9 ms·

Korbin’s Chinese housemate, Oscar, spent several thousand dollars on a laptop so powerful that it blew out the fuses in their host family’s house. I was fa

by manarth 10y ago

Korbin’s Chinese housemate, Oscar, spent several thousand dollars on a laptop so powerful that it blew out the fuses in their host family’s house. I was fairly engrossed in the story, until that sentence. The jarring hyperbole of "a laptop so powerful that it blew the fuses" - it makes me question how much of the rest of the story is poetic licence.

autokad 10y ago
You can certainly do that with a PC, especially on a circuit with already a lot of load on it. one of those 10-20lb laptops with docking station + multiple monitors? seems possible to me
- manarth 10y ago
  "especially on a circuit with already a lot of load on it" That's basically my point: sure, plugging something in can blow a fuse, but either the device is faulty, the circuit itself is faulty, or the circuit is already near capacity. If it's a laptop, a docking station, speakers, multiple monitors, all plugged into a socket extension, plugged into a single outlet - even then, I wouldn't expect it to trip the fuse unless the circuit was already well on the way to overload. If a circuit is so close to overload, it could be tripped simply by plugging in a phone charger, so the super-expensive mega-powerful laptop isn't really relevant.
  - autokad 10y ago
    i see your point, a laptop or computer alone is not likely to trip a fuse, but when you got a 20 amp capacity and you plug in a 5 amp laptop system, thats meaningful. after buying a new alien ware, I tripped a fuse that wasn't tripped in years with a 'normal pc'. one could argue it wasn't the pc's fault, as there was a lot of stuff on that circuit, but one could also just as easily say the opposite.
    - toss1941 10y ago
      Not just as easily, since it's virtually impossible for any laptop made today to trip a properly working and average in every way circuit.
    - weaksauce 10y ago
      in the US it's typical for the circuits to be 15A and shared capacity within a room or two.
  - SamReidHughes 10y ago
    Maybe it was that Eurocom 12 core Xeon two power adapter having laptop.
  - dsacco 10y ago
    For what it's worth, I had to draw two dedicated electrical circuits up to my home office because my custom PC was simply too much load on its own, let alone the four monitors and assorted other equipment I have. Granted, my computer is about $10,000 of hardware with four GPUs; my point is that I'm not sure it's poetic license. You can definitely build a computer, even a custom laptop, that would at least strain typical circuits and maybe trip them with other peripherals attached.
    - Veratyr 10y ago
      I dunno, a standard residential US circuit is max 15A at 120V, or 1800W. A GTX980 is 165W and the highest powered Xeon I could find was 165W. A Xeon + 4 GPUs + power supply loss comes to around 1050W and between the motherboard, RAM, SSDs, HDDs, monitors, speakers, cooling and such I'm sure you can push it high enough that it causes issues but I really can't see that coming from a laptop, even with peripherals.
    - seanp2k2 10y ago
      If you can plug in a hairdryer or space heater or vacuum cleaner, it'll run any single-mobo desktop I can think of without issue. Pretty much every US dwelling is set up to handle those on most of the outlets (1200-1800 watts typically). 2000 watts is a LOT. Laptop, no freaking way. Consider even just the heat dissipation.
  - Nomentatus 10y ago
    The odds of tripping a circuit-breaker with a phone charger are near zero; the odds of tripping a circuit-breaker or fuse with a vacuum or electric heater are excellent. I live with weak circuits, and only those two items that can be "the last straw," here. (OK, maybe an older, honking PC I used to own.) For a laptop to be in that sort of range is pretty darn impressive. Something that won't happen again, as CPU and GPU circuits and voltage are now shrinking.
  - simmons 10y ago
    I don't know what's going on here, but my old Mac Pro would always trip the AFCI circuit breaker when I turned it on, even with little else on the circuit. It must have been taking a big gulp of power that resembled an arc-fault. Perhaps some laptop power supplies could also have weird characteristics that trip such a breaker even without exceeding the current threshold, and be interpreted in storytelling as "blowing out the fuses."
    - yardie 10y ago
      The GFCI is not a circuit breaker. It measures the difference between the current going in and the current going out over the hot and neutral wire. If it's faulting either the circuit is faulty (your Pc) or the GFCI is faulty. If the current isn't flowing back out through neutral it means it's going directly to ground or it's going through a human, to ground. The current threshold is 50mA
      - simmons 10y ago
        This wasn't a GFCI, but an AFCI. According to Wikipedia, AFCI's "detect electrical current alternating at characteristic frequencies, usually around 100 kHz, known to be associated with wire arcing, which are sustained for more than a few milliseconds." I suppose the Mac Pro's power supply produced some of these indicators, since all was well on a non-AFCI circuit. I've heard other people having similar false positives with equipment on AFCI-protected circuits.
        meta_AU 10y ago
        Many isolated flyback AC/DC converters run around the 100kHz mark, so probably on the right track there.
        seanp2k2 10y ago
        My Airocide (air purifier) would trip the bathroom outlet on turn-on at a place I lived. Never figured out why, but I thought that the thing was broken when I first got it.
- a3n 10y ago
  If you're in an older house built when appliances were not as numerous, and has not been updated, this is easy to do. The fact that they mention "fuses" may be innocent ignorance, or maybe the house really was served by fuses. Even in my ex-house built in 1964, we would often pop breakers if the wrong combination of stuff was turned on in the wrong combination of outlets.
toss1941 10y ago
I thought the exact same thing, and then I noticed several such poetic instances which I doubted to be real.
- Nomentatus 10y ago
  It's all poetic license 'till you're the one who experiences time slowing as the arc of light and flash punctuate your merely plugging something in. (This for a short circuit causes by ancient insulation inside a device making the cover "hot.")
walshemj 10y ago
Remember that the US is 110 v so a has less capacity to the 240v or the hosts house wiring was old.
- venomsnake 10y ago
  240 is also on the low side. I would prefer 480 to keep the amps on the low side. Buuut that is what happens when nobody future proofs fundamental standards.
  - m4x 10y ago
    You would prefer 480V available at the standard household socket outlet? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. 480V is dangerous to have in a home outlet, and totally unnecessary. A typical 230V/20A power circuit can deliver 4.6kW. How many household appliances do you have that need more than that? Power cable is cheap. 230V/20A is a good tradeoff between safety, cost and power handling capability and is entirely "future proof"
Spooky23 10y ago
Dont know about you, but my college off-campus landlords were shitbirds who wouldn't spend a penny they didn't have too. Your 10 amp circuit from 1910 that is illegally worked to 4 rooms can certainly be blown by a laptop.
- Hasz 10y ago
  This is, what looks like, new-ish construction is small-town Michigan. Unless the builder was grossly negligent, it's likely to have a 100 or 200A amp service panel, and 15A circuit breakers (not fuses) distributed according to code. A, no way 1500W is going into a laptop, even temporarily with a surge. That's crazy. B, no decent manufacturer builds a 1.5kW supply and doesn't have reasonable PF and turn on protections. C, The kid probably has a fridge or something, its pump kicks on, laptop turns on, trips breaker. "Ha ha, laptop is so powerful it blows breaker", etc.
sp332 10y ago
I agree that it's unlikely but it is kinda possible. This laptop https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/acer-21x-nvidia-1080-laptop-hands-on/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/acer-21x-nvidia-1080... is rated to draw up to 5 amps @ 120V, so a significant fraction of a 12-amp circuit's limit.
- meta_AU 10y ago
  I'd not be putting something that draws 600W on my lap.

by manarth 10y ago

autokad 10y ago

You can certainly do that with a PC, especially on a circuit with already a lot of load on it. one of those 10-20lb laptops with docking station + multiple monitors? seems possible to me

manarth 10y ago
"especially on a circuit with already a lot of load on it" That's basically my point: sure, plugging something in can blow a fuse, but either the device is faulty, the circuit itself is faulty, or the circuit is already near capacity. If it's a laptop, a docking station, speakers, multiple monitors, all plugged into a socket extension, plugged into a single outlet - even then, I wouldn't expect it to trip the fuse unless the circuit was already well on the way to overload. If a circuit is so close to overload, it could be tripped simply by plugging in a phone charger, so the super-expensive mega-powerful laptop isn't really relevant.
- autokad 10y ago
  i see your point, a laptop or computer alone is not likely to trip a fuse, but when you got a 20 amp capacity and you plug in a 5 amp laptop system, thats meaningful. after buying a new alien ware, I tripped a fuse that wasn't tripped in years with a 'normal pc'. one could argue it wasn't the pc's fault, as there was a lot of stuff on that circuit, but one could also just as easily say the opposite.
  - toss1941 10y ago
    Not just as easily, since it's virtually impossible for any laptop made today to trip a properly working and average in every way circuit.
  - weaksauce 10y ago
    in the US it's typical for the circuits to be 15A and shared capacity within a room or two.
- SamReidHughes 10y ago
  Maybe it was that Eurocom 12 core Xeon two power adapter having laptop.
- dsacco 10y ago
  For what it's worth, I had to draw two dedicated electrical circuits up to my home office because my custom PC was simply too much load on its own, let alone the four monitors and assorted other equipment I have. Granted, my computer is about $10,000 of hardware with four GPUs; my point is that I'm not sure it's poetic license. You can definitely build a computer, even a custom laptop, that would at least strain typical circuits and maybe trip them with other peripherals attached.
  - Veratyr 10y ago
    I dunno, a standard residential US circuit is max 15A at 120V, or 1800W. A GTX980 is 165W and the highest powered Xeon I could find was 165W. A Xeon + 4 GPUs + power supply loss comes to around 1050W and between the motherboard, RAM, SSDs, HDDs, monitors, speakers, cooling and such I'm sure you can push it high enough that it causes issues but I really can't see that coming from a laptop, even with peripherals.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    If you can plug in a hairdryer or space heater or vacuum cleaner, it'll run any single-mobo desktop I can think of without issue. Pretty much every US dwelling is set up to handle those on most of the outlets (1200-1800 watts typically). 2000 watts is a LOT. Laptop, no freaking way. Consider even just the heat dissipation.
- Nomentatus 10y ago
  The odds of tripping a circuit-breaker with a phone charger are near zero; the odds of tripping a circuit-breaker or fuse with a vacuum or electric heater are excellent. I live with weak circuits, and only those two items that can be "the last straw," here. (OK, maybe an older, honking PC I used to own.) For a laptop to be in that sort of range is pretty darn impressive. Something that won't happen again, as CPU and GPU circuits and voltage are now shrinking.
- simmons 10y ago
  I don't know what's going on here, but my old Mac Pro would always trip the AFCI circuit breaker when I turned it on, even with little else on the circuit. It must have been taking a big gulp of power that resembled an arc-fault. Perhaps some laptop power supplies could also have weird characteristics that trip such a breaker even without exceeding the current threshold, and be interpreted in storytelling as "blowing out the fuses."
  - yardie 10y ago
    The GFCI is not a circuit breaker. It measures the difference between the current going in and the current going out over the hot and neutral wire. If it's faulting either the circuit is faulty (your Pc) or the GFCI is faulty. If the current isn't flowing back out through neutral it means it's going directly to ground or it's going through a human, to ground. The current threshold is 50mA
    - simmons 10y ago
      This wasn't a GFCI, but an AFCI. According to Wikipedia, AFCI's "detect electrical current alternating at characteristic frequencies, usually around 100 kHz, known to be associated with wire arcing, which are sustained for more than a few milliseconds." I suppose the Mac Pro's power supply produced some of these indicators, since all was well on a non-AFCI circuit. I've heard other people having similar false positives with equipment on AFCI-protected circuits.
      - meta_AU 10y ago
        Many isolated flyback AC/DC converters run around the 100kHz mark, so probably on the right track there.
        seanp2k2 10y ago
        My Airocide (air purifier) would trip the bathroom outlet on turn-on at a place I lived. Never figured out why, but I thought that the thing was broken when I first got it.
a3n 10y ago
If you're in an older house built when appliances were not as numerous, and has not been updated, this is easy to do. The fact that they mention "fuses" may be innocent ignorance, or maybe the house really was served by fuses. Even in my ex-house built in 1964, we would often pop breakers if the wrong combination of stuff was turned on in the wrong combination of outlets.

toss1941 10y ago

I thought the exact same thing, and then I noticed several such poetic instances which I doubted to be real.

Nomentatus 10y ago
It's all poetic license 'till you're the one who experiences time slowing as the arc of light and flash punctuate your merely plugging something in. (This for a short circuit causes by ancient insulation inside a device making the cover "hot.")

walshemj 10y ago

Remember that the US is 110 v so a has less capacity to the 240v or the hosts house wiring was old.

venomsnake 10y ago
240 is also on the low side. I would prefer 480 to keep the amps on the low side. Buuut that is what happens when nobody future proofs fundamental standards.
- m4x 10y ago
  You would prefer 480V available at the standard household socket outlet? Sorry, but that's ridiculous. 480V is dangerous to have in a home outlet, and totally unnecessary. A typical 230V/20A power circuit can deliver 4.6kW. How many household appliances do you have that need more than that? Power cable is cheap. 230V/20A is a good tradeoff between safety, cost and power handling capability and is entirely "future proof"

Spooky23 10y ago

Dont know about you, but my college off-campus landlords were shitbirds who wouldn't spend a penny they didn't have too. Your 10 amp circuit from 1910 that is illegally worked to 4 rooms can certainly be blown by a laptop.

Hasz 10y ago
This is, what looks like, new-ish construction is small-town Michigan. Unless the builder was grossly negligent, it's likely to have a 100 or 200A amp service panel, and 15A circuit breakers (not fuses) distributed according to code. A, no way 1500W is going into a laptop, even temporarily with a surge. That's crazy. B, no decent manufacturer builds a 1.5kW supply and doesn't have reasonable PF and turn on protections. C, The kid probably has a fridge or something, its pump kicks on, laptop turns on, trips breaker. "Ha ha, laptop is so powerful it blows breaker", etc.

sp332 10y ago

I agree that it's unlikely but it is kinda possible. This laptop https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/acer-21x-nvidia-1080-laptop-hands-on/ https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/acer-21x-nvidia-1080... is rated to draw up to 5 amps @ 120V, so a significant fraction of a 12-amp circuit's limit.

meta_AU 10y ago
I'd not be putting something that draws 600W on my lap.