[rmcgirr83]

As summer approaches here in New England and with it temperatures in the mid 90's does anyone have information concerning the safe operating temperature of plasma televisions.


For example, in other threads it has been mentioned that Fujitsu's temperature has been stated to be 90 degrees F. Granted do not know what the ambient temperature of the viewing room is...but what would everyone think a safe ambient temperature would be when running your plasma.


I have the, as I am sure everyone knows by now, panasonic PT42PD3. It doesn't have internal fans (?) so I just want to be sure that I won't cook my new baby. I went to the panasonic site however, as usual, not a whole lot of useful information unless I missed it.

 

[dswallow]

My Fujitsu P50XHA10US says 0ºC-40ºC / 32ºF-104ºF in the owners manual under "Specifications."

 

[LisaJ]

dswallow

Leave it to you to give me something more to worry about. My operating temp is 104 as well, and my question is what are computers rated at? Because I am a freak about keeping the computers cool with A/C and there is no A/C where the Plasma is.


Are you going to Air condition your Plasma?


Has anyone experienced Plasma failure due to no a/c in the summer? Will fans adequatly keep the Plasma cool during the day?

 

[dswallow]

104ºF is pretty hot... 105ºF is the maximum recommended "safe" hot tub temperature, for instance. If your plasma doesn't have any fans, I would suspect they've laid out the components in such a way as to cool by convection well enough not to need them. As long as you've got airflow around it, it likely isn't going to be a problem.


I think another important distinction is that these specifications are very likely meant to be the safe temperature range of the room it's in, not meant to be the maximum safe operating temperature of the internal components.


I have 6 tons of A/C in my house. When I replaced both furnaces and A/C units a few years ago, I was sick and tired of the units not quite keeping up, so enlarged everything. Then during the removal of the old ones, the contractor found the plastic bag with instruction and installation manuals had been left on the coils blocking half the airflow through it on one of the units. So I'm way covered now with cooling power. If need be, I could probably test the lower safe operating limit of the plasma, even during summer.

 

[djs]

If it gets to 90 inside your house, I don't think you'll be sitting in front of the TV! I would guess that a piece of equipment like a plasma would have some kind of thermal shutdown in it. This is just a guess, but if it doesn't, the designers should be flogged! I have noticed that my Pio runs pretty warm, but I haven't heard the fans come on yet. I imagine they will this summer as I don't have A/C either.

 

[Maximus330I]

djs,

Can you feel the heat radiate from the screen? I sure can. I dont feel a lot of heat from the vents in the back. The heat that the plasma gives off is coming from the front panel. Is that the same in your case?

 

[LisaJ]

Max I can feel MEGA heat coming from my screen from the top vents. But My Plasma has run since 9am until about 2-4:30 AM ..since it has been owned.


DJS what I normally do in the summer to keep the living room cool is pump cold air from a fan in the window at night so most of the day the living room will stay cool. However, last summer was brutal and this practice didn't work some days.


My house has no venting system so running central air would probably be near impossible or very expensive. Since I do not think I will live in my house forever, Im not even willing to entertain that thought.


I am going to call all tech support numbers for all manufactures on Monday and see what the general consensus is. I would just be heartbroken to lose a plasma unit due to heat exhaustion. I will let you know what I find out as soon as I can.