How much power does your hi-fi consume?

[jiggyjoe]

Just recieved one of those plug in energy meters from my utilities company and was interested to see how much power the hi-fi was using.

My wife has always blamed all the electronic ho ha throughout the house for our high electricity bills so time to find out i thought.

so played some music at the maximum volume I would normally listen to (55 on my arcam amp) and the meter reading went up by about 250w.

nowhere near as much as I would have thought bearing in mind I am bi-amping with 2 arcam a85/p85 amps with rated max power consumption of 800w each!!!

Even more interesting is the fact that when I switched over to single wire using just the a85 integrated, the meter reading went up by about 350w so using 100w more power than the bi-amp setup!!!!

when using my hifi at more domestic listening levels I was only using about 50w or so.

The worst culprit was the plasma tv continually using between 350w to 450w, darn must try not to keep failing asleep at night watching it!

 

[Diamond Joe]

The worst culprit was the plasma tv continually using between 350w to 450w, darn must try not to keep failing asleep at night watching it!

How big is your TV?

 

[chebby]

Telly... 136 watts in use and 0.3 watts in standby.

Stereo... 50 watts in use and 0.4 watts in standby.

 

[jiggyjoe]

only a 42" but it is an older panasonic model pz80. I think the latest models are more energy efficient. lcd is the way to go if your worried about power consumption.

And with the ridiculous cost of utilities these days the plasma may have to go!

 

[Anonymous]

We had one of those devices a whle ago. I waited until he Sonos / NAS was set up before using it. It seemed quite eratic so I just unplugged it and shoved it into a drawer. We never leave things on stand by anyway (apart from Sky box and Sonos stuff). Thigs are always turned off at the socket even the microwave and kettle.

 

[schietgs]

Tested this only a few months ago:

- Denon 2310 in bi-amped mode (stereo, on normal listening volumes (-40db)): +- 50 W

- Denon 2310 in surround mode on normal listening volumes (-40 db): +-60 W (still don't get this)

- Denon 2310 in surround mode at theater volume (-15 db): +-280 W

- Panny plasma: 190 W (with eco-mode on)

But what's more frightening:

- PS3 consumption: on average 200 W

Future investements will most likely be a decent stand alone music streamer (like the CA NP30) and a stand alone BD player... Or solar panels

...

 

[Big Chris]

played some music at the maximum volume I would normally listen to (55 on my arcam amp)

Jeez! Is that not a bit loud? I'm using the same amps as you and rarely go above 40. Some quieter recordings I may nudge 44. You either have a detached home or deaf/understanding neighbours Joe.

 

[jiggyjoe]

played some music at the maximum volume I would normally listen to (55 on my arcam amp)

Jeez! Is that not a bit loud? I'm using the same amps as you and rarely go above 40. Some quieter recordings I may nudge 44. You either have a detached home or deaf/understanding neighbours Joe.

Yes it is very loud I was trying to see how much power the amps were consuming at a volume as loud as I dare. (done today when the neighbours were out!!) I normally listen around the 40 to 45 level as well.

 

[Big Chris]

played some music at the maximum volume I would normally listen to (55 on my arcam amp)

Jeez! Is that not a bit loud? I'm using the same amps as you and rarely go above 40. Some quieter recordings I may nudge 44. You either have a detached home or deaf/understanding neighbours Joe.

Yes it is very loud I was trying to see how much power the amps were consuming at a volume as loud as I dare. (done today when the neighbours were out!!) I normally listen around the 40 to 45 level as well.

I would go to 45 too, but my OCD prevents me from using odd numbers.

 

[Anonymous]

played some music at the maximum volume I would normally listen to (55 on my arcam amp)

Jeez! Is that not a bit loud? I'm using the same amps as you and rarely go above 40. Some quieter recordings I may nudge 44. You either have a detached home or deaf/understanding neighbours Joe.

Yes it is very loud I was trying to see how much power the amps were consuming at a volume as loud as I dare. (done today when the neighbours were out!!) I normally listen around the 40 to 45 level as well.

I would go to 45 too, but my OCD prevents me from using odd numbers.

...But your Pure Marshall goes up to 11. What a waste your not getting that one louder benefit.

 

[aliEnRIK]

I would go to 45 too, but my OCD prevents me from using odd numbers.

Im sure thats just within the Arcam settings. Youve got it set so that you dont need to turn the volume as much to get it up high. but you can set it so its more controlled (And can get to that 45 figure)

 

[Diamond Joe]

only a 42" but it is an older panasonic model pz80. I think the latest models are more energy efficient. lcd is the way to go if your worried about power consumption.

And with the ridiculous cost of utilities these days the plasma may have to go!

Wow! I imagined you had a 50"+ sized screen. I was looking at Panny 42" LED edge lit TVs the other day and (please don't quote me on this) I think one of them had an average power consumption of well under 100W (70W maybe?).

As for the PS3, I was going to get one for BD duties and playing games, as soon as I saw its power consumption was over 10x a stand alone BD player I abandoned that idea.

 

[True Blue]

When my gear goes on they have to put on a standby generator. Still I cycle to work, have energy efficient light bulbs and I'm a northern lad at heart so central t`eating doesnt go on until December.

 

[007L2Thrill]

Well my onkyo 875 just idling takes 150 Watts and in use around 200 watts, all my equipment together around 500 watts in normal use.

But that’s nothing compared to my PC on its own playing a game 650 Watts.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Well my onkyo 875 just idling takes 150 Watts and in use around 200 watts,

it really makes me laugh to read this kind of stuff. I was always wondering where do all those HT receivers' manufacturers take power ratings for their gear from? even assuming 100% efficiency (never gonna happen) 140W * 7 = 980W power consumption! nowhere near 150 - 200W having just been reported.

hallelujah! before we had fish and bread and now miraculous multiplying of electric power. I think I'm becoming a believer!

 

[StevieC]

I got one of those electricity monitors last year just to prove a point! If you've got an electric "power shower" and the kids like to play in it for ages - Worry. After taking some readings and doing a bit of arithmetic I estimated I could sit listening to music (just CD player & amp switched on) for nearly 80 hours for the same cost as having just ONE shower.

Steve

 

[007L2Thrill]

Well my onkyo 875 just idling takes 150 Watts and in use around 200 watts,

even assuming 100% efficiency (never gonna happen) 140W * 7 = 980W power consumption! nowhere near 150 - 200W having just been reported.

My quote of “200 watts in use” was only at normal volumes for my room, home cinema choice magazine did a power consumption test for the onkyo 875 and they said 100 watts idle and 946 watts 5 channels driven at 160 watts 8 ohms (0.5 THD).

 

[amcluesent]

> I estimated I could sit listening to music (just CD player & amp switched on) for nearly 80 hours for the same cost as having just ONE shower.<

Yep. Focus on the multi-kW stuff - immersion heater, cooker, eletric fire, air con etc. Efficiency savings there will be orders of magnitude greater than turning off your hi-fi.

 

[oldric_naubhoff]

Well my onkyo 875 just idling takes 150 Watts and in use around 200 watts,

even assuming 100% efficiency (never gonna happen) 140W * 7 = 980W power consumption! nowhere near 150 - 200W having just been reported.

My quote of “200 watts in use” was only at normal volumes for my room, home cinema choice magazine did a power consumption test for the onkyo 875 and they said 100 watts idle and 946 watts 5 channels driven at 160 watts 8 ohms (0.5 THD).

fair enough. for a moment there I forgot it's not a class A amp but most likelly a class D so it's not drawing much power when iddle or in little use. 946 W consumption when driving 5 channels seems quite reasonable. my mistake

 

[Anonymous]

With my Musical Fidelity A3 integrated driving ProAc Studio 130's from a Naim CD5, I think it was running about 140W at my normal listening volumes. When I used the A3 as a pre-amp and had a Musical Fidelity A370 power amp, this was up at about 700W at the same volume. No joke, that thing is a radiator with an amplifier stuck to the back of it!

ProAc's driven by MF A3, Laptop, TV (42" LCD TV) was about 220W. Tested a REL Storm 3 aswell, at normal music volumes it was only using about 30W or so.

 

[Anonymous]

My stereo setup consumes between 65 and 70 Watt at normal volume. That's with Arcam cd192 cd player, Marantz pm7003 integrated and Densen B-310 power amp. Turning the volume up to antisocial levels only reaches 80W. That's means I'm either very social, or the amp is really efficient. When I turn off the cd player and use my PC as source, the power consumption drops to 47W (not including the PC) -- and never drops below 45W even when I'm listening to silence (shut down the PC).

My HT system (which is basically only an Arcam AVR250) consumes about the same, and that puzzles me a little. The amp is rated for 1200VA, but doesn't even come close to it. It has idle power usage of 65W, draws 75W when listening music at moderate volumes (4 channels, bi-amped stereo), and barely reaches over 85W when using all channels, even when I push the volume to 70%.

I must say that I had not expected power usage to be that low. In fact, my stereo system while in use uses less power than my network equipment which is running 24/7 (nas, modem, wireless router).

 

[idc]

Amp - 1.3 watts.

Anyone want to buy some spare watts off me for their massive systems?

 

[Anonymous]

mine runs on hamsters, so I guess 44 hamster power