Folks let me set a few things straight. I have designed a few high stability 
time bases and I have done the lab work so I am confident of my facts.

First, you never want to use AC or bimetal thermostats for precision oven 
heaters because they are inherently noisy and ultimately unstable. Bimetal is a 
bang-bang controller and starts having short time stability troubles at one 
part in 10 minus 7. This type of controller may have a long term stability of 
10 to the minus 9 (which will be advertised) but you must have short stability. 
After all the timebase is for a radio, not a clock so any comparison to clocks 
(or coffee makers) is bogus. 

Second, there is no such thing as a perfect insulator. Even a vacuum  thermal 
bottle type oven will use energy. When the oven is warming from turn-on lots of 
energy is needed; not so much for maintaining a constant temperature. This is a 
classic trade-off. Do you have a big heater for fast turn-on or a small heater 
for precision? 

Third, on a level playing field an 'always on oven' will always consume more 
energy than a 'on demand' system. The claim 'always on' is more efficient is 
bogus. Unlike a race car, there is no startup penalty caused by inefficient  
acceleration. However, this may not be true of the oven power supply.

Fourth, a dedicated power supply for the heater is usually the bigger waster of 
energy. The dedicated power supply is another trade-off. Use a linear and waste 
a lot of energy. Use a switcher and generate noise. 

Fifth, California has a law that says standby devices (like that wall wort 
plugged into the wall but not otherwise connected) my not waste more than 3 
watts of energy. This applies to TVs that are plugged in but turned on. I don't 
think there is any enforcement for this law so I'm sure some violate it. 
Nevertheless manufactures don't want to be branded as energy hogs so most big 
manufactures comply. Also they do not want to have California only designs so 
the law is applied to all designs. All states and all counties benefit. Look at 
cell phone chargers where the light switchers are used instead of the heavy 
wall wort linear supplies. You thought it was to save weight?

73
Fred, AE6QL






-----Original Message-----
>From: Edward R Cole <kl...@acsalaska.net>
>Sent: Oct 15, 2014 9:29 AM
>To: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3EXREF Query
>
>Lynn,
>
>That was a guess and probably way too high.  I have 3-year old 
>46-inch LED flat-screen.  But also a home theater receiver rated to 
>125w audio and two DVD drives, a VCR and satellite receiver.  So all 
>the remote control power supplies do add up - to what? I do not know 
>- haven't measured the total load.
>
>But since the TV is on from 5pm-10pm and off the rest of the day it 
>seems there would be some savings by disconnecting the ac power.  We 
>have a six outlet strip which makes that simple.  It does reduce fire hazard.
>
>On the other hand I keep my Astron station 12v supply on full time 
>which supplies the OCXO, so I do not have any delay waiting for it to 
>stabilize.  I have my ham gear on more frequently than the TV.
>
>We make a pot of coffee (fresh ground) in the morning and turn-off 
>the maker after it finishes.  Coffee pot draws quite big load keeping 
>water and coffee pot hot.  And that only ruins the coffee.  We just 
>reheat a cup in the microwave when we want hot coffee.  Do we save 
>any power this way??  But the coffee tastes better :-)
>
>73, Ed
>
>-----------
>From: "Lynn W. Taylor, WB6UUT" <k...@coldrockshotbrooms.com>
>To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
>Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3EXREF Query
>Message-ID: <543d9e2c.9000...@coldrockshotbrooms.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
>On 10/14/2014 2:47 PM, Edward R Cole wrote:
> > Leave your TV plugged in but turned off and it still consumes about 50w.
>You need to buy a new TV.  The new ones are under a half-watt when
>plugged in but turned off.
>
>
>73, Ed - KL7UW
>http://www.kl7uw.com
>     "Kits made by KL7UW"
>Dubus Mag business:
>     dubus...@gmail.com
>
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