[Solderbot]

I visited Fry's today to ogle the plasmas. In one of their viewing rooms they had a movie playing on a TH-42PD25U that was standing on a table.


I was scoping out the back of it and put my hand on the top edge of the panel where the vent holes are. It was so hot that I could only keep my hand there for a few seconds. I pressed my hand against the back side of the panel and felt to see if it was hot lower down. I could barely feel any warmth on the back as I slid my hand up. All of the heat was on the top edge, and it was HOT!


I have never really seen mention of heat issues in this forum before. How much heat output is normal? Was this normal for this model?

 

[Bob Pariseau]

Plasmas generate a lot of heat, but they are designed to dissipate it in such a way that the electronics don't get fried as long as you mount the plasma with proper ventilation clearance.


A typical 50" plasma will dissipate about 500 watts of heat -- think eight, 60 watt light bulbs.


Pioneer has made some pretty significant improvements in this area, but even their newest designs dissipate about 380 watts as I recall.

--Bob

 

[Solderbot]

Sounds about right, then. I never actually realized the dissipation of these things.

 

[StockInv]

I'm wondering if the heat from a plasma hung on a wall could cause some discoloration of the paint on the wall. Anyone had any problem like this?

 

[Mort]

Must be something to do with different manufacturing techniques as well. My HD JVC panel is barely warm on the top vent holes...just enough to feel. Maybe part of that is because of the separate media receiver unit which feels noticeably warmer on top.


Mort

 

[nuke]

Using an infra-red pyrometer, I read 92 degrees F on the hottest part of my 50HD6UY, on the fan outlets, after the set has been running normally for several hours.


I don't think it will discolor the wall, although the constant exhaust of the fans will likely cause a dust build up over a long period of time.

 

[BruZZi]

All the three Plasmas I had (TH-37PWD6UY - TH-37PW5UZ - TH-42PW5UZ) ran pretty hot to the touch.

 

[Ross in Toronto]

I have the 1110HD. There is no forced convection (i.e., fan) on the panel itself. The power consumption on the panel (as opposed to the separate media receiver) is 363 W. Almost all of that will be converted to heat.


Almost the entire top quarter of the back of the panel is perforated to allow heat to escape (there are holes in the bottom to let the air in). During normal operation, the air coming out of the top of the panel is warm, but certainly not hot. I haven't measured it, but I'd estimate its somewhere around 30 to 35C (86 to 95F).


The media receiver, however, is rated at only 43 W, but it has a fan (a rather loud one too... there have been many posts about the noisy Pio media receiver). If you turn the fan off, the box gets piping hot.


What makes the Pioneer panel work effectively with no fan is that (a) the heat load is modest and (b) the surface area through which heat is dissapated is large (fully 230 sq. in or 1.6 sq. ft by my estimation).


Ross