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Laptop vs. Small Desktop: Best Bang Per Watt?
Deagol writes "Tomorrow I take possession of a remote, wooded lot with a cabin. 15 miles to the nearest utility pole, my electricity options are limited to those I can generate myself, solar being my primary goal. I'm sitting here staring at my power meter, seeing my desktop & monitor draw about 250W -- a non-trivial amount to generate over a 8-to-12 hour workday. I'd be happy with equivalent computing horsepower (1.4GHz T-Bird, 512M RAM, though more is always better). Should I get a small PC with an LCD monitor, or should I get a laptop? Will laptops draw less power (in general), and if so, will losing the modularity and lower cost of commodity PC parts be worth it? I'd love opinions from those who have been in a similar situation."
Duder, if yr headed that far out into the boonies, you might as well pawn the damn computers and buy an axe and a box of matches. Seriously.
sig not found
And I didn't know Ted Kaczynski was even eligible for early release...
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
...that way you can always charge it up from someone elses sockets.
An infinite number of monkeys will eventually come up with the complete works of
I'd love opinions from those who have been in a similar situation.
Error: division by zero
Come on now, a true nerd would build a steam engine to run his generator. You clearly have some wood around. Sure the conversion efficiency is only 5%, but think of the nerd points you'd get for posting pictures of your steam-powered computer! ;) And, if you are really nerdy, you could even try for a Stirling engine, which could also be run in reverse to cool your CPU.
Seems you'd just need to stop by Home Depot and pick up about about 792 100' extension cords...
Wait a minute. What solar system is this poster in? He said he was only 15 miles from a power pole.
"terrorism" and "pedophilia" are the root passwords to the Constitution
wtf are you going to do out in the middle of nowhere with a laptop? Leave the fucking computer at home and spend time actually being outdoors hiking or fishing. Read a book, spend time with your man or woman, anything but a computer.
What if he doesn't know how to be outdoors and he needs the internet for survival tips?
Now... how exactly are you going to get on the net? Satellite? Pigeon?
He should prolly stick to the tried-and-true bongo drum method. They've got better range than wireless, low power consumption (well, other than mechanized sticks, but he could just operate them manually on cloudy days), and complement the decor marvelously!
According to the insurance industry, 50% of all laptops get stolen.
According to the naturalists I know, grizzly bears are extremely smart, and damn near unstoppable when they want something.
When the grizzlies look in through that window and see that shiny new glowy-apple Powerbook, you *know* they're gonna want it.
Just be careful out there, is all...
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
Not a bad idea!
Lets see, you should ideally keep your voltage drop under 5%, and this 250 Watt computer will draw about 2 amps of current.
120V * 95% = 114V, so we need to keep it above 114V, therefore we cant drop more than 6 volts total on the extension cords themselves (or 3 volts per wire, since the current is bidirectional.)
Thats 3V drop per wire at 2 Amps, so resistance of each 79,200 feet of wire should be lower than:
3V / 2A = 1.5 ohms
OK then.. we need three wires, each 79,200 feet and with less than 1.5 ohms per wire. That's 18.9 milliohms per thousand feet. Well, they do make wire that big, but you cant buy it at any Home Depot. So, we'll make the extension cords from the biggest wire you can get at Home Depot. Aluminum 4/0 wire, typically used for 200 amp service entrance condutors.
Unfortunately, using a single cable of 4/0 would drop almost 9 volts in each direction across this long a run at 2 amperes, so we're going to have to use ALL the conductors in an entire four conductor 4/0 cables for EACH conductor of your power cord to get the resistance low enough for your application. That will get us right at the maximum 6 volt drop at 79,200 feet out.
So, we need two 79,200 foot long 4/0 Aluminum SE-R cables, one cable for hot and one for neutral and we'll assume you'll drive a ground bar yourself since you're 15 miles from the 120V receptacle.
I think that cable is about $2.90 a foot last time I looked, so we need $459,360 worth of cabling. Probably best to buy in 1000 foot spools, but then you'll need hundreds of split bolt connectors and miles of electrical tape. (The good kind, not the cheapo electrical tape.)
Anyway, it is doable. Pulling the cable could be a real bitch. And keep in mind you're not allowed to suspend cables from trees anymore according to 2002 NEC. But then, you cant really use SE-R cable as outdoor extension cords, I'm just trying to keep this affordable for you.
Regards
If he's trying to escape the Boy Scouts of America, why is he going out into the woods? The BSA live in the woods! I wonder if there is a merit badge for Open Source Programming yet? Nah, stinky nerd tracking, maybe.
--Mike
You didn't just join a mointain militia, did you?
* there isnt a meltdown
* the EPA doesnt shut you down
* terrorists dont blow it up
If all the above fail, you have 2-8 hours of UPS power (depending on how big and how many UPSs you get), and 2-3 hours of battery in the laptop (make that 4-6 if you get a spare battery). You can hopefully complete your program long before you die of nuclear exposure.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.