What is the best way to power a laptop in an off-grid setup? Mine will be primarily solar + AGM battery.
I think the simplest “just works” set up is to get a “pure sine” inverter and go:
solar > battery > inverter > power supp > laptop
The thing is, if I understand correctly you have a big inefficient inverter to AC only to transform back to DC, with the only benefit being that the plug fits in the socket.
I’m curious to know how a generator ruins a power supply? Is it something to do with the arcane sine wave magic from the inverter?
I’m guessing the cheaper ones don’t have sine-wave inverters (they use a dressed up square wave which can be produced by purely digital electronics) so quality of the output waveform is bad. The power supply of the laptop (or PC) ends up having to work harder to cut out the extraneous bits of the waveform (that is it’s job) but all that extra crap is just turned into heat. Laptop PSUs are small , so have less heat dissipation and likely aren’t built for this. The ideal use case for these cheap inverters are purely resistive loads (like heaters) but even some less sophisticated electronics would probably be fine. Computer however, are generally designed for clean power.
If it’s a sine-wave inverters and the generator is working properly then idk why it would matter.
Use an inverter-controlled one and you’ll be fine. Our emergency communications shelter runs off one of those just fine, with a cheap offline UPS in there.
Yes, those that control frequency using the engine rpm aren’t that great for most switching power supplies.
Oh shit, you just made me realize when I get my first pay check I should really invest in a decent UPS. I had to sell my old one before moving state lines to condense space.
Using a generator to power a computer is a really bad idea. You’ll significantly shorten the lifespan of the power supply. Ask me how I know.
Ok. How?
Because I killed a PSU by plugging my PC into a gas generator once
To be fair, laptops have those bricks on the cord that help protect it from power oddities.
And that one weird slimline computer I had once that didn’t have a traditional PSU and had a laptop charging cord, lmao.
Thnx!
<airplane>By typing the question in the comment box, but that’s not important right now</ariplane>
Best power yours off solar then, cos everything else is generators.
I’m trying to figure this out at the moment.
What is the best way to power a laptop in an off-grid setup? Mine will be primarily solar + AGM battery.
I think the simplest “just works” set up is to get a “pure sine” inverter and go:
solar > battery > inverter > power supp > laptop
The thing is, if I understand correctly you have a big inefficient inverter to AC only to transform back to DC, with the only benefit being that the plug fits in the socket.
I’m curious to know how a generator ruins a power supply? Is it something to do with the arcane sine wave magic from the inverter?
Yea man, you need an inverter generator for that. Thankfully small inverter generators are very affordable these days.
But why would it? Is the output not voltage controlled?
I’m guessing the cheaper ones don’t have sine-wave inverters (they use a dressed up square wave which can be produced by purely digital electronics) so quality of the output waveform is bad. The power supply of the laptop (or PC) ends up having to work harder to cut out the extraneous bits of the waveform (that is it’s job) but all that extra crap is just turned into heat. Laptop PSUs are small , so have less heat dissipation and likely aren’t built for this. The ideal use case for these cheap inverters are purely resistive loads (like heaters) but even some less sophisticated electronics would probably be fine. Computer however, are generally designed for clean power.
If it’s a sine-wave inverters and the generator is working properly then idk why it would matter.
That sounds like a really good explanation, thank you
Use an inverter-controlled one and you’ll be fine. Our emergency communications shelter runs off one of those just fine, with a cheap offline UPS in there.
Yes, those that control frequency using the engine rpm aren’t that great for most switching power supplies.
Oh shit, you just made me realize when I get my first pay check I should really invest in a decent UPS. I had to sell my old one before moving state lines to condense space.