture doesn't show the best use. Even so, why would you want solar power only for a monitor? You could probably run a connected computer at the same time, but not very well if you're seriously multitasking. In a power outage, you'd have a bright display but no guarantee that the computer would stay on.
The article goes on to point that the problem this solution solves may be short-lived anyway. If monitors get ultra-low power consumption ratings the return on this investment would be very low. Don't get me wrong I am a huge fan of solar power and I hope future generations/models of this product extend the solar power to the monitor's host device.
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Last Updated ( Monday, 15 January 2007 )
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