I picked up a new computer, laptop.. HP Pavilion, windows 8.1 17 inch screen.
didn't come with specs as to its consumption.....I did some measuring.. With a couple windows of text data open, and one youtube vid running = 21.6 watts , screen brightness at 100%. Pretty damn good!
Deceided to work it hard and see what the worst would be. opened 8 youtube vids thinking video data is a good work out.Also had 4 other windows open. volume set to max...total consumption 30 watts! still good.
320 watt hrs left on for 24 hrs These are worst case measurements to do better, turn it off when not in use, or at least when you go to bed, reduce the screen brightness, don't leave unused programs/windows running.
I leave mine running 24/7 Im crazy like that..run with scissors too
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
What tools you use to measure?
Regret comes last, if it comes early its called registration!
In the end, only fellow preppers truly respects other preppers.
When nothing happens, the world will laugh at you.
When SHTF, what will happen when they found out you got supplies?
A killowatt p3....mine are older ones from 10 to 12 years back, you can still buy them 0n line...something like 20 to 30 bucks, but they have newer ones out with battery back up, and they may have other features as well. with this older model I cant trust the wattage measurement on non lineir loads, and a laptop is extreamly so....but you can count on the amperage and voltage as being bang on, and I use that to calculate out the instantaneous wattage, then check my calculated value out using the Power factor displayed on the p3. When both agree (within reason) I am confident of my measurements...I think the new ones may automatically calculate for power factor but as I don't have one of them I cant say for sure...regardless if the new ones have this or not....you know nothing without one....the first piece of equipment anyone should get...you will discover lots using one of these, especially over time, as they will record for months at a time.
There are other brands out there but I have always found this brand to be bang on, others drift with temp, or frequency, or lack the features of the P3.
Just as a note of interest 11-12 years back even with top of line laptops 95 to 120 watts I found was typical with the ones I owned back then...then around 2008 I was finding 40 to 50 watts typical, of course if you have a very old one and if the battery pack is old, it may use more power as more power may be used in keeping the battery topped up.So battery type and condition can play a roll in what your computer consumes.
Give a man a gun, and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Got some energy related case in the workplace.
Too much relying on the wattage spec in the product's box.
Debate about wattage, ampere, and power factor, cos after replacing some equipments with supposedly low energy consumption, sometimes just makes the light goes out.
Time to measure those equipments to find the culprit that draws big power.
Regret comes last, if it comes early its called registration!
In the end, only fellow preppers truly respects other preppers.
When nothing happens, the world will laugh at you.
When SHTF, what will happen when they found out you got supplies?
The new electronics, built for the miserly end of the spectrum, are pretty frugal these days. I had an IBM with a Pentium 1 that was very low powered, as I recall in the mid-thirty watt area, which barely made the grade 15 years ago. In the recent past, I have acquired a couple of wee computers that lack a display, but are very lean. A Voyo MiniPC with an Atom CPU, and a Raspberry Pi 2 B with an Arm CPU. The Voyo (with integrated battery) came in around 5 watts, and the Raspberry Pi (my HTPC) is fed through a USB port, supposedly consumes 1.6A max.
It's amazing how much computing power you can get on so little electricity. I'm hoping to see eInk displays become commonly available at sane prices, it would be good to be able to reduce my power draw for non-video computing.
I see some mid-line laptops available with "24 hour batteries", which seem like a good choice - charge it when the battery pack is full and there's still generating capacity left in the day.
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Or, if you're craving a little more horsepower, nVidia has just released an Arm-CUDA combination (Jetson TX2) which should be good for 2 TFLOPS at 15 watts of power consumption.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia-jtx2-denver&num=1
Be nice to be able to fire that (or a cluster of them) up only when you need the computing power.
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