Anyone know of a laser printer that has very low power draw? I know most of them do while printing; it's the startup I'm concerned about. For electrical reasons I don't want that much wattage being sucked down. I don't mind a longer warmup. I'd gladly wait a minute or 5 for it to warm up instead of trying to do it in 0.1 seconds... Oh, and low price would be nice too I'm not a huge printer, I mostly want it for shipping labels.

So how many watts does your pull during warmup? I know you love that kill-a-watt.

Why not get one of those small thermal label printers?

The next thing you know, someone will be suggesting that he hand write them.

I know I measured my 1350w a long time ago, but I forget. I haven't had that printer connected in months. It would make the lights dim when it came on though (we coverted our garage into a photo studio, so we've already got 4 computers, 2 inkjets, lights, etc running out here).

that is a sign of a bad nuetral wire in your electrical system

what size breaker are you using in your studio/garage?

Our home (small ranch built in the 60s and all original wiring, although a lot of outlets and switches have been replaced) had two breaker boxes. The main one in the house and then a secondary one in the garage. When we turned the garage into a studio, we left the garage breaker box and wiring in place, but installed a new box beside it and ran all new wires and outlets throughout the room. We just don't use any of the old stuff (it was ungrounded, and we properly grounded the new box).

We've got 6 15A circuits in the room. At the time, the 1350w was on a circuit that had my wife's computer (Duron proc and 17" LCD) and the overhead light (just a 100W bulb). Her computer was on a UPS which I think saved us a ton - I suspect the 1350w had a problem because the overhead light kept burning out - probably every 3 weeks or so. Once I removed the printer it's been fine. I think the 1350 was causing some sort of surges.

I also know the power in the area is crappy -we get power flickers about every couple weeks. I put all the computers on UPSs and am planning to add one to the tv.

Why not put the printer on the UPS as well? UPS' regulate power, so if it's connected through the UPS, it may not cause the light dimming issue.

Most UPS can't handle the draw of a laser...

My 1350w and 1250 do that too (dim the lights). House is new construction. I would be curious what the power draw is.

Most cheap UPS do not have voltage regulation. (unless of course, they are actually operating from the battery instead of AC power)

I don't think I want to know how much power my 45ppm Laserjet 4250 draws...

could it be that when they wired the house that they have used shared commons with 2 different circuits?

oh! I thought you said laser pointer...I was gonna say walmart.