Sup PrepHole, I have a simple question. I've im living in a camper or van, but I want to enjoy a 650W gaming PC and monitor for a few hours every day, what would be the most economical way to power it if I'm parked away from a power outlet, say if I'm parked at a Walmart parking lot or somewhere out in the wilderness on the outskirts of a town? Would this even be doable?
Inverter generator. I bought a 1500w brand new on sale for like $400 last year while traveling the country working from "home." Just set it on the tailgate (my TV was a travel trailer) and plug in an extension cord. Ran my work and gaming laptops, the fridge, microwave, a sanitizer for baby bottles. That and a 5 gallon Jerry can and I basically didn't worry about finding power. Some people swear by Hondas, and they may not be wrong but it was about 3x the price of the chinkshit one I bought so I figure even if mine only lasts half as long it was the better buy.
Don't get a non-inverter generator, they're obnoxiously loud and you'll ruin your life and anyone else's in the parking lot. You can get one with electric start and fix it the RV if you want to be fancy. Glhf.
You can get a 1000 watt generator for $150. 1.1 gallon tank provides 500 watt 6 hours. Should last you ballpark 4.6 hours if 650 W it’s providing. What about other electrical uses?
If you do a separate gas tank you could theoretically /neet/ it up for several days.
Please be mindful of the exhaust gasses
Bullshit. Generators are like $300 minimum, unless you are going with some ancient used trash, but that electrical sine wave will be dirty as frick and probably ruin a computer. You need an inverter generator for electronics, and you arent getting an 850w one for less than $300. You are going to want more than 850w and $300 was a very generously low estimate. You are probably looking at more like $400-$500.
Amazon $120
OP wanted economical. I gib economical. I know reading is hard.
I bought a factory reman 1600w inverter genny off fleabay with a 2 year warrantee for 300 shipped that came with paperwork and factory packaging.
150 used is realistic.
>that electrical sine wave will be dirty as frick and probably ruin a computer
you're full of shit. computers run off of switching power supplies and the first thing these power supplies do is rectify the AC so it doesn't mater whether you have a choppy-ass square wave, a perfect sine wave, or even just 120/240V DC going into them.
plus any decent non-inverter generator should produce a near perfect sine wave. it's only the cheap chinkshit inverters that you need to worry about
>the first thing these power supplies do is rectify the AC so it doesn't mater whether you have a choppy-ass square wave, a perfect sine wave
perhaps. Mine, which is maybe 8 years old, goes apeshit clicking and weirding out when powered by a non- sine UPS, but does fine with normal AC or a sine UPS.
>Walmart parking lot
Don't use a generator here or someone will pick it up and claim it's theirs.
As someone who was into sailing for a long time, i can tell you that your best option by far is to buy a new computer that is less power hungry. Preferably a laptop. You will spend more money trying to meet the power demands of your gaming PC than you would just buying a gaming laptop and running it off a relatively small solar panel.
1. Big residential solar panel on roof (300w minimum).
40-60a renogy mppt.
200-300ah lithium battery (agm if poor).
1-2kw pure sine inverter.
Thread closed you're welcome.
Walmart Parking lot you'll want a solar setup, or an alternator which charges your battery bank whilst you are driving. Not in Walmart parking lot. Get an inverter generator with an external tank.
Get both. Honda and Yamaha generators preferred. I love my Honda eu2000 which has a huge user base. Newer models are now current.
is wise
Best use a notebook not a desktop which is it's own UPS.
I have twin 4D batteries in the house side of my van. I can pull 600w contentiously for 5 hours. Solar panels on top and a separator allow them to charge from driving/idling or the sun. The real ass pull here is you're wasting energy converting 12v to 120v via an invertor to feed a PSU that converts 120v to 12v to power your PC.
I do not know if powering a PC directly with 12v is possible but it would be a far better solution than wasting so much energy. Anything is better than running a fricking genny like a homeless frick making everyone around you mad.
There's mini 12v to 24-pin ATX connectors with a few accessory connectors. The GPU can then be fed directly with 12v, probably triggered by a relay so it's not trying to draw power all the time.
Simplest and smallest solution would be a steam deck or similar handheld instead of a desktop.
Honda generators are quiet. I bought an eu2000i after seeing a shitload of them at classic motorbike rallies (meaning all the owners were serious gearheads). The newer models are similar. Don't buy junk.
Buy a longer extension cord
Best way is to measure your peak and average power consumption. Peak will determine wattage of your inverter, and average capacity of your batteries. Obviously give yourself 15%-25% headroom on both.
I'd probably just buy a gayming laptop, it will both take up much less space in your very limited space, and use much less energy. It also has a battery storage onboard that can cover peaks.
You could probably run the laptop of solar, but not a full tower, since vans have frick-all roof space for solar, and you can't yardsale ground panels in a walmart parking lot.
I would also consider necking myself if I was homeless and living in a van at walmart.
focus first on making your gaming pc a more reasonable wattage.
Current pc parts are way past their efficiency points, you could save a ton of power while losing very little performance, see picrel
also with a picopsu you can connect your pc directly to the batteries which will save you some watts
see also but the last doomer crap
picopsu is what you look for
>Obviously give yourself 15%-25% headroom on both.
When looking at battery power, you want to double your kWh. So you'd need 1200 Wh if you want to run a rig at 300 W for 2 hours.
atleast 1000w inverter
aux battery of atleast twice the amp-hours you need if its lead-acid, lifepo is much more efficent so you can stick with the estimated amp-hours.
and they will for your setup in 12V be around 60ish ampere, to play for one hour you need a 120ah lead acid battery or a 60ah lifepo. increased ah capacity gives longer runtime obviously.
for charging get a smart dc/dc charger hardwired straigh to your starting battery, it will itself sense when the engine is running and start charging the aux battery but never draw anything from the starting battery when the engine isnt running so you will always be able to start it. add solar panels with a dedicated solar charger hardwired as you see fit.
>economical
lol no such thing, every dollar you waste on poorgay solutions is a waste and could have been saved to do it properly instead.
I run a microwave with a fake sinewave inverter, second battery and solar. Laptop makes a lot more sense for a van though.
Why the handcuffs vigga? e-girl arms would just slip out... are you kidnapping the mother hags too?
>e-girl arms would just slip out
What do you think the cable is for?
By far the cheapest and easiest way is to add a 12v car battery I to the van and use the vans alternator to recharge it as needed. Then either hook up a pure sine wave inveter to provide an AC output from the battery, or use a nice buck converter to supply your computer DC power directly. Technically you could just use the vans own battery so you'd only need to buy a single buck converter/inverter, but then you run the risk of accidently draining your vans battery with your laptop and then can't start the van to recharge the battery.
Also, like another anon said, don't use a desktop. Buy a gaming laptop, they use waaaaay less power comparatively (and take up way less space as a bonus). Laptops also only have 1 charging port so you only need single cheap buck converter to convert 12v to "X" volts for an efficient dc-dc power system as opposed to a more expensive and less effecient dc-ac-dc inverter solution. Technically you can power a desktop off a dc power source, but it requires multiple dedicated pico-psus which gets pricey and annoying.
Oh also, you might be able to get away with a modified sine wave inverter (much cheaper) if you're using a laptop since the power supply and battery help pad out the fluctuations. Research this first though, I've never looked into it.