Re: Power supply efficiency on older model Sun equipment

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> it might be either a big honking projection set or an old,
> pre-energystar model.  long ago it was discovered that if you kept the
> picture tube filament on half power all the time it
> 1. went to full power very quickly - 'instant on'
> 2. lasted longer, without the full power-on surge and thermal shock -
>    the phenomonon that makes incandescent bulbs blow when you turn
>    them on.
>
> i don't know how much power a tube filament draws but i expect that
> even on half power it's nothing near 85w.
>   
i own one of said big honking projection sets. 73" mitsubishi, 2002 
vintage, hidef, gorgeous. and no, i'm not bragging, because i bought it 
right at the cusp of HDTV's really hitting the market, and more 
importantly, newer technologies like LCD and DMD projectors. it only 
does 1080i, and it has three 12" CRT color guns. thus, it suffers 
exactly the issue noted above, it chews 30 watts when its "off", and 
when it's displaying hidef full blast, it pushes near 300 watts. it's a 
giant heater in our living room. i love the picture, but i resent 
burning half a normal lightbulb when it's not doing anything, so it's on 
a killswitch. yeah - maybe the tubes will blow one of these days from 
the daily power cycling. "oh darn honey, the bigscreen blew out. i guess 
we'll just have to buy the new mitsubishi 73" that uses  DMDs so the 
cabinet's half the size, it uses less than half the power, and and it'll 
cost 1/3rd of what we spent to buy this beast. darn." :^)

-- 
Paul Theodoropoulos