Mains powerbank recommendations?

nb888

nb888

nb888

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13 Jan 2021
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Hi folks, long time lurking, first time posting here.
Looking to get some advice on something. We have an allotment with a shed in it that we have been renovating and adding to as part of lockdown projects etc. To try and get out of the house a bit more I'd like to spend maybe 1 / 2 days a week working in the allotment shed with my work laptop but at the moment the battery won't last a full working day of 8 - 10 hours.
The laptop is a Lenovo thinkpad which according to the mains charger / cable needs 135watts. Trying to figure out a decent portable-ish powerbank that doesn't weigh a ton that I could carry for the 15 min walk to the allotment along with the laptop in order to get me to that 8 - 10 hours. I know that Lenovo does their own powerbank but I'm looking for something a bit more general purpose that I could also use for my personal laptop / other small drain appliances etc.
Any suggestions would be gratefully received!
 
Welcome to the forum. Which Thinkpad is it? Does it have a bridge battery system, USBC charging or does it actually need a mains charger?

e.g:
* If an older model like a T400 to T480 you could take hot swappable batteries for the laptop itself (some Thinkpads had a bridge battery system with an external battery that slides in). A T480 would be perfect for this as you can take a couple of 72wh batteries and last for days.

* If a newer model such as a T470 to current model they can charge by USBC. I don't have experience with a specific model of charger I'm afraid. Some of the more powerful models such as an X1 Extreme, P1, P50, etc, may be too powerful to fully charge on USBC but it would extend their run time. As you say it needs 135w then I'm assuming it's one of these more powerful Thinkpads.

* If your Thinkpad has neither then and you really do need a mains style battery pack then something like the "NOVOO Power Bank with AC Outlet 81Wh Portable Charger" may work although again I don't have much experience.

* If all else fails you could look at a car battery in the shed, topped up with a cheap solar panel on the roof, and rig up a car cigarette lighter plug for the laptop.

If it were me I'd be looking at whether a tablet would be able to do what I wanted at the allotment insteda of the laptop. Or moving to a laptop that supported the bridge battery or USBC charging. Then you've got a lot of options.
 
Let's start with some numbers.

How many AH is the laptop battery and how long does it last?

Now divide that amount of time (in hours) by the amount of AH in the battery, then multiply that number by the amount of hours you want it to last, minus the original battery's AH rating.

Then add 50% for good measure, that will give you the desired AH you want. Find a battery bank with at least that number, capable of charging your laptop, and hand over some wedge.

Personally, I'd be ordering this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YP823NA
 
cheesyboy said:
I'd look at this sort of thing:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BEAUDENS-Portable-Generator-Phosphate-Emergency/dp/B07MC7TV2G

This one's had some decent reviews, but probably worth looking around for other options to compare. £117 once you apply the £20 discount. Smaller than you'd think, if you have a look at the video one of the reviews posted, and 2.2kgs per description.
Click to expand...

You can gauge the size by the sockets on the front. I like that this one has a proper 3 pin socket, although I wouldn't be plugging in much more than a laptop.
 
Hi - thanks for the replies. The laptop model is the i7 8750H with 32 gb RAM and 1 TB HD (the 20MF000XUK). I am not sure exactly whether it's possible to power this from anything other than a mains powerbank so I just assumed this is what I'd need. I wasn't sure whether one of the smaller "pocket" type powerbanks would the the trick in this case.

I am not exactly sure of the AH but the battery will last around 3 - 4 hours with light usage and probably half of that with more intense processing. The BEAUDENS powerpack one looks like it might do the job, looks ok to carry around and price is sort of what I was expecting.

Good point on the other methods eg solar power in the allotment which I was also considering, security is ok there and it is well out of the way but still slightly concerned the panels will go "missing" one day so looking for a more portable / secure method for the time being.
 
When camping I've used a portable car jump start pack for electronics like laptops as some have proper 3 pin plug sockets on them and they are easy to carry with handles on.

My current one came from Halfords and the 3 pin socket supported up to 300w, but I see from the Halfords website that the new model only supports 100w which won't help.

However, something like this from Amazon may work (couldn't see the max load on the 3 pin socket though)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SFK1PQP/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_N4V.Fb9TRGCP0
 
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This time of year you'd need some decent solar panels to keep a laptop going - even if you were charging a separate battery.

Depending on funds and requirements, etc. do you actually need that laptop to do the work - not saying buy one of these but for instance I tote around a GPD Pocket which has enough performance for many tasks albeit the screen is a bit small and reasonable battery life but doesn't need a huge amount of external power to keep it running for hours on end. But there are other devices with bigger screens and similar lower power requirements and/or low power portable monitor options, etc.
 
The 20MF000XUK is indeed an X1 Extreme. It's quite powerful and certainly has high power requirements. It's not the ideal sort of laptop to use away from a plug all day. But you might be able to reduce the power by switching to the integrated GPU, reducing clock speed in the BIOS and undervolting it, etc (ask on the thinkpad reddit for details on how to reduce power as I've not done it on that machine - https://www.reddit.com/r/thinkpad/).

You will still need an external power source to last all day but it might help reduce the size of the powerbank. That model will indeed charge over USBC so if you can reduce the power draw enough then you might be able to find one which supplies enough.
 
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