Power supply over-wattage inside airplane

Hi

I heard that most airplane support maximum 100W with their power socket. Is that true ??

Do some people have problem recharging their laptop on airplane ??

Thank you

 

The last time I charged my laptop on a plane, it was to China and it charged fine. It was an old Thinkpad. 100W is plenty.

 

What kind of laptop do you have?

From what I've seen, 65W, 90W and 120W are some numbers from laptop AC adaptors.

You can find your AC adaptor's wattage by checking output on the sticker.

eg 19V x 4.74A = 90W


edit: actually, that's only for output.. silly me.. and there was that thread about the efficiency of AC adaptors and it was something like 25%... don't mind me..

 

Like I said before, 100W is more than fine. If it is sufficient for dino era laptops, it is more than sufficient for today's laptops.

 

todays laptops use more energy.

 

I do not own a laptop right now, I shop for it.

But When I look at Dell M4400, the power supply is 130W and a friend of mine told me he trip the power outlet breaker on airplane...

 

I wouldn't go that far....

 

Compare a pentium mmx 166mhz CPU + 4mb integrated graphics card + 1.4gb HDD + not so bright screen

with 2ghz C2D + powerfull GPU + large fast HDD + fast DVD drive + super bright screen.

My old toshiba notebook (over 10 years old) used a 30W power supply.
My new toshiba notebook uses a 75W power supply.

 

10 yrs old. That's like Big Bang era.

Touche.

 

It's like with desktops.
Every time you upgrade your desktop, you need a bigger (more powerfull) PSU.

The same goes for notebooks.

 

I went from a 90W Latitude to a 90W Latitude to a 65W Latitude to a 65 W Inspirion. The HP is also a 65W.

Sorry bud, I'm not as ancient as you are

 

Two issues at hand.

1) How much power do planes(or specifically the plane that Captx or acquaintance might be travelling on) provide to the power sockets that passengers use?

2) Does Captx's laptop's AC adaptor exceed the limit from number one.

Both of these require Captx's attention for next time he/she comes to this thread.

 

You got more efficient stuff maybe, but he is correct. Over time, components draw more power, not less.
The only exception to this really is after P4s, which drew a ton of power, consumption dropped off. But it's still increasing.

Just because you bought laptops that use less power, that doesn't mean that's the trend. It's not. That's a fact.



To the OP:

namaiki is on the right track. If the outlet can only supply 100W, a 120W or even 90W adapter would be overdrawing that (and that's because it's 90W out, not 90W in. I don't know the efficiency, but using that 25% loss figure, that's 120W it draws). I don't know what would happen if you overdrew the outlet - it might supply the power, but I think more likely you'd just severely stress your power adapter.
A 65W using the same 75% efficient number would be about 87W draw, so it would be fine.

 

If it is a laptop, an overdraw will probably just cause the laptop to draw from the battery.

If it's an air compressor, well.........

 

the only way you would have a issue is if your system draws MORE than the rated power supply on the plane. but if you are only charging/browsing i gaurantee you will NOT. if you have a higher end gpu and a top cpu etc then you could run into a problem but only if doing intensive work. your system will only draw what it needs from the psu. if all you are doing is say going online to browse the web and your system came with a 120watt psu you are not going to draw 120watts. the system MAY draw 120 watts only if using every last resource on the system, say gaming, converting video, and buring a disc all at the same time etc... otherwise it will not. most of the time you are drawing MUCH less than the rating on your psu. so if you are afraid of overdraw then dont use it for anything crazy while on the plane. but honestly unless you have a beast (m17x etc) you should be more than fine