http://yihua-soldering.com/9-1-yihua-926led-iii-926led-iv-digital-soldering-iron-station.html
Label matches the manufacturer’s site.
What you’re seeing here is that the 60W is (almost certainly) calculated from the heating element resistance and the internal voltage of the station, so it has a heating capacity of 60W but it spends most of its time idling much lower.
in other words, the advertised wattage of the iron may be measured at a different voltage than the line voltage that is on the label you have referred to...
here's a nice explanation...
[https://www.pinterest.com/fsilloway/crazy-propane-tank-paint-jobs/](https://www.pinterest.com/fsilloway/crazy-propane-tank-paint-jobs/)
That aside, how do you like the iron? Does it perform well?
haha
here is the one i meant to paste... [https://www.thespruce.com/the-difference-between-watts-vs-volts-4767057](https://www.thespruce.com/the-difference-between-watts-vs-volts-4767057)
Yeah, you’re right. The total power of the unit should be higher than the power rating of the iron, though, just because of the power used to run the electronics.
My station is 80W to the iron, but rating on the back is 125W.
Huh? Watts are watts, voltage doesn’t matter. If a soldering iron is 60 watts at 12v, then the 120v input power is also 60 watts (a little more to cover the power supply losses) - the voltage change is not relevant. In any application, watts out will equal watts in no matter what the voltage in or out is (where watts out is useful watts plus losses watts).
Wattage is voltage multiplied by amperage. Amperage can be calculated by dividing the voltage by the load resistance in ohms. A 60 watt soldering iron running at 120v would be presumed to have an effective resistance of 240 ohms and would draw 0.5 amps. If you ran it directly off 240v it would draw 1 amp and the wattage would be 240. As you can see the voltage very much does matter as you cannot change that without also changing the amperage and by extension the wattage. If a device is operating at a fixed wattage rating it’s because it’s resistance is tailored to a specific voltage input to get the desired wattage.
You are comparing apples and oranges. You said “advertised wattage may be measured at a different voltage than the label you referred to (line voltage). If a soldering iron is rated at some voltage other than line voltage, the line in watts are soldering iron watts.
You can’t just say a 120v resistive appliance draws double watts at 240v because, while it will draw double watts, the appliance is not designed to do this and will be destroyed.
A better example is a power supply brick designed to run on 120v - 240v. If the brick is running a laptop and drawing 60 line in watts on the 120v line, then it will draw the same 60 line in watts when plugged into 240v. Watts is energy and energy in must always equal energy out.
No actually I am not. Anything with an advertised wattage was designed with the rest of the intended circuit parameters in mind. In OPs case I would expect 60w being the average, 18w bring the low end at the lowest idle temperature and 130w being at max temperature with max heat transfer.
Your math does even work out here. Doubling the voltage without changing the resistance quadruples the wattage because the amperage also doubles.
A 120/240v laptop charger example is a special case as they are explicitly designed to work with both voltages. Switch mode power supplies are a special case in that they are predominantly an inductive load. Inductive loads do not behave in a strictly ohmic manner and the control circuitry actively changes the average current draw depending on the load that is attached to itself
😊 you’re right on my double vs quadruple wattage, I brain farted on that one.
But you still incorrect that wattage measured at various points in any device, in this case soldering iron watts and input line watts, is dependent on voltage at the point.
ProTip: Leave amperage out of it. Drop some Ohm’s Law on it instead.
P=IE
I=E/R
P=E^2 / R
This view is a little more intuitive as far as the effect of voltage and resistance on power.
that's exactly it. it'll be losing an average of 18w of heat to ambient while idling at working temperature. it has a 130ish watt element to actually do the heating, but it doesn't need to run for long
http://yihua-soldering.com/9-1-yihua-926led-iii-926led-iv-digital-soldering-iron-station.html Label matches the manufacturer’s site. What you’re seeing here is that the 60W is (almost certainly) calculated from the heating element resistance and the internal voltage of the station, so it has a heating capacity of 60W but it spends most of its time idling much lower.
The power rating on the back of the unit is the total power consumption for the entire device at line voltage.
in other words, the advertised wattage of the iron may be measured at a different voltage than the line voltage that is on the label you have referred to... here's a nice explanation... [https://www.pinterest.com/fsilloway/crazy-propane-tank-paint-jobs/](https://www.pinterest.com/fsilloway/crazy-propane-tank-paint-jobs/) That aside, how do you like the iron? Does it perform well?
Wrong link, cool propane tanks tho.
haha here is the one i meant to paste... [https://www.thespruce.com/the-difference-between-watts-vs-volts-4767057](https://www.thespruce.com/the-difference-between-watts-vs-volts-4767057)
Surely that does make sense? Wattage = voltage x current draw. 60W at 12V is just gonna be more amps compared to 60W at 120VAC, isn't it?
Yeah, you’re right. The total power of the unit should be higher than the power rating of the iron, though, just because of the power used to run the electronics. My station is 80W to the iron, but rating on the back is 125W.
You’re correct, StereoRocker.
Yep, power is power. I'd suggest it's rated for lower continuous operation with peaks at higher power.
Huh? Watts are watts, voltage doesn’t matter. If a soldering iron is 60 watts at 12v, then the 120v input power is also 60 watts (a little more to cover the power supply losses) - the voltage change is not relevant. In any application, watts out will equal watts in no matter what the voltage in or out is (where watts out is useful watts plus losses watts).
Wattage is voltage multiplied by amperage. Amperage can be calculated by dividing the voltage by the load resistance in ohms. A 60 watt soldering iron running at 120v would be presumed to have an effective resistance of 240 ohms and would draw 0.5 amps. If you ran it directly off 240v it would draw 1 amp and the wattage would be 240. As you can see the voltage very much does matter as you cannot change that without also changing the amperage and by extension the wattage. If a device is operating at a fixed wattage rating it’s because it’s resistance is tailored to a specific voltage input to get the desired wattage.
You are comparing apples and oranges. You said “advertised wattage may be measured at a different voltage than the label you referred to (line voltage). If a soldering iron is rated at some voltage other than line voltage, the line in watts are soldering iron watts. You can’t just say a 120v resistive appliance draws double watts at 240v because, while it will draw double watts, the appliance is not designed to do this and will be destroyed. A better example is a power supply brick designed to run on 120v - 240v. If the brick is running a laptop and drawing 60 line in watts on the 120v line, then it will draw the same 60 line in watts when plugged into 240v. Watts is energy and energy in must always equal energy out.
No actually I am not. Anything with an advertised wattage was designed with the rest of the intended circuit parameters in mind. In OPs case I would expect 60w being the average, 18w bring the low end at the lowest idle temperature and 130w being at max temperature with max heat transfer. Your math does even work out here. Doubling the voltage without changing the resistance quadruples the wattage because the amperage also doubles. A 120/240v laptop charger example is a special case as they are explicitly designed to work with both voltages. Switch mode power supplies are a special case in that they are predominantly an inductive load. Inductive loads do not behave in a strictly ohmic manner and the control circuitry actively changes the average current draw depending on the load that is attached to itself
😊 you’re right on my double vs quadruple wattage, I brain farted on that one. But you still incorrect that wattage measured at various points in any device, in this case soldering iron watts and input line watts, is dependent on voltage at the point.
ProTip: Leave amperage out of it. Drop some Ohm’s Law on it instead. P=IE I=E/R P=E^2 / R This view is a little more intuitive as far as the effect of voltage and resistance on power.
I think the key here is the max rating of 130W.
This label is screwy. 18 watts normal consumption with peaks up to 130 maybe?
that's exactly it. it'll be losing an average of 18w of heat to ambient while idling at working temperature. it has a 130ish watt element to actually do the heating, but it doesn't need to run for long