Flutterby™! : power consumption 2003-09-16 19:40:03.405168+00

power consumption

2003-09-16 19:40:03.405168+00 by Dan Lyke 5 comments

Just when I was happy to get my desktop Linux box consuming roughly 65 watts including the 17" display, The Register reports that Intel CTO Pat Gelsinger thinks 100W for a desktop CPU is OK.

#Comment Re: power consumption made: 2003-09-16 20:31:28.034463+00 by: meuon

#Comment Re: power consumption made: 2003-09-17 05:17:49.802223+00 by: dexev

Aside from being overpriced and not having any batteries, I'm not seeing the problem.

#Comment Re: power consumption made: 2003-09-17 05:49:49.336187+00 by: dws

#Comment Re: power consumption made: 2003-09-17 15:27:54.811352+00 by: Dan Lyke

The problem I see with that system is that it has no storage associated with it. Personal solar systems are economical when you use them to sell back into the grid during peak hours. So you spend all that money on an inverter, and a few bucks on solar cells, and what you have is something that'll give you a trickle during the day and nothing at night.

So if it's about economics, you need to add another $5-10k in cells to that system, and I'm not clear on whether that inverter will sync to an external source for feeding power back into the grid. If getting "off the grid" is your goal, using a smaller inverter and more solar cells to charge a lead-acid array, and then moving your computing to a lower power consumption board like the Via Epia and an LCD is better.

But that won't get your house off the grid, just your computer. Even if your house has gas heat and appliances, refrigerators suck a lot of current, and it's that peak load that's harder to work around.

Although, if we could have refrigerators and toasters and coffee makers that could negotiate load, we probably could get peak loads down. As long as we have the grid to back that up, there's really no point.

#Comment Re: power consumption made: 2003-09-17 15:56:59.426665+00 by: Larry Burton

There are gas powered refrigerators and air conditioners available but I don't see how changing from one public utility to another is going to buy you anything in the long run.