Stumbled on a stat that blew my mind about old CRT monitors

I was reading through some old technician manuals from the 90s that I found in a box in my garage. One of them had a note about how a typical 17 inch CRT monitor from back then used around 80 to 100 watts just to run. That hit me because my whole current setup with a dual monitor LCD rig pulls maybe 50 watts total. It's wild how much power we used to burn just to see a blurry 1024x768 screen. Has anyone else come across an old spec sheet that made you stop and think?

3 comments

3 Comments

kais671mo ago

80 watts for a 17 inch CRT sounds about right actually. I remember my old Sony Trinitron from back then had a sticker on the back saying 95W max. It's crazy to think that thing weighed like 40 pounds and put out enough heat to warm up my whole room in the winter. Now you can get a 27 inch 4k monitor that uses less power than a lightbulb and weighs nothing.

diana_king1mo agoTop Commenter

Those old Trinitrons actually had a degaussing coil that pulled way more on startup.

skyler_adams1mo ago

Ngl I bet those old CRTs doubled as space heaters in the winter, probably saved people money on heating bills back then.