Path: utzoo!censor!becker!bdb
From: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Can You Use A 2000 24 Hours A Day?
Message-ID: <1149@becker.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 89 04:20:02 GMT
References: <24043@cup.portal.com> <6113@shlump.nac.dec.com> <8911152235.AA07854@sorinc.PacBell.COM>
Reply-To: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce Becker)
Organization: G. T. S., Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 37

In article <8911152235.AA07854@sorinc.PacBell.COM> magik@sorinc.PacBell.COM (Darrin A. Hyrup) writes:
|[...]
|I like Jack here have also been running my 2000 constantly for a good 6-7
|months with no detrimental effects. Electrical Engineers tell us that it is
|always better to leave an electrical appliance on rather than turn it on
|and off constantly. Saves power, and wear and tear on the equipment. (A
|good percentage of the power consumption of an electrical device is during
|the power-up phase. This is why lights usually burn out when you turn them
|on, rather than burn out while they are going.)

	Although the advice about wear and tear is OK
	as far as it goes, I really must object to the
	explanation given in the example. The reason
	a light bulb burns out when you turn it on is
	due to the fact that Tungsten has a high positive
	coefficient of electrical resistance with respect
	to temperature. When the lamp filament is cold,
	it has a very low resistance, so many more electrons
	per second rush through it, producing a surge
	which, when the filament is weakened from much use,
	will eventually zap it.

	Power supplies for electronic devices also exhibit
	a current surge on startup due to the need to
	charge up the smoothing capacitors on the output.
	Switching power supplies are much less susceptible
	to this surge due to the smaller size of the filter
	required, but they are more susceptible to voltage
	transients on the AC line, which might or might not
	be associated with startup.

Cheers,
-- 
   ^^ 	 Bruce Becker	Toronto, Ont.
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