[Gllug] Why we still like CRTs

[John Winters]

On Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:31:28 +0100 (BST), Chris Bell
<chrisbell at 3966.ukfsn.org> wrote:
[snip]
>    Just the back light normally consumes more power than a CRT,

You what?!  Not on any CRT or LCD screen that I've come across.  Try
actually measuring the current being consumed by the two types of display. 
I've known CRTs consume up to 750W (yes, seriously - although this was
quite a while ago).  LCDs tend to be more in the 20W-30W range.

If you don't have a meter, then do the heat test.  All the energy which
goes in has to go somewhere, and to a first approximation it all ends up as
heat.  A CRT being physically larger has much more surface area with which
to radiate heat, and so if it consumed less power would necessarily run a
lot cooler than an LCD screen.  In fact you'll find CRTs run a lot hotter,
because they consume much more power.

I wonder sometimes how these myths get started.  The one which gets me is
the one which you see often repeated - even by official bodies who ought to
know better - that a telly on standby still consumes 75-80% of the power it
does when it's on.  Again, a simple heat test proves this is nonsense.  My
old CRT telly ran pretty hot when in use, but produced no detectable heat
on standby.  I've actually tried measuring it with my current LCD telly. 
It consumes (IIRC) about 30W in use, and too little for my meter to detect
it when on standby.

John
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