Electricity bill

[admin_exported]

Ok......I expected it to go up 2 months ago after I upgraded, but the bill doubled 🙁 I have no understanding of the power consumption of my components, but I tend to put the cd player and pre-amp on standby......leaving both power amps on so they don't have to warm up when I put on a record/cd.....and I switch the mixer off. Should I turn everything off from the mains? What does everyone else do? Any tips to keep the costs down?

 

[Anonymous]

I switch all my components off at the plug. I know you are suppose to leave things on standby, but the thing is my QED 4 way mains hub keeps on tripping my RCD at the consumer unit. Carnt think why this is, but i guess its do do with the large amount of current my system is draining whilst on standby. I dont think it does any harm switching things off.

 

[fatboyslimfast]

I tend to do the same - I also had a shock when leaving it all on, so EVERYTHING that can go off (y'know, fridge and heating controls, bedside alarm etc excepted) goes off at the plug at night.

Does make recording things on the sky+ a bit tricky though...

 

[Anonymous]

another Primare man here who's bill seems to have rocketed.

I havn't turned any of my kit off since I got it in october apart from 3 days I was away(including 300w sub)

I would love to know what it's costing me to just leave it on.

 

[JoelSim]

Best to switch it off as it only takes a few minutes to warm up. let's all save the planet.

 

[Clare Newsome]

And if you can't be bothered to do it manually, this cunning little plug panel will do it all for you. We tested it in a recent issue and it works really well - automatically powering your kit down from standby and back up again when needed.

The Intellipanel also allows you to keep a device that does need to be kept on standby - eg a Sky box or DVD recorder - going while the rest power down. Clever stuff - and British-designed, too!

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
and British-designed, too!

[/quote]

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
designed

[/quote]

 

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest problem lies with saftey - is it really safe to leave all that equipment on overnight? You never know, there might be a powersurge or thunderstorm and not only will it break the components unless you have a SurgePro, it may cause a fire.

 

[drummerman]

Electrical circuitry stabilizes very quickly. Minutes but more often than that seconds. After that you will not hear 'improvements'. Your ears/brain are slowly adjusting to the new task, while you relax. Thats why you hear the sound 'change'.

Switch it off.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, I'm hearing the general consensus 😉 .....i just got in the habit of leaving things on with my old components.........my rotel power amp was on continuously for 7 years apart from the odd day or two if I went away! Electricity bill was always sensible, even if I left the other separates on aswell. Clearly primare is hungry equipment.......*reaches for the plug*

 

[Anonymous]

[quote user="Clare Newsome"]
And if you can't be bothered to do it manually, this cunning little plug panel will do it all for you. We tested it in a recent issue and it works really well - automatically powering your kit down from standby and back up again when needed.

The Intellipanel also allows you to keep a device that does need to be kept on standby - eg a Sky box or DVD recorder - going while the rest power down. Clever stuff - and British-designed, too!

[/quote]

........thanks for the link Clare, could be useful 😉

 

[Anonymous]

just been to hi-fi club,people seem to think it could be costing about a tenner a week to leave it on all the time.

just turned it off for the first time since 15/12/07.

hope those bills plummet

 

[JoelSim]

And the polar bears live longer too!

Hifi is my religion but switch the ****** off at night.

 

[Andrew Everard]

If we all turn everything off, walk to work and live in semi-darkness, and it keeps on getting warmer - then what?

 

[Anonymous]

buy a candle and matches 🙂

 

[Andrew Everard]

Candle? CANDLE??? All that CO2 from burning candles... (Shudders)

 

[Anonymous]

wind up torch then????
For the record I dont think global warming is anything we can stop, personally I feel its cyclic, ice age etc...........

 

[Andrew Everard]

[quote user="chris lowe"]For the record I dont think global warming is anything we can stop, personally I feel its cyclic, ice age etc...........[/quote]

Exactly...

 

[Anonymous]

although anything to keep costs down is a bonus.

Andrew did you read my post on Ebay and Valve amps, any thoughts?

 

[Anonymous]

Some components are designed to be left on standby.keeps them warm and can increase their lifespan.My Arcam instruction manual actually says that you do this. I was away for a few days recently and turned all my stuff off. After i turned it on again it took over a day for it to get back to sounding the way it should.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes

The listing you refer to has now been removed, which makes me suspicious, but buying any product of this kind from an unknown brand/seller sounds like something of a calculated risk to me.

Might be worth a punt, but then again you might be buying something deeply nasty.

 

[Anonymous]

Saving electricity means less power stations, wind farms etc. So unless you enjoy the thought of trying to keep nuclear waste safe for 100,000 years....

Also you can buy some CDs with the money you save!
jules.

 

[Andrew Everard]

How do you save money when the utility companies keep cranking up prices faster than we can reduce consumption?

 

[John Duncan]

[quote user="jules153"]Also you can buy some CDs with the money you save[/quote]

Made of plastic. Very bad environmentally.

Wax cylinders, that's the way forward. Biodegradable, y'see.