As a follow-up Greg, do you know how to read/interpret my laptop power supply?
What I mean is, this is what's written on it:
Input: 100-240V ~ 2.0A 50-60Hz
Output: 19V 6.32A
So what's interesting is that despite being a non-PFC PS it's universal (I read
that the advantage of a PFC PS is that it's supposed to be universal). Guess
one isn't exclusive of the other then huh?
In any case, I'm pretty clear on the output-my laptop needs 6.32A at 19V, so if
I was to replace this PS I'd need one that could output at the voltage and
amperage.
But with the input, how does that work? B/c when I plug my Kill A Watt in b/w
the laptop and the outlet, here's the readings I get:
120V @ 60Hz (of course)~.5-.6 Amps~60-70VA with a PF of .5, so ~30-35 watts
(this fluctuates pretty rapidly from reading to reading btw, though the PF
pretty much stays at .5, which is pretty bad no?)
This is with the laptop battery fully charged and fyi this thing can drain
itself in an hour (pretty crappy battery life I know-guess this Core i7 and ATI
Radeon 5650 are pretty power-hungry components! :P).
So I was curious why the current was only ~.5-.6 Amps when the input stated
2.0A (OH-or is that max draw from the PS such that if I depleted the battery
then I could see current draw jump up to a max of 2A-and it would likely jump
up to that right? Time to drain my battery and test that hehe)
Hmm, that would make sense-so then I would see max VA at 240 for this machine
right? Which going back to my other post about sizing for UPS means that if I
was planning on sizing a UPS to run this laptop for some amount of time, I
would need to allot 240VA just for this one machine right? Think I'm getting
there (slowly but surely)! :P
BINO
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 08:08:19 -0500
> Subject: Re: [H] PFC (power factor corrected) PS for PCs?
>
> Indeed. I'm not aware of any power company that uses meters that measure
> apparent power (VA) for residential or even small business loads. I think
> they mainly are concerned with loads that have a high level of inductance
> (think manufacturing plants with huge AC motors) before they meter and
> charge based on power factor as well. To your average consumer, PFC doesn't
> save you any money as it simply isn't what is measured by the utility.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: [email protected] [mailto:hardware-
> > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Anthony Q. Martin
> > Sent: Monday, August 01, 2011 4:55 AM
> > To: [email protected]
> > Subject: Re: [H] PFC (power factor corrected) PS for PCs?
> >
> > What's the confusion? You're paying for watts....you don't pay for
> > VA..that's a unit used for complex power, part if which includes
> > reactive power, which is not converted to useful work. Real power is,
> > which is measured in watts.
> >
> > On 8/1/2011 5:29 AM, Bino Gopal wrote:
> > > Lol that's exactly one of the links I found (among about the 20 or so
> I've
> > been perusing all day), but it still isn't clear to me from any of them
> whether
> > I'm paying for VA or watts...anyone know for sure or does it depend on
> your
> > particular power company and the kind of meters they use maybe...?
> > > > Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 00:12:50 -0700
> > >> From: [email protected]
> > >> To: [email protected]
> > >> Subject: Re: [H] PFC (power factor corrected) PS for PCs?
> > >>
> > >> "Capacitor Input supplies have the characteristic that the Watt rating
> is in
> > >> the range of .55 to .75 times the VA rating (power factor of 0.55 to
> 0.75)."
> > >>
> > >> http://www.power-solutions.com/watts-va.php
> > >> On Jul 31, 2011 11:50 PM, "Bino Gopal"<[email protected]> wrote:
> > >
>
>
