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I hear Plasma TVs are power hogs

42" Plasma TV (Sony FWD-42PX2S): rated at 350w
46" LCD TV (Sony KDL-46S3000): rated at 215w
34" CRT TV (Sony WEGA KD-34XBR970): rated at 240w

So, Plasma is a tad bit more than tube. LCD is much less than either.

If you have two or three 100w light bulbs left on in unused rooms, it's
about the same thing. "Power hogs" ?? I don't think so.

I wish we could find a comparison of all the same size sets. I guess
they dont make small Plasma sets though, and what is the limit of a
CRT size? I do know the LCD sets come in all sizes though. I just
looked at one a few days ago which was a 19". Nice picture, but
costly. I would never buy a tv larger than 25". I dont have room for
it. I also do not care for loud blaring sound on a tv. Just a plain
single speaker is fine with me, stereo is a little better.
My current tv is a 25" CRT stereo with 2 small speakers. That's all I
want on a TV. I occasionally like listening to music kind of loud on
my stereo, but having commercials blasting on a tv is not my cup of
tea. When I was a Best Buy and asking some questions about a tv, they
had a display that was so loud I could not hear the guy and I had to
yell and repeat many times. I finally asked the guy to turn that damn
thing down. If he hadn't, I would have walked out the store.

On the other hand, I have seen some of the SDTV sets in the stores
with a CRT that look really nice. I dont think they make a HDTV with
CRT (or do they?).

One other thing, I noticed a demo tv at B.B. It showed a split
screen. One one side it said HDTV, the other side said Conventional.
I spent awhile looking at it. The pictures were identical, but on the
HDTV side they were much brighter. After awhile I realized all they
really did was lower the brightness and contrast on the "conventional"
side. In other words, it was just fake. If for no other reason, it
was on the same screen. I see no way they could have half the screen
being LCD and the other half being CRT, or LCD conventional. Just
another advertising gimmick.
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
I wish we could find a comparison of all the same size sets. I guess
they dont make small Plasma sets though, and what is the limit of a
CRT size? I do know the LCD sets come in all sizes though. I just
looked at one a few days ago which was a 19". Nice picture, but
costly. I would never buy a tv larger than 25". I dont have room for
it. I also do not care for loud blaring sound on a tv. Just a plain
single speaker is fine with me, stereo is a little better.
My current tv is a 25" CRT stereo with 2 small speakers. That's all I
want on a TV. I occasionally like listening to music kind of loud on
my stereo, but having commercials blasting on a tv is not my cup of
tea. When I was a Best Buy and asking some questions about a tv, they
had a display that was so loud I could not hear the guy and I had to
yell and repeat many times. I finally asked the guy to turn that damn
thing down. If he hadn't, I would have walked out the store.

The largest commercially available direct view CRT was a 40" made by
Mitsubishi. I fixed one once, it was immensely heavy but the picture did
look pretty good.

On the other hand, I have seen some of the SDTV sets in the stores
with a CRT that look really nice. I dont think they make a HDTV with
CRT (or do they?).


Sure they do, we have a number of them at work as well as I have a HD CRT
rear projection set at home, the only reason I got it was because it was
free, nice set though and looks nice for watching DVDs at 640p which is all
I ever use it for, I quit watching broadcast TV years ago.. It supports
1080i as well, which I'm sure I'll use at some point once the HD format war
is over and prices come down on players. The 56" 16:9 screen makes movies
look great, it is bulky but I've got plenty of space. You can display HD
content on a standard SVGA computer monitor as well. HD vs SD is independant
of the display technology.

Even a cheap set looks good for SD, it's quite a testament really to how
refined CRT technology really is.

One other thing, I noticed a demo tv at B.B. It showed a split
screen. One one side it said HDTV, the other side said Conventional.
I spent awhile looking at it. The pictures were identical, but on the
HDTV side they were much brighter. After awhile I realized all they
really did was lower the brightness and contrast on the "conventional"
side. In other words, it was just fake. If for no other reason, it
was on the same screen. I see no way they could have half the screen
being LCD and the other half being CRT, or LCD conventional. Just
another advertising gimmick.

The resolution could have been artificially lower on the SD side, but the
comparison is still not really fair since the screen is still running at the
HD resolution.

Another gotcha is that SD content looks really poor on most HD sets, much
worse than it does on a good SD set.
 
James Sweet wrote:


Try using 'em in No. MN at -25F; you will gladly return to incandescents.

Michael


I was thinking the same thing. I'm in WI, not far from MN, and with
the severe cold we have had the last few weeks, I finally removed most
of the CF bulbs in my garage. They were so dim when I turned them on,
I could not see the tools in my toolbox, and they never got to full
brightness. That's when I removed over half of them and put in
incandescents. Much of the time I go to the garage to get a tool to
bring in the house, I'm half frozen, and I got to stand there till the
damn things get sort of bright so I can see my tools. It's too cold
to be standing there, and I have better use of my time than waiting
for them damn things to get bright.

Then too, when will they ban them because of the mercury in them?
They might save some energy, but they are highly polluting.
Incandescents are just glass and metal, and aside from the tiny bit of
lead solder on the base, they are not a pollutant. (maybe they dont
use lead on them now, I am not sure).

One other thing. I have now had two of them literally blow smoke and
sparks. One was in my bathroom, and the whole room became filled with
some really stinky smoke, and I could see sparks inside the plastic
base. I shut it off, but still wonder if it could have started a
fire. Worse was one in the garage that actually blew sparks out of
it, and not far away on the floor under the light, I had a gasoline
can. If I had just poured some gas and there was some on the outside
of the can, that could have been a disaster. Since then, I do nto
trust them, and have not bought anymore of them. I'm just using the
ones that were still there.

Halogen bulbs are notorious for being extremely hot, and are far more
able to start a fire than an incandescent. They are not all that more
efficient than a incandescent anyhow, so they are not a good solution
if you ask me.

I trust the old florescent fixtures much more than these CF bulbs and
they do save energy. But again, in cold weather they are helpless.

I think if there is any hope for energy saving bulbs, it will be the
LED. But for now, they are too blue and not bright enough. However,
I think they have potential.
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Jan 1, 1970
0
Then too, when will they ban [CFLs] because of the mercury in them?
They might save some energy, but they are highly polluting.

They're not highly polluting. They have very little mercury, and it's
elemental rather than organic.

If you hardly ever go into the garage, and/or for short periods, CFLs don't
make much sense.
 
Then too, when will they ban [CFLs] because of the mercury in them?
They might save some energy, but they are highly polluting.

They're not highly polluting. They have very little mercury, and it's
elemental rather than organic.
Could you please explain the elemental VS organic part.
If you hardly ever go into the garage, and/or for short periods, CFLs don't
make much sense.

I am beginning to realize that. Whiel on occasion I do spend hours in
there (usually only in warm weather), the rest of the time I am only
in there for a few minutes at a time. About the only time I spend any
extended time in there during cold weather is when the car breaks
down.
 
"



That's obviously much colder than it ever gets here. Was it an enclosed CFL
or one with exposed tube? That makes a big difference.

Metal halide is a better choice for very cold temps. Halogen is also an
option, not a lot more efficient than standard incandescent, but enough to
meet requirements.

What is a Metal Halide bulb?
Do they use standard fixtures or need a ballast or other special
fixture?
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
Halogen bulbs are notorious for being extremely hot, and are far more
able to start a fire than an incandescent. They are not all that more
efficient than a incandescent anyhow, so they are not a good solution
if you ask me.

The halogen bulbs in question have the quartz capsule contained inside a
glass outer bulb. They run no hotter externally than a standard
incandescent, they're not a lot more efficient, but enough more to be legal.

I think if there is any hope for energy saving bulbs, it will be the
LED. But for now, they are too blue and not bright enough. However,
I think they have potential.

LEDs do have potential, but they have a long way to go for general
illumination. I'd guess that in a decade or so they'll be quite mature.
 
J

James Sweet

Jan 1, 1970
0
What is a Metal Halide bulb?
Do they use standard fixtures or need a ballast or other special
fixture?

It's a high intensity discharge lamp, a modern close cousin to the mercury
vapor lamp widely used in street lighting for decades. They require a
special fixture and ballast, though a rare few screw-in internal ballast
replacements are available. Modern ceramic metal halides are fantastic, CRI
in the 85-90 range depending on color temperature, 8K-12K rated life, very
compact lamps with a nearly point source emission and higher efficiency than
fluorescent. I use several 39 and 70W versions around my house with a
combination of fancy electronic and conventional magnetic ballasts but I'm a
lighting geek. CMH is used mostly in high end retail displays right now but
will probably be more common as prices drop. If you see a window display in
a clothing store lit by bright warm white light of almost incandescent with
perhaps a slightly pinkish tinge to it, you're probably looking at 3000K
ceramic metal halide. Philips Mastercolor and GE ConstantColor are the two
lines I've worked with.

Caveats include high cost, relatively long warmup time compared to CFL (but
they will warm up fully in sub zero temps), and when you shut one off, it
has to cool for several minutes before it will fire up again, but this is
not a problem for dusk till dawn or timed applications where I use them.

www.lamptech.co.uk has a whole ton of great info.
 
M

msg

Jan 1, 1970
0
[email protected] wrote:

I think if there is any hope for energy saving bulbs, it will be the
LED. But for now, they are too blue and not bright enough. However,
I think they have potential.

Here in Duluth, we have a number of large LED billboards that appear
as bright at -30F as they do at 70F which testifies to the potential
of LED illumination across a mil-spec temp range.

Michael
 
S

Sjouke Burry

Jan 1, 1970
0
James said:
CFLs work fine in cold weather, I have some outdoors that I've used down to
20F and while they took a bit longer to warm up, they did reach full output.
cut

Well, my CFLs did almost nothing below freezing.
And it is quite inconvenient to have to wait 5 minutes
after switch on, before you can see enough.
And leaving them on, sort of contradicts the purpose of
energy saving.
I replaced them with ordinary FL tubes.
 
For very cold areas, garages, sheds etc.How about those Quartz Halogen
lights? They could/might supplement CFLs/Incandescant lights.The Quartz
Halogen lights used only for very cold areas.I don't know if that would
work so good though.
cuhulin
 
G

GregS

Jan 1, 1970
0
About two something months ago, I read somewhere that UK is thinking
about outlawing ''power hogs'' tv sets.I bought a new ''power hog'' RCA
CRT 27 inch screen tv set on October 15,1999, the same day I bought my
Philips Magnavox WebTV set top box to hook up to that RCA tv set.Last
February, I bought a new Sony Trinitron Wega CRT 27 inch flat screen
''power hog'' tv set for watching old, old movies.(DirecTV) Less than
five years ago, I bought a new Velocity Micro ProMagix desk top computer
and a Multisynch ''power hog'' CRT 22 inch screen computer monitor from
Tiger Direct.This State of confusion I live in is working on getting a
new Nuclear Reactor built for Grand Gulf.There are no worries about
electricity around here, except when storms and tornados and hurricanes
knock out the electric power.I love Power Hogs. cuhulin

Ban them all.

Its easy to put your hand around the vents and judge effectiveness.

greg
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Jan 1, 1970
0
Could you please explain the elemental VS organic part?

Yes. Mercury is poisonous, regardless of its form. But my understanding is
that pure mercury is not as poisonous as organic compounds containing
mercury.

Several years ago, a member of rec.antiques.radio+phone told the group that,
as a child, he'd drunk almost a pound of liquid mercury -- and lived. (Well,
yeah, duh...)
 
J

JW

Jan 1, 1970
0
Several years ago, a member of rec.antiques.radio+phone told the group that,
as a child, he'd drunk almost a pound of liquid mercury -- and lived. (Well,
yeah, duh...)

I'm a bit skeptical about THAT one...
 
W

William Sommerwerck

Jan 1, 1970
0
JW said:
lived.

I'm a bit skeptical about THAT one...

So was I, but he was a regular member of the group, and I saw no reason to
disbelieve him.
 
B

bz

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm a bit skeptical about THAT one...

It is good to be skeptical, but the story is probably correct.

Mercury has a laxative effect. It has been used for one.
http://www.apug.org/forums/archive/index.php/t-45181.html


Metallic mercury is most hazardous when you are exposed to the vapors.
Heating it can be rapidly deadly. Do NOT try to repair a PCB that has had
mercury spilled on it!
[I scrapped a computer because it had had a mercury manometer laid down on
top of it. There was mercury EVERYWHERE inside.]

Having mercury spilled in your work area can be deadly over an extended
period of time as even at room temperature, mercury has a high enough vapor
pressure to expose you to a hazardous level.

But brief (like days for the mercury to pass through the digestive system)
exposure to metallic mercury is unlikely to kill you.




--
bz

please pardon my infinite ignorance, the set-of-things-I-do-not-know is an
infinite set.

[email protected]
 
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