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Old 02-17-2018, 06:38 PM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Solar for gaming

So I am trying to determine how much wattage I will need from my solar system in order to run my gaming pc.

According to a website that measures power consumption, my pc requires at least 390 Watts to run at peak performance, meaning when taxing the system by playing games.

I'm very ignorant when it comes to anything electrical and even more so when it comes to solar power and my power needs.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm planning on eventually having three deep charge batteries to be charged from the solar system.

I would hate to have to give up gaming for my skoolie, but I hate paying rent and being hated by my neighbors even more.

Just fyi, here are my computer specs:

750 Watt power supply
Intel i7 4790K processor
nVidia GTX 970 GPU
2x 8Gb's RAM
Backlit gaming keyboard and mouse

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Old 02-17-2018, 06:49 PM   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikej42 View Post
So I am trying to determine how much wattage I will need from my solar system in order to run my gaming pc.

According to a website that measures power consumption, my pc requires at least 390 Watts to run at peak performance, meaning when taxing the system by playing games.

I'm very ignorant when it comes to anything electrical and even more so when it comes to solar power and my power needs.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm planning on eventually having three deep charge batteries to be charged from the solar system.

I would hate to have to give up gaming for my skoolie, but I hate paying rent and being hated by my neighbors even more.

Just fyi, here are my computer specs:

750 Watt power supply
Intel i7 4790K processor
nVidia GTX 970 GPU
2x 8Gb's RAM
Backlit gaming keyboard and mouse
Spend $20 on a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon. PLug your machine in and have a few hours of gaming.

That will tell you exactly how much power it is consuming.
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Old 02-17-2018, 06:51 PM   #3
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Not sure what games you play but generally speaking in a bus you use a laptop not a desktop. If you can make that move it will really simplify things. Every watt you don't burn is a watt you don't need to produce and store as well.
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Old 02-17-2018, 07:08 PM   #4
Mini-Skoolie
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Twigg View Post
Spend $20 on a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon. PLug your machine in and have a few hours of gaming.

That will tell you exactly how much power it is consuming.
Yeah, I found that device after I posted. I will definitely give that a go.

Quote:
Originally Posted by brokedown View Post
Not sure what games you play but generally speaking in a bus you use a laptop not a desktop. If you can make that move it will really simplify things. Every watt you don't burn is a watt you don't need to produce and store as well.
Depending on what results I get from the aforementioned device, I will probably have to go that route.

I'm mainly an Overwatch player, but I also enjoy old school emulated games and maybe I will have to forego Overwatch unless I am hooked up.
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Old 02-17-2018, 09:41 PM   #5
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my sager gaming laptop has a 200 watt power supply, another option
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Old 02-18-2018, 06:35 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikej42 View Post
So I am trying to determine how much wattage I will need from my solar system in order to run my gaming pc.

According to a website that measures power consumption, my pc requires at least 390 Watts to run at peak performance, meaning when taxing the system by playing games.

I'm very ignorant when it comes to anything electrical and even more so when it comes to solar power and my power needs.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I'm planning on eventually having three deep charge batteries to be charged from the solar system.

I would hate to have to give up gaming for my skoolie, but I hate paying rent and being hated by my neighbors even more.

Just fyi, here are my computer specs:

750 Watt power supply
Intel i7 4790K processor
nVidia GTX 970 GPU
2x 8Gb's RAM
Backlit gaming keyboard and mouse
+1 on using the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption. I'd use it for a week or so in order to find out your average usage, both in terms of average power consumption and amount of time playing.

Because solar panels don't generate power 24/7 (they only do when it's light out), the best way to size your system is in terms of energy use per day in Watt-hours (abbreviated Wh). So, if you find out your PC runs at 350 W average and you play an average of 3 hours per day, that's 350 W * 3 h = 1,050 Wh of energy that you use each day.

To generate that much power in a day, let's assume you get 4 hours of sunlight each day (it changes a lot with weather and location, but 4 is a decent rough number). So, your solar panels have to generate 1,050 Wh in 4 hours, meaning you need 263 W of solar power (assuming 100% efficiency). This doesn't account for a less-than-perfect day where you need to rely on your battery storage to supply the power.

Then you need to factor in other things that will be consuming power: fridge, A/C, chargers, etc.
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Old 02-18-2018, 08:21 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ThunderstruckStudios View Post
+1 on using the kill-a-watt to measure actual consumption. I'd use it for a week or so in order to find out your average usage, both in terms of average power consumption and amount of time playing.

Because solar panels don't generate power 24/7 (they only do when it's light out), the best way to size your system is in terms of energy use per day in Watt-hours (abbreviated Wh). So, if you find out your PC runs at 350 W average and you play an average of 3 hours per day, that's 350 W * 3 h = 1,050 Wh of energy that you use each day.

To generate that much power in a day, let's assume you get 4 hours of sunlight each day (it changes a lot with weather and location, but 4 is a decent rough number). So, your solar panels have to generate 1,050 Wh in 4 hours, meaning you need 263 W of solar power (assuming 100% efficiency). This doesn't account for a less-than-perfect day where you need to rely on your battery storage to supply the power.

Then you need to factor in other things that will be consuming power: fridge, A/C, chargers, etc.
Wow, thank you for the great info.

This is exactly the type of thing that I was having trouble figuring out.

Looks like I will be in the market for a gaming laptop soon.
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Old 02-22-2018, 05:14 PM   #8
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Originally Posted by Twigg View Post
Spend $20 on a Kill-A-Watt from Amazon. PLug your machine in and have a few hours of gaming.

That will tell you exactly how much power it is consuming.
I had heard (and I thought I had heard it here) that the Kill-A-Watt doesn't do all that well when measuring a digital power supply type load. Anybody have experience with this? Using a Kill-A-Watt to measure one computer, or one flat screen TV, or similar?
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Old 02-22-2018, 06:53 PM   #9
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I tried to get that information.

Did you know these killawatt things break very easily? Drop it once and it's gone like the filament in an incandescent light bulb.
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Old 02-22-2018, 09:38 PM   #10
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I would be surprised if the meter was within 25% of accurate on a modified sine inverter. In the bus you should monitor on the DC side.

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