5 ms·

For context, 1.6 kW is about enough to power 1 home appliance: a dishwasher, refrigerator, or toaster. I think your A/C would be more - but I'm not certain If

For context, 1.6 kW is about enough to power 1 home appliance: a dishwasher, refrigerator, or toaster. I think your A/C would be more - but I'm not certain If you had Solar panels deliver this power, you could get similar power if you spent ~$1.5k on a panel 6.5 ft X 16 ft

Neil44 4y ago
My toaster is about 1kw, fridge and freezer a few hundred watts. 1.6 is touch and go for a dishwasher though.
willis936 4y ago
Those appliances nearly never have 100% duty cycle. It's important to note that this power can be transmitted when it is cloudy or nighttime and could potentially require less weight and setup. I'm not saying line-of-sight transmission is a great solution, but this is an impressive engineering demonstration with some limited battlefield application.
closeparen 4y ago
How much does a battery powered drone need to recharge?
- nannal 4y ago
  Perfect application for this tech. Drones can fly back to the ship to recharge without landing, local aerial defence fleets can be lighter as they'd need a smaller capacity battery. Moderately long distance wireless power transmission has a whole host of applications.
tapland 4y ago
In the US this is almost exactly the maximum you'll find to not risk blowing fuses. Electric heaters are probably the most obvious continuous draw ones.
tuatoru 4y ago
Yeah, but only for fixed sites, or intermittently mobile sites. Perovskites open the possibility of printing your solar cells on flexible films, so the panels can be unrolled like projector screens or greenhouse roofs, and rolled up again.[1] 10-15 kW of panels and suitable batteries would get you near 1.6 kW continuous. This (microwave power beaming) is for battlefield applications, where mobility is primary. 1. Several groups are developing these. For example in Australia, https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Photovoltaics/Printed-Solar-Cells https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Pho...
cptcobalt 4y ago
> For context, 1.6 kW is about enough to power 1 home appliance: a dishwasher, refrigerator, or toaster. Most (US) homes put outlets on a 15A breaker (sometimes 20A), which gives have 1.8 kW to play with. So this is less power than a typical home outlet. > I think your A/C would be more - but I'm not certain A/C definitely requires far more power—you have to deal a high peak load for motor start. Absolutely not happening with this setup. The applications of this are rather curious, and definitely not for the any typical person. Probably defense, with a very short lead time, with the need for faster mobility? > If you had Solar panels deliver this power [...] Yes, definitely. And it can still be highly mobile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTiDklyEYaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTiDklyEYaI (and once a setup is at a location, you could throw it on the back of a truck for some short-range transit. You'd just need to spread out the solar in each new place. FWIW, Solar and Microwave both have interesting yet different line of sight requirements.)
- skykooler 4y ago
  My window-mount AC unit says to put it on a dedicated 15A circuit, which should mean it pulls a maximum of 1.8 kW, no? Otherwise it would trip the breaker every time it turned on.
  - invalidator 4y ago
    Most breakers do not trip instantly. They are designed to protect the wiring insulation from melting. Because the wires have thermal mass, a brief pulse above rated power is fine. Your 15A A/C may pull 30A or even 45A for 100ms while starting, and that's okay because the wiring won't overheat that quickly. It does drag down the voltage on the wiring though, which is why some lights may flicker when it starts.
    - kube-system 4y ago
      Residential breakers (in the US at least) have two trip modes -- a delayed trip thermal mechanism, and a fast trip magnetic mechanism. What it essentially does is trip faster if you overload it more. There are requirements for how long a breaker can take to trip at 135% of the rating, and a faster trip time required at 200% of the rating. I think some people have probably experienced this first hand -- if you just barely overload a breaker, it might take a little while for it to break, and if you turn it back on, it might stay on a little bit before breaking again. And if you really overload it or short it out, it'll break right away. This is all by design.

Neil44 4y ago

My toaster is about 1kw, fridge and freezer a few hundred watts. 1.6 is touch and go for a dishwasher though.

willis936 4y ago

Those appliances nearly never have 100% duty cycle. It's important to note that this power can be transmitted when it is cloudy or nighttime and could potentially require less weight and setup. I'm not saying line-of-sight transmission is a great solution, but this is an impressive engineering demonstration with some limited battlefield application.

closeparen 4y ago

How much does a battery powered drone need to recharge?

nannal 4y ago
Perfect application for this tech. Drones can fly back to the ship to recharge without landing, local aerial defence fleets can be lighter as they'd need a smaller capacity battery. Moderately long distance wireless power transmission has a whole host of applications.

tapland 4y ago

In the US this is almost exactly the maximum you'll find to not risk blowing fuses. Electric heaters are probably the most obvious continuous draw ones.

tuatoru 4y ago

Yeah, but only for fixed sites, or intermittently mobile sites. Perovskites open the possibility of printing your solar cells on flexible films, so the panels can be unrolled like projector screens or greenhouse roofs, and rolled up again.[1] 10-15 kW of panels and suitable batteries would get you near 1.6 kW continuous. This (microwave power beaming) is for battlefield applications, where mobility is primary. 1. Several groups are developing these. For example in Australia, https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Photovoltaics/Printed-Solar-Cells https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/energy/Pho...

cptcobalt 4y ago

> For context, 1.6 kW is about enough to power 1 home appliance: a dishwasher, refrigerator, or toaster. Most (US) homes put outlets on a 15A breaker (sometimes 20A), which gives have 1.8 kW to play with. So this is less power than a typical home outlet. > I think your A/C would be more - but I'm not certain A/C definitely requires far more power—you have to deal a high peak load for motor start. Absolutely not happening with this setup. The applications of this are rather curious, and definitely not for the any typical person. Probably defense, with a very short lead time, with the need for faster mobility? > If you had Solar panels deliver this power [...] Yes, definitely. And it can still be highly mobile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTiDklyEYaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTiDklyEYaI (and once a setup is at a location, you could throw it on the back of a truck for some short-range transit. You'd just need to spread out the solar in each new place. FWIW, Solar and Microwave both have interesting yet different line of sight requirements.)

skykooler 4y ago
My window-mount AC unit says to put it on a dedicated 15A circuit, which should mean it pulls a maximum of 1.8 kW, no? Otherwise it would trip the breaker every time it turned on.
- invalidator 4y ago
  Most breakers do not trip instantly. They are designed to protect the wiring insulation from melting. Because the wires have thermal mass, a brief pulse above rated power is fine. Your 15A A/C may pull 30A or even 45A for 100ms while starting, and that's okay because the wiring won't overheat that quickly. It does drag down the voltage on the wiring though, which is why some lights may flicker when it starts.
  - kube-system 4y ago
    Residential breakers (in the US at least) have two trip modes -- a delayed trip thermal mechanism, and a fast trip magnetic mechanism. What it essentially does is trip faster if you overload it more. There are requirements for how long a breaker can take to trip at 135% of the rating, and a faster trip time required at 200% of the rating. I think some people have probably experienced this first hand -- if you just barely overload a breaker, it might take a little while for it to break, and if you turn it back on, it might stay on a little bit before breaking again. And if you really overload it or short it out, it'll break right away. This is all by design.