When you change the power level on a microwave it is not actually lowering the output power, but instead cycles the power. So at 100% in a 1000W microwave, if you set it for 1min you will have 1000W irradiation for 1min. If you set it on 50%, you don't have 500W irradiation for 1min, but rather, you have 1000W irradiation for 30 seconds, but divided into a cycled time interval (for example, 5 seconds on, 5 seconds off). I'm looking to wire a variac inline with the magnetron so as to directly control the power input so if I set the variac on 50% it will infact be 500W irradiation for 1min, instead of the 1000W cycling.
But i'm interested in knowing what the actual on-off time interval is for this specific microwave as well.
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