1.5 hours runtime for like half a liter of gasoline?? That's unbelievably inefficient. A half-liter of gasoline is like 15MJ, should power a laptop drawing 30W for a week.
30W is 0.04 HP. That engine is just way, way bigger than you'd use if you were designing something like this from scratch, I think. Like putting a truck engine in a go kart, and being surprised that uses a lot of gas.
My generator runs basically the same consumption regardless of whether you have a 150 or 300w load on it so probably the difference is going to be negligible.
actually that reminds me --- there's a series on youtube about putting solar panels on machines and checking whether they generate enough power to power the device
so they put solar panels on a car and check whether the car runs,
they put solar panels on drones to check whether they fly
would this work for a laptop? how much solar panel area do you need to run the laptop? I assume 30W power usage, that means you need 0.15 m² solar panels under full sunlight, my laptop has like 15x20 cm which is 0.03 m² ... so, you could only use it 20% of the time to give it time to recharge.
30 Watts at idle is desktop territory, a laptop should be maybe half that nowadays. I'd love to check at the wall with a watt meter, but my older ThinkPad does not have a removable battery anymore and I cannot say how much it would draw just from a USB-C power supply.
That really depends on many factors, including type of CPU, RAM, thermal setup, screen size and brightness, radios etc. But you can test that pretty easily with a wall wart kill-a-watt type meter or a usb-c tester.
With a super lightweight laptop, 5w is achievable during light usage. I have one that draws that. It's usable for Google Docs sort of stuff indefinitely on a 5w charger. It can also go down to ~2.2w with low screen brightness and very low load. It is absolutely terrible though, celeron 3855u. I got Minecraft Java to run at 60 fps though... But it was probably using 7-12w then.
With a modern arm chip, you could get pretty great performance at that power draw. My phone (snapdragon 8 gen 3) in power saving mode can be like 5-10x faster at about 6 watts it seems like.
24 Comments
BB84@mander.xyz · 94 pts · 115d
1.5 hours runtime for like half a liter of gasoline?? That's unbelievably inefficient. A half-liter of gasoline is like 15MJ, should power a laptop drawing 30W for a week.
Maybe it would be better with a fuel cell.
fascicle@leminal.space · 61 pts · 114d
I don't think that little generator cares if anything is drawing power, it will just output what it outputs full time
WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 14 pts · 114d
30W is 0.04 HP. That engine is just way, way bigger than you'd use if you were designing something like this from scratch, I think. Like putting a truck engine in a go kart, and being surprised that uses a lot of gas.
gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 114d
anything but metric :/
WesternInfidels@feddit.online · 3 pts · 114d
I like metric fine, I just figure US audience is more familiar with small engine HP.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 113d
In the US, most small engines are rated in CC's, like for lawnmowers, mopeds, etc. but then tiny motors are back to HP, like a 1/3 HP sump pump.
Makes sense to someone, I guess.
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 113d
It’s AI bullshit anyway
birdwing@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 45 pts · 115d
With the current energy prices for fossil, I feel like it'd be a smarter thing to charge them through off-grid solar.
seriousness aside, this is cursed and awesome. wonder how long it'd take for the tank to run out after running modded Minecraft w/ shaders?
wizzor@sopuli.xyz · 30 pts · 114d
My generator runs basically the same consumption regardless of whether you have a 150 or 300w load on it so probably the difference is going to be negligible.
Th4tGuyII@fedia.io · 11 pts · 115d
Was about to say. I can't help but feel like it'd be easier to put solar cells on the back of the laptop and let them charge its normal battery.
I don't think a solar array the size of the back of a laptop screen would be enough to run it, but it'd definitely be enough to charge it.
anomnom@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 114d
For an old power hungry laptop, you’d probably want a 100w panel. They’re about 1x0.5 meters. And realistically they put out 75-80w most of the day.
But none at night, when everyone wants to hear a chainsaw idling next door.
Grail@multiverse.soulism.net · 2 pts · 114d
Nice profile picture, and by the way, I'm not on an airplane
crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 29 pts · 114d
How off-grid are you really, if you still rely on a grid-connected service to get the gasoline? Should have called it diesel-punk instead
panda@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 26 pts · 115d
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should" 😅
waigl@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 115d
That there is not the work of any scientist.
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 17 pts · 114d
"Y'know, I'm somethin' of a scientist m'self."
BagOfHeavyStones@piefed.social · 22 pts · 115d
That's gonna be one unhappy hard drive, if it still has one.
gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 11 pts · 114d
actually that reminds me --- there's a series on youtube about putting solar panels on machines and checking whether they generate enough power to power the device
so they put solar panels on a car and check whether the car runs,
they put solar panels on drones to check whether they fly
would this work for a laptop? how much solar panel area do you need to run the laptop? I assume 30W power usage, that means you need 0.15 m² solar panels under full sunlight, my laptop has like 15x20 cm which is 0.03 m² ... so, you could only use it 20% of the time to give it time to recharge.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 114d
Most laptops come with 100W bricks, 30W is consumption at idle but most consume around 60W when under load
Schmuppes@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 114d
30 Watts at idle is desktop territory, a laptop should be maybe half that nowadays. I'd love to check at the wall with a watt meter, but my older ThinkPad does not have a removable battery anymore and I cannot say how much it would draw just from a USB-C power supply.
TimeNaan@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 114d
That really depends on many factors, including type of CPU, RAM, thermal setup, screen size and brightness, radios etc. But you can test that pretty easily with a wall wart kill-a-watt type meter or a usb-c tester.
AdrianTheFrog@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 113d
With a super lightweight laptop, 5w is achievable during light usage. I have one that draws that. It's usable for Google Docs sort of stuff indefinitely on a 5w charger. It can also go down to ~2.2w with low screen brightness and very low load. It is absolutely terrible though, celeron 3855u. I got Minecraft Java to run at 60 fps though... But it was probably using 7-12w then.
With a modern arm chip, you could get pretty great performance at that power draw. My phone (snapdragon 8 gen 3) in power saving mode can be like 5-10x faster at about 6 watts it seems like.
gandalf_der_12te@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 113d
Also just for reference, a human consumes about 100W of continuous power output throughout the day (24-hour cycle).
You can calculate this easily. WHO recommends 2000 kcal a day, which is 8 MJ, divide by 86400 seconds in a day --> 100W average consumption.
Flower@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 114d
This one is real?