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New Computer Powered By PoE
BlakeCaldwell writes "BBC News is reporting about a new PC that's powered via a network cable rather than through a wall socket. The computer only requires 12 watts, lower than the upper limit of 15.4 watts that power over ethernet (PoE) can supply. FTA: 'PoE could end up being a universal power supply system as the cables and connectors for it are the same all over the world. By contrast power sockets and plugs differ by country.'"
...is that the current equipment out there is probably not actually delivering all of the wattage that the specification calls for. For example, a cable modem draws about 20 watts from the wall; even if it's delivering all of that to computers on the network with no losses... then it can only support one of these machines without drawing power from somewhere else.
I know you were kidding, but wireless power Does exist. T
is 35 watts enough to run most laptops?
Considering that my iBook uses a 65 watt charger, I'd say that 35 is probably sufficient for anything short of the "Desktop Replacement Laptops" (relly more of a portable desktop). My guess is that the laptop will most often run below 35 watts, then trickle-charge the excess to the battery. If the computer needs extra power in the short term, the battery will provide it.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I work for a public university. The people who are accountable for the equipment budget and the people who pay the light bill never talk.
As a student, I worked at several of the computer labs at a large university (40,000 students). One late night when I was closing down, I thought to myself how silly it was to keep the CRT monitors powered on. This was before things automatically shut-off. So I went around to about 200 computers and shut-off the monitors. The next day I got in trouble by my manager...they didn't like my idea at all and didn't care about the heat or electricity savings. Apparently going around to turn them back on in the morning was too much work! I figure for about 6 years (before the advent of auto-shutoff CRTs and LCDs), this university ran > 1000 CRTs 24/7. Anybody care to guestimate how much electricity they could have saved over this time period?
Nice for some applications (think of public phone charging points / laptop tables with power + wifi) but its only just wireless. It's more like plugless, you have to be on the pad (though I wonder if it could be scaled up to power electric cars for instance, think about an electric highway!)
Tesla had a more practicle wireless power solution in his tower. That crystal radio that you built as a child is wireless power in my book, even if it is only a trickle. (You're not a geek until you build a crystal radio. Hope we never switch over exclusively to digital)
I have heard rumours about someone living under a transmitter being prosecuted after he was found with a large number of coils in his roof, using them to provide heat, but i have my doubts about this one.
Philip
Signatures are broken
I actually have a small-scale solar power setup that powers my 17W server, our gateway router, my Palm charger, and a few other things all directly at 12 volts. The whole setup is 12V and we have "power busses" throughout out house for LED and stuff. They are two strips, one of copper, one of aluminum. The positive side is copper with female spade connectors. The negative side is aluminum with female bullet connectors. Sound safe? Yeah, it's pretty homebrew but I make pretty real-time graphs and it works well. I'd give you the URL but I haven't set it up to cache the generated graph and I don't want my poor 17W Epia 533 server to get slashdotted.
We are moving in the direction of car connectors, but we need too much diversity. Mant devices have panasonic connectors, but they're all different sizes! If companies standarized on one size of panasonic connector, I think everything would be great.