seems a little high to me

for 110 volts I would have thought 1/4 amp would have been fine.
for 240 even less

this can depend greatly on the amount of lighting that is on the meter.

1 amp does seem high ??
I'll check
......

I have an 1176LN - F in front of me and it states,
1/8A for 110-120VAC

Thanks very much Kev

So what rating does that equate to in the UK then...? Scuse my bleeding ignorance...

Don't think the VU lights up at all.

No VU lights at all ??
and you have a 1 amp fuse.
:-(

does the unit work ?

At 240 volts it could be a fuse as low as 1/16amp

I think 250mA will be fine and a 100mA might be a little small.

The globe could be blown.

In all honesty, while the internal fuse can be rated quite a bit lower than 1a... the fact of the matter is that anything that will cause the internal fuse to blow at 1/8 a will cause it to blow at 1a... in other words, you're talking about a fairly catastrophic failure to get the internal fuse to pop.

Fletcher makes an interesting point and many techs might have various opinions on the merits of light fuses to heavy fuses ... slo to fast... etc.

A light fuse will blow early and do less damage to components but a heavier fuse will make sure the component is trashed so repair is more obvious and so quicker to trace.

Most of the above is in the hands of the designer. EG - thick PCBs and wide tracks and spaced components can handle more heat/current and when coupled with light resistors the faulty component can use the resister as a local fuse.

I do this with much of my stuff on Power Supply lines to the Op-amps and Tant caps. When there is a problem with an op-amp I usually find a burn resister at the problem and can it and the op-amp changed fast. I tend to mount these resisters slightly OFF the PCB to protect it.

The worst thing that can happen is damaged PCB's. Components are easy to replace but damaged PCB's, especially old retro gear like the 1176 should not be allowed to happen.

We could have a long discussion about PCB design and fuse ratings and get many opinions.

If in doubt use what is spec'd or use the lowest rated fuse for reliable operation.