How to Build a Computer That Runs on Pure Solar Energy

The search for more efficient computers has gained a lot of traction in recent years, thanks to new silicon with advanced power-saving modes, and laptops that run on just a few watts. But what's the extreme? How efficient can a PC get? Basically Homeless on YouTube decided to answer that by preparing a computer to run on solar energy... directly. No batteries, no inverters, no charge controller, and several prayers that no clouds would appear.

A basic solar setup uses four elements: a panel, a charge controller, a battery bank, and an inverter to get alternating current. That setup is practical, but not as efficient as we'd like, especially when the inverter is involved. A quick look on YouTube will show you that many solar energy enthusiasts remove the inverter, and by extension, the whole alternating-current element from their devices.

So what happens with the average computer? Connecting it to a traditional solar system isn't a challenge, but if the plan is to use solar energy more directly... you have to think about it. That brings us to Basically Homeless on YouTube, known for his strange hacks like the one-inch monitor and the computer powered by a treadmill. In that project he used an inverter, and received several comments about the loss of efficiency, so he decided to go to the extreme: two solar panels, a voltage regulator, the computer... and nothing else:

The Right Hardware for the Job

One of the fundamental keys is choosing the right hardware for the computer, and this time he combined a LattePanda Alpha with a GeForce GT 1030. That configuration requires a total of 73 watts, and by connecting two 100W solar panels in parallel, it can reach the required power and cover any loss along the way. The stability component is handled by a voltage regulator, which receives all the variables from the panels and converts them into a solid 12 volts. The only "trick" is the monitor, which initially gets power from a powerpack, but he connects it to the system with a small "live" surgery.

Putting It to the Test

What did he do? First, play a match of Call of Duty: Warzone, and second, pray that the sky wouldn't cloud over. Once again: there are no batteries, no banks of capacitors/condensers. No "safety net" so to speak. Unfortunately, the sky betrayed him at the end, and his computer shut down mid-game, but the project concluded successfully. Now, I think Basically Homeless could be even more efficient with another selection of components. The new Ryzen 4000U are very interesting...