lowest power usage

Hi dennisCra,

Power consumption on a portable system depends on a lot of factors, like display brightness, power management settings, applications running on the system, screen size, processor, motherboard and video card etc.

You can choose a power plan in Windows to run it with minimum power. Please check the following link to manage system power settings:

http://bit.ly/9MuTWp

If you have a specific system model in mind, please let me know. I will be glad to help finding the specifications and energy requirements of that system.

Let me know in case you need any further information or assistance.

so what is is the lowest most effiecent setting of the lowest power system and how many watts does it use?

which computer, which settings, how many watts???

Dell Mini 1018 system has the lowest power requirements amongst the systems being shipped. It works with a 30 Watt adapter. The AC adapter specifications for this system are:

• Input voltage: 100-240 VAC
• Input current (maximum): 1.0 A
• Input frequency: 50-60 Hz
• Output current: 1.58 A (maximum)
• Output power: 30 W
• Rated output voltage: 19V DC

‘Power Saver’ plan should be selected in the power settings and the screen brightness should be set to minimum.
Other larger systems need  a 65 Watt, 90 Watt or 130 Watt power adapter depending on the configuration.

Let me know if you need further information or assistance.

The data given by Dell-Gaurav are - I guess - the data printed on the label of the power adapter.This is for sure not what you are looking for.I doubt if you can find anyone here on the forum who could give you specific information about lowest power consumption,minimum current etc - the only one who would know are the technicians in the labs.I don't mean that in a negative way - these kind of information are just difficult to obtain.

If I were involved in your project I would try to get a laptop whose power adapter cannot deliver more than 60W (Dell uses 60,90,120W adapters for laptops - not netbooks!) - that would ensure that the laptop is one of the low powered systems  - and simply determine the relevant values myself.

I am a "normal" user on this forum - maybe you are lucky enough and somebody else can give you detailed information (datasheets etc)

Thank everone for your comments.  I guess the rough idea of power level would be somewhere around half the power adaptor's wattage since it would need to be enough to both run the device plus charge the computer at the same time.

50% sounds reasonable......

just do me a favour and don't use an "apple" for your prototype alternative energy device - maybe a strawberry or raspberry .... just kidding :emotion-5: