UKC

Due to the layout of our living room, the TV, hifi, DVD, speakers etc will be in full sunshine for half the day. Obviously there are various solutions - draw curtains, put down roller shutter, change configuration of the room... But my question is; how much damage will the sun do to these things?

Thanks.

In reply to jon:

My house is like that and I've never even thought about it, TV's been there for about 18 months in the sun for half the day (of half the year!). I've never noticed any issues. I might be more concerned if I had nice speakers made from wood in the sun but I couldn't advise you about that, as I don't.

In reply to elliot.baker:

My stuff is not expensive either, but I was thinking more of the innards of the things rather than the outside.

In reply to jon:
In 1966 we listened to the World cup final on a tranny my father had left above the dashboard in our car while we were on the beach. It still worked but the case had melted and there wasn't a straight edge to be seen!

Light can ruin CDs

Electronics running above rated temperature may be OK but likely to experience reduced MTBF (mean time between failure) unless industrial/military rated components are fitted

In reply to wercat:

Thanks for that. No military rated components. Transistors - maybe...

In reply to jon:

As a general rule, electronics can handle high temperatures when it is off, but when it is powered, it is less tolerant. Although why this is so beats me - I'm just going by what the specs say. The UV is more a quandary and depends on what your windows are made of. They probably don't transmit much UV - or at least not the more harmful shorter wavelengths. The finish might fade a bit, but I'd be more concerned about the LEDs in the TV (you aren't still using a tube TV, I'd guess?).

My grandmother had one of those TVs with the doors to cover it up when not in use...

In reply to pneame:

LEDs? Valves?

In reply to jon:
Oh, OK. The valves will be fine as they get blazing hot anyway. You will also get much warmer sound. So they say. But the phosphors on the front of the TV tube may be damaged. I'd definitely get doors.

------- edited to add wit indicator

In reply to wercat:


Sorry but that just made me laugh more than it should.

In reply to jon:

Lifetime of certain electronic components is greatly shortened by temperature, particularly the big capacitors in power supplies. Probably more of a problem if you have things turned on when in the sun.

Also the repeated thermal cycling could cause additional mechanical stresses and exacerbate failure modes e.g. microfractures in components or circuit boards caused by repeated expansion.

White LEDs like to kept cool as they use phosphors to convert UV to white light and high temperatures will accelerate their reduction in brightness.

I'd still expect your stuff to last several years bit I would still want to shield it from the sun if it was mine.

HTH

In reply to thedatastream:

That's good to know as I suppose they'll only get used when the sun isn't on them. Also I guess by the time the sun eventually kills them they'll be obsolete anyway! Eventually they'll be a pergola shading the window and in the meantime I guess drawing the curtain might be a good idea. Thanks.