Do you guys leave your solid state Integ Amps on all the time?

[GaryY]

One of lovely feature of my boxem is I don't have to care turning on and off. This is really great for my peaceful mind.

 

[CleanSound]

I was between surge units in the panel. (Hangs his head in shame.) I've replaced them in the panel a couple of times, now. They can take a hit pretty well but they will give up their lives in a big surge and they need to be checked routinely.

My panels (two 150-amp panels next to each other) were made by GE back in the day and I use the SurgePro THQLSurge in each one of them. It clamps at 500V L-N and 900V L-L and can resist surges up to 10 kA. So, not the greatest but the best I can get for these panels. I had tried units made by ham radio guys Industrial Communications Equipment that were rated at 50 kA, but those released their magic smoke within weeks of installation. They were wired into 60-amp breakers as specified by the manufacturer. I took those breakers out and the SurgePros went in their place. But one of them was blown when that extra storm passed through. I keep them in stock, but I don't take off the panel cover when I'm in a hurry and just hadn't gotten to it.

I have Homeline (SquareD) panels in my shop, and I use the HOM surge protectors in those panels--I doubt it's any better than the stuff above. But the shop has a Ufer ground that is just plain better than the copper ground rod my house uses. Those are still showing protection after a couple of years.

In both cases, these don't mount next to the panel. They mount in the panel, in the place of a two-pole breaker, with a pigtail that takes the shortest path to the neutral bus.

I've been tempted to install Edco 1210's, like we used in traffic cabinets in stormy areas like Texas and Florida. Those have a current rating of 20 kA, but the clamping voltage is only 350 V, so less stuff gets fried on the way to protection. But I doubt the installation in a residential panel would be suitable--the wires need to be really short. And it wouldn't meet code.

We have clay on top of granite here, so soil grounds are always a little shaky and that's true for pole bonding used by the power company, too. That's why I built the shop with a Ufer ground.

Rick "grounding on limestone was even worse when I lived in Austin" Denney

So it sounds like that whole house surge protector works, if they were blown, just that you were in between and you can't find that that can withstand the level of surge you get.

Curious where you live to get that level of lighting activities. I am fortunate where I live we don't get that many lighting, even when it rains, it's a rarity we get much lighting.

 

[rdenney]

So it sounds like that whole house surge protector works, if they were blown, just that you were in between and you can't find that that can withstand the level of surge you get.

Curious where you live to get that level of lighting activities. I am fortunate where I live we don't get that many lighting, even when it rains, it's a rarity we get much lighting.

I grew up in Texas, which gets a LOT of lightning. Only Florida gets more. Here in Virginia, we don't get nearly as much, but it's not rare. Here we also have clay soil over old granite that is quite close to the surface. That means we don't get good soil conductivity with stuff we can install near ground level. Good earth grounding is the key to lightning resilience. When lightning causes a dropout in the power, the power drops momentarily and then comes back on, and that's when you a massive inrush current for all those users whose power is coming on at the same time, but maybe not both lines (or, upstream from the transformers, for all three phases) at once. And if lightning hits a power facility some distance away, what it hits will be vaporized but there will still be quite a surge that will radiate out.

We've had more outages here than when I lived in hurricane country in Texas. Trees are the usual culprit here.

Rick "and we get snow here, which never happened in Houston" Denney

 

[pablolie]

I do but it's class d, so there is barely a difference.

 

[CleanSound]

I grew up in Texas, which gets a LOT of lightning. Only Florida gets more. Here in Virginia, we don't get nearly as much, but it's not rare. Here we also have clay soil over old granite that is quite close to the surface. That means we don't get good soil conductivity with stuff we can install near ground level. Good earth grounding is the key to lightning resilience. When lightning causes a dropout in the power, the power drops momentarily and then comes back on, and that's when you a massive inrush current for all those users whose power is coming on at the same time, but maybe not both lines (or, upstream from the transformers, for all three phases) at once. And if lightning hits a power facility some distance away, what it hits will be vaporized but there will still be quite a surge that will radiate out.

We've had more outages here than when I lived in hurricane country in Texas. Trees are the usual culprit here.

Rick "and we get snow here, which never happened in Houston" Denney

Well, best of luck to your electronics and appliances in your home. I guess the best thing you can do is keep at least 2 spare whole house surge protectors around and when it goes, replace it immediately.

 

[Salt]

Some personally notes here within the thread, but answering the question:
Anything I don't need or use is switched off, if light, heating, hifi or other stuff.
Why not?

 

[antcollinet]

My entire system is on a single wifi switch. It is switched on and off probably 2 or 3 times a day on average.

 

[DMill]

I had tube amps for years. The thought of leaving them on is making me want to rip the tv off the wall and tip over the coffee table. Especially with a single KT88 costing $100. When the kids or wife leave on my SS integrated, I mostly just want to spill their drink now.

 

[Descartes]

You could Lose your Job if you inadvertently turned Any equipment Off at the ABC/BBC, EMI or Air studios just to name a few, unless the equipment had failed and needed to go to the service department
There are arguments for both but InRush current when powering up is and can still be an issue, especially with less than ideally designed PSU's

A 'Filament' light globe that is Never turned off will vastly outlast one that is regularly turned off and on.

Do you have any data on that?

 

[stoo23]

Do you have any data on that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cente... the,the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department.

It's also, pretty easy to Blow a Lightglobe by repeatedly turning it On and Off. You should see what happens 'physically' to the Filament upon power up.
It could probably be argued that the lifespan of older CRT style televisions Could be shortened by overly frequent On and Off cycles, compared to lengthier and stable on periods.

As far as the 'Losing your Job' thing goes, well, I DID suggest 'Could'.
A severe reprimand/talking to by the technical Head of Department Would be in order, Especially in an era and with equipment that contained a Lot of 'Discreet componentry', it was often being used at all hours and was probably designed by serious Professionals whose equipment and designs (and Cost), Shouldn't Deserve be "Fried",

As far as the (Australian ABC and EMI) are concerned, I know via friends who worked at those institutions.
I'm pretty sure you could relatively easily find references to similar 'practices' at the UK institutions and whilst I don't specifically remember the Engineers name),
I DO recall reading about that same scenario (in Recording Engineer & Producer" magazine) regarding George Martin's AIR Studios.
Equipment pretty much remained on 24/7 at Rhinoceros as well.

Ahh but I'm old and gnarled, from a world with far fewer power hungry humans and an era when there was probably ONLY one damn TV in the house and computers were in Science Fiction films

 

[rdenney]

Some personally notes here within the thread, but answering the question:
Anything I don't need or use is switched off, if light, heating, hifi or other stuff.
Why not?

Because there are dozens of electronic items in a modern house that have power switches, often on the back where you can't reach them, and very commonly with long boot times and standby circuits. Turning them off and on at every need takes a long freaking time. That's why not.

Why in holy hell would anyone turn their heating system off? It has this magical little device that causes the high-power bits to turn off when the temperature is acceptable, called...a thermostat. Story time: Back in the deeps of time, I was living in an apartment in Austin, Texas. The apartment building mostly housed 20-somethings like me. At the holidays, everyone left to go "home" for Christmas, and everyone dutifully turned off their heating. You guys would have been proud. Sure enough, Texas got blasted by an arctic cold front that week and the temps dropped to the teens (Farenheit). All their pipes froze and split. The heating system in my apartment, which I sensibly left running to prevent just that, seeped into the walls with the upstairs neighbor and thawed his pipes. The result was all the flood came into my apartment. I had to drive from Houston back to Austin on the day after Christmas in my marginally heated truck to move my stuff out of the apartment for some weeks while they replaced 1.) plumbing 2.) drywall, and 3.) interior finishes. They also got to replace some of my furniture. There's a reason heating systems are run by thermostats.

And in the summer is costs more to cool a hot house, which soaks up a lot of heat into the solid materials, than it costs to keep it in a comfortable range. Do you guys not have summer and winter? Does everyone but me live on the (southern) California coast?

I get that you said "don't need or use," but those systems are needed and used continuously in most places and for most seasons. Just like the sound system in my office, which is used continuously while I'm working.

Yes, I would diligently turn off vacuum tube equipment. I have some of that with tubes a bunch bigger than any stereo in my ham shack, and that stuff is routinely turned off when not in use, which is often. And I do actually turn off my amps except for the one in the office that is used continuously. But I think you guys that go around your houses turning off dozens of electronic devices every night before going to sleep are a little nuts.

Rick "hardly makes it around to the light switches while stumbling off to bed" Denney

 

[solderdude]

But I think you guys that go around your houses turning off dozens of electronic devices every night before going to sleep are a little nuts.

Its just 2 switches. One for a bunch of chargers (mostly cheap ones) and one for the (almost) complete AV system.
The laptop in it goes to sleep mode when the lid is closed after usage and starts up very quick when opened again.
Have seen too much devices that actually went up in flames... not one of them from me though but did have one device (CRT) that let out some smoke once.
Perhaps that's what prompted me to not leave stuff on that does not need to be left on. Electronics can fail and can catch on fire.
The only device that stays 'awake' is the cable TV receiver as that takes a long startup time and records on a HD when not at home.
But that is not a higher risk device.

 

[TonyJZX]

i generally just leave mine on

but if i'm gone for a weekend then i turn it off

a well designed amp shouldnt need much warm up time, nor should it be at risk from onrush current, nor should it thump the speaker when turned on or off


but saying that the big uses of power in your household is hvac, fridges, water heating and lighting.... a class a/b idling is cents a month

 

[raif71]

My audio gears including amps are off. Some are on standby (red or blue light emitting), I think those are counted as off, right ?

 

[antcollinet]

But I think you guys that go around your houses turning off dozens of electronic devices every night before going to sleep are a little nuts.

I just yell at Alexa and she does it for me. (But only for stuff like my Sub that doesn't have a standby and consumes a hefty combined 60W when not being used)

 

[rdenney]

Ha! Alexa is where I become Amish. Too much clandestine listening for my comfort level.

Rick “who experimented with X10 controls once and thought they were closer to starting fires than leaving stuff on” Denney

 

[antcollinet]

Ha! Alexa is where I become Amish. Too much clandestine listening for my comfort level.

Rick “who experimented with X10 controls once and thought they were closer to starting fires than leaving stuff on” Denney

I trust the community to let me know if Amazon are recording stuff they don't say they are.

And all the recordings are accessible and deletable. And very very (very!) boring.

Turn on my lights
Turn off my lights
Switch this on
Switch that on
Whats the weather
Set a timer
Add cornflakes to the shopping list
coffee on

Etc.

You can even set the retention time to 3 months, or set it not to keep recordings at all. You can delete them at any time by voice instruction or in settings.

 

[CleanSound]

I trust the community to let me know if Amazon are recording stuff they don't say they are.

And all the recordings are accessible and deletable. And very very (very!) boring.

Turn on my lights
Turn off my lights
Switch this on
Switch that on
Whats the weather
Set a timer
Add cornflakes to the shopping list
coffee on

Etc.

You can even set the retention time to 3 months, or set it not to keep recordings at all. You can delete them at any time by voice instruction or in settings.

I don't use Alexa, Google, Siri nor Cortana, because, they just aren't smart enough, they probably have another 10 years before I can use them without getting frustrated.

 

[Salt]

Why in holy hell would anyone turn their heating system off?

Simple answer: it's allways off unless I feed it with firewood
Btw. all my hifi gear have hard on/off switch on front or top.