Aaargh, my laptop's overheating!

A few years ago I was a student at university, in the design school. Though as students we had access to quite a large number of the PCs, Macs and other computer equipment that we needed to complete our assignments. However, laptops were a necessity for the majority of people on our course due to the need to carry around large amounts of digital information.

Though the UK is a northern country and the university is both close to the coast and near the river which splits the city in half, the building in which our cla**** and seminars were held always overheated during the summer months. All the windows were open, the heating was switched off.

The reason why can be illustrated in the daily frustrations of one of my fellow students. She owned a bigger and more powerful laptop than me, but it was also older. The cooling fan didn't work properly. This meant that her laptop overheated frequently. She tried everything imaginable to keep the temperature of her laptop down, including raising it above the desk, alternating work surfaces, even holding it up to the ceiling fan and the open window.

Laptops emit an awful amount of heat. Most of the time as in the above illustration the heat produced is considered a negative by-product. I know that there are now several brands of 'laptop cooler' which range from basic raised stands which allow the air to circulate beneath the laptop to external fans built into the cooler itself. No doubt there will be more developments into improving the efficiency of these products. However, the more sophisticated brands of cooler require a power source in themselves to work which personally I find counterproductive. Electric laptop coolers are, in my opinion, among the most inefficient computer accessories on the planet.

The heat produced by a laptop could be used in several positive ways which bear thinking about. Bearing in mind that these would in no way prolong the use time of a laptop, which is perhaps the only benefit electric laptop coolers really have.

The first of which is a favourite of students everywhere. Placed on the knees, a laptop is an extremely effective personal heater.

Secondly, given the right support and using the most effective materials for the job, the heat could be used to keep meals warm for busy students and workers. A laptop stand or even a table could be built to support the laptop as the person works. A compartment underneath could be carefully designed to siphon off steam and moisture build-up produced by the food (which would damage the laptop) while drawing heat energy from the laptop to maintain a steady temperature. The walls of the compartment would use thermosk-style principles to contain this heat without damaging the computer itself. Without the laptop, this compartment could also be used to keep cold food chilled. Like a solar panel, energy drawn but not used immediately could even be used to keep the laptop itself cool.

Thirdly, electric laptop coolers could be designed to be more energy efficient by being more integral with the laptop itself. Rather than having a setup where BOTH the laptop and the cooler run via mains electricity or battery power (or that the cooler is connected to the laptop for this purpose), the cooler and laptop could be symbiotic. In that I mean, the cooler could be designed to draw its energy from the heat the laptop produces, and in turn power the laptop's battery. If this could be done successfully, you could have a laptop which would require no outside power source to run.

A prospect I find very exciting, given my previous post about Alfred Sirleaf in Liberia... I'm sure he would LOVE one of these.