New Source Of Heat

[Tom9589]

I know this post is slightly off topic, but I don't know if Ohohyodafarted (Bob G.) frequents the Flat Screen topics.

Bob has a by-line which reads, "Vacuum tubes are used in Wisconsin to help heat your house."

Well, I have discovered another source of heat: a big screen plasma TV. I was given a non-working 50" plasma TV. I repaired it and have noticed the amount of heat this thing puts out. It's certainly keeping our home office warm this fall. It also has a great picture!

[Yamamaya42]

Speaking of “sources of heat”, aside from my CTC-16XL & FADA 895, & Stromberg Carlson x-21 m4b, and soon to finish GE CTC-15&1/2 clone, I have sevral others in storage to play with in the future, like the rm 503 oscilloscope, also on the list are 2 dynakit mark III amps, a Sansui 1000 amp, and someplace hidden in my parents attic is a small 6v6 amp of my dad's I hope to find some day. ( he passed in 2011, so I can't ask where he hid it )

And I will say it again, I really wish he had not gotten rid of that CTC-10A sullivan when I was very young.
And, I wish I kept the rca ctc 38 from my gradparents, it fried the FBT, and I dumped it, I was a dumb teen

But the stuff I do have working now, does warm the place up a bit!

[DavGoodlin]

My Motorola SKR 151 "stereophonic" console has 23 tubes, good thing the back cover has those big holes.

[Electronic M]

I believe there's 62 tubes in my RCA TM-21 color monitor....I finally plugged in the color killer relays and after readjusting the horizontal frequency it was suddenly working with a stable horizontal for the first time.

The relay contact pinout is wrong(color in monochrome position of function switch and monochrome in color positions) so at some point I'll have to fix that but it works well enough now that I plan to heat the basement with it periodically.

[Yamamaya42]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I believe there's 62 tubes in my RCA TM-21 color monitor....I finally plugged in the color killer relays and after readjusting the horizontal frequency it was suddenly working with a stable horizontal for the first time.

The relay contact pinout is wrong(color in monochrome position of function switch and monochrome in color positions) so at some point I'll have to fix that but it works well enough now that I plan to heat the basement with it periodically.

do the lights dim when you turn it on?

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Yamamaya42

do the lights dim when you turn it on?

They do that even for my CTC15 clones. Utility voltage regulation here kinda sucks... There's an industrial park about a mile away and depending on what their doing the effectiveness of the microwave and electric stove here varies substantially... Things used to be worse though the lights used to flicker every few seconds for hours on end several years ago when nothing much was powered on here...had to get VRT isolation transformers to stop my TVs from blooming.

I did learn that the RCA, Conrac, Packard Bell roundy, CCII Zenith and stand by current from several game consoles is enough to trip a breaker that I never knew the metal power strip that feeds them had.