On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 09:33:19 -0400, The Wogster <[email hidden]>
Quoted message said:Jasper Janssen wrote:
Quoted message said:Quoted message said:The heater is a negligible load, it doesn't actually do anything much
electrically apart from spinning a heavy duty fan (and that only in high
efficiency kettles) and making the occasional spark if you don't have a
permanent igniter flame (yeah, there's a computer in there to control
everything. Say 2W for that). Say 20-50W. The radio and tv (very arguably
more necessary in emergency situations than lighting) add maybe another
100W, unless they're very big sets. A few lights, as long as you're not
utterly stupid, so using modern tubular lighting of one form or another,
add maybe another 100 total load. Yeah, you've got enough for a computer.
For the heater there is at least an air distribution fan or water pump
(depending on the type), but your probably right, in the electrical
Right, the pump. (Central air is virtually unknown over here). Maybe 50W
then.
Quoted message said:needs are moderate, most of those motors are capacitor start, so they
don't have a big draw anymore. As for the radio and TV, the scanner I
have here (arguably better then a conventional radio in an emergency,
since it can pick up emergency services transmissions), is something
like 10V .1A (IIRC the power brick is buried under the desk).
There may be plenty for the computer, but a bigger concern is the
monitor, which draws considerably more then the computer does. So, 100w
for the furnace fan motor, another 100w for the exhaust motor, 50w for
the ignitor, controller, thermostat, etc, say 250 -- and we can include
It's probably closer to 150-200. But if you have a measurement device,
feel free to measure yours, or to dig up manufacturers manuals with specs.
Either way, not so much different.
Quoted message said:the scanner. Say 3 - 4 lights maybe 200w,
Those are awfully inefficient lights then. You're using halogen/bulb types
again, which is especially unuseful in emergency situations.
Quoted message said:The computer, say 250 for the
box, another 500 for the monitor in operation, so 1200w total. In
No. The 2-300W I mentioned for a computer is *including* a 19 or 21 inch
CRT monitor. A TFT (increasingly common) can bring that down under
100-150. Laptops, to go a step further, usually have 70 or 90 Watt power
supplies, and when the batery is fully charged draw significantly less
than that.
My 2-300W figure is manufactured by taking the 200W per computer+monitor
that is agreed upon by most lanparty organisations (when you put dozens to
thousands of gaming geeks with their high-powered computers in a room, you
very seriously need to consider power generation -- in most locales you
need a generator simpyl because the power supplies are too small) to be
the average power takeup for a (as I said, high-powered) computer and
monitor, and then adding some because nowadays the *really* fast P4s and
Athlons and fast videocards add about 100W worth -- keep in mind I'm
talking the $500 processors and $500 vidcards, not what most people would
have in thheir emergency management PCs if they could help it.
Quoted message said:buying a generator I would at least double that, so a 2400w unit,
minimum. You would need to have fuel for the generator, enough to run
at least 3 days, so depending on the engine and it's fuel needs, gives
you the amount you would need to keep in reserve. You can't just go to
the filling station, their pumps are electric.
A 2 kW generator should be good enough. If you have a piece of plastic
tubing you can siphon off gas from your car, or your neighbour's car.
Since these things go through a lot less gas than a 50-150 kW car engine,
that ought to be enough, especially if you do some serious conservatin'.
Quoted message said:You could reduce the need as well, for example I have a bunch of camping
equipment, including a propane stove and propane lamp, just need to get
a couple of reserve gas bottles....
A 7W fluorescent camping lantern is, in emergency situations, more than
enough light per person. You don't need a few hundred watts worth of
halogen lighting most of the time.
Jasper
