---
doc: WP-02
scale: Garage
title: Garage scale
dek: The same bank, with demand factor as the second knob.
description: Educational thought experiment that reads the EIF load-following toy at garage scale. Concept, not a home power plant.
---

Play the simulator first. The live page is <https://tcreations3888.com/eif/>. This paper is the next picture up from the [tabletop reading](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/01-tabletop-proof-of-concept.html): a single room, a bus you could walk around, the same toy math. “Garage” names the scale of attention. It does not mean a weekend build, a shopping list, or house power.

## What this scale is for

At tabletop, one switch is enough to see the shape. At garage scale the picture adds a second honest knob: the demand factor. Breakers are still discrete, fully on or fully off. The demand factor, 50% to 100%, multiplies only those switched loads. Hotel / aux stays 12 kW, the control power and the ventilation lamp that the story never lets you open.

The room in the picture has a viewport and a bank of names. It does not have a fuel cycle. No thermonuclear yield is expected in this telling, because none is modeled. The metrics are the ones on the page: bus power, axial current, azimuthal field, column radius, a fusion-intensity multiplier that is pure bookkeeping, a 60 Hz voltage, a toy coupled output, and the slew time τ.

## The same toy, restated

Definitions and the reason the kiloamps are not a measured plasma are in [WP-01](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/01-tabletop-proof-of-concept.html). The published relations, with P_ref = 20 kW, are:

```eq
P_load = 12 + d × P_switched                         [kW]
I_z = 100 × √(P_load / 20)                           [kA, toy]
a = 8 / (P_load / 20)^0.15                           [mm, toy]
B_theta = 2.5 × (I_z / 100) × (8 / a)                [T, toy]
R_fus = (P_load / 20)^2                              [× baseline, toy]
V_AC = 480 × √(P_load / 20)                          [V, toy, 60 Hz locked]
P_AC,toy = 0.14 × P_load × R_fus                     [kW, toy]
τ = 0.5 + 0.03 × P_load                              [s]
```

Switches do not slew. The field does. Status is STANDBY when only the hotel load is on, SLEWING while the gauges ease, FOLLOWING when they have arrived. Above 180 kW on the toy bus the page shows a HIGH DRAW badge. The badge is visual. It does not trip, and this garage picture does not reach it.

## Demand factor, which is the garage lesson

Use the Lab day preset in your mind: Facility lights, Hall HVAC, and Diagnostic bay closed, the rack and the mill open. Switched power at full demand is 8 + 22 + 35 = 65 kW.

At demand factor 100%:

```eq
P_load = 12 + 1.00 × 65 = 77.0 kW
```

At demand factor 50% the breakers are in the same positions. Only the switched share is halved. Hotel is untouched:

```eq
P_load = 12 + 0.50 × 65 = 44.5 kW
```

| Gauge | 50% demand | 100% demand |
|---|---|---|
| P_load | 44.5 kW | 77.0 kW |
| I_z | 149.2 kA | 196.2 kA |
| a | 7.10 mm | 6.54 mm |
| B_theta | 4.20 T | 6.00 T |
| Fusion intensity | 4.95× | 14.82× |
| V_AC | 716 V, 60 Hz | 942 V, 60 Hz |
| P_AC,toy | 30.8 kW | 159.8 kW |
| τ | 1.84 s | 2.81 s |

Two things are worth sitting with.

The hotel 12 kW is present in both columns. Halving demand does not halve the bus, and it does not darken the column to nothing. That is the same standby rule as the tabletop paper, seen from the side: auxiliary load is a floor.

Fusion intensity jumps harder than the current, because R_fus is the square of P_load / 20, while I_z follows the square root. From 44.5 kW to 77 kW the bus rises by about 1.7×, the current by about 1.3×, and the intensity multiplier by about 3×. The glow on the canvas tracks that multiplier. It is bookkeeping. It is not a neutron count.

At 44.5 kW, P_AC,toy (30.8 kW) is still under the bus. At 77 kW it has crossed above the bus (159.8 kW). The formula that does this is in [WP-03](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/03-university-lab-prototype.html). Short version: P_AC,toy grows like the cube of P_load, so past the mid-fifties of kilowatts on this toy the coupled-output number exceeds the draw. That crossing is algebra. It is not Q, and it is not spare kilowatts you can take home.

## Four beats, in a room you can walk

1. **Load → current.** Closing a breaker raises I_z at once in the target, then the gauge eases. The demand slider does the same job with the breakers held still, and it refuses to touch the hotel floor.
2. **Current → B_theta.** Higher current, smaller a, stronger azimuthal field. From the 50% column to the 100% column the toy field goes from about 4.2 T to about 6.0 T, and the drawn column narrows from about 7.1 mm to about 6.5 mm.
3. **Inertia.** τ moves from 1.84 s to 2.81 s across that same demand change. A heavier bus, a slower flywheel. You can watch the gold inset on the Inertia chip while the numbers are still arriving.
4. **Direct AC.** Both columns are 60 Hz locked. Voltage follows the square root of load, 716 V toy then 942 V toy. No turbine enters the room when the slider moves.

## What garage does not mean here

It does not mean “build this at home for grid power.” It does not mean a bill of materials, a vacuum specification, a capacitor-bank energy, or a stored-voltage recipe. Those were the wrong kind of concreteness for a concept page, and they are not restored here.

Public talk about this picture should use the page’s own words: a load-following concept, an educational demonstration. The next picture, [university lab](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/03-university-lab-prototype.html), is a fenced-hall reading of Lab day’s first paint. It is still not a device to procure.

## In this set

- [WP-01 Tabletop proof-of-concept](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/01-tabletop-proof-of-concept.html) — one switch against the hotel floor.
- WP-02, this paper — garage scale. Demand factor as the second knob.
- [WP-03 University lab prototype](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/03-university-lab-prototype.html) — Lab day, the simulator’s first paint.
- [WP-04 Datacenter supply scale](https://tcreations3888.com/eif/whitepapers/04-datacenter-supply-scale.html) — Spike, and why a large toy number is still a toy.
- Live simulator: <https://tcreations3888.com/eif/>
- Index of the four papers: <https://tcreations3888.com/eif/#whitepapers>

## Honesty

Numbers are scaled for play. This is an educational demonstration under the MIT License, in the same spirit as the page footer. Garage scale is a thought experiment about a room and a bus. It is not a home power plant and not a construction guide. P_AC,toy is not electrical gain.