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Do you consider power/energy usage when selecting a new kit?

No. I don't leave things running though.

I draw a distinction between usage and waste. If I buy a £30 shirt and wear it to death, that's usage and I don't care that I could have bought one for a tenner. If I buy one for a tenner and never wear it, that's waste.

My hifi is such a vanishingly small proportion of my energy footprint that it's irrelevant.
 
Suppose its not so irrelevant IF you're running 2x 1KVA mono blocks for example. Some get much bigger even, and a manufacturer recommend they stay on unless going away for a long period of time.
 
The incandescent lightbulbs scam is something we never see much discussion about IME.

In a large ish house, especially with kids leaving lights on and lights on in corridors and top of the stairs etc etc, it would not be extreme for there to have been 10 100W bulbs in use at the same time. This is of course 1000W!!
Most of us prob had a continuous 400 - 600W in use every night, 365 days a year. This was reduced to say 50W by the new energy efficient bulbs and should have pretty much halved, maybe more, the average electricity bill...
But in practice the energy companies were allowed to ramp up the bills to take profits back up to long term levels.
It's never mentioned....
 
My wife told me when I got rid of my valve power the heating bill went down.

However I changed to SS A/B because the power suited the speakers.

Have tried class D but it didn't work for me.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
The incandescent lightbulbs scam is something we never see much discussion about IME.

In a large ish house, especially with kids leaving lights on and lights on in corridors and top of the stairs etc etc, it would not be extreme for there to have been 10 100W bulbs in use at the same time. This is of course 1000W!!
Most of us prob had a continuous 400 - 600W in use every night, 365 days a year. This was reduced to say 50W by the new energy efficient bulbs and should have pretty much halved, maybe more, the average electricity bill...
But in practice the energy companies were allowed to ramp up the bills to take profits back up to long term levels.
It's never mentioned....
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I replaced over 40, 25/40/50/60w spot-lights and pendant bulbs in our old apartment with 5w LED's, fitted a smart meter and did everything possible to have kit on standby when not in use, the bills didn't really drop as mush as I expected. My quest isn't just money related its more about usage. I think the new price increases due in April will be rather bitter though..

I had an Audionet integrated amp with 2 x700va, 2x100va, 2x50va and 1x 20va transformers in it and over 400,000uF caps in the PSU. Then had a pre/power Vitus with similar consumptions but this didn't have a standby function like the Audionet did, so ultimately didn't stay long. We moved recently and although both of us are working 50% from home and office, our leccy bills are around £35 per month so usage has dropped.
 
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Bairnstorm said:
My wife told me when I got rid of my valve power the heating bill went down.

However I changed to SS A/B because the power suited the speakers.

Have tried class D but it didn't work for me.
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It interesting when you look at max current draw.
For example the Norma IPA-140 (class A/B) say max 127A and outputs 140w P/C, the Belcanto ACI-600 states max 40A output is 2x300w P/C - both 8 ohm. Just two examples of old v new tech i suppose.
 
Cereal Killer said:
It interesting when you look at max current draw.
For example the Norma IPA-140 (class A/B) say max 127A and outputs 140w P/C, the Belcanto ACI-600 states max 40A output is 2x300w P/C - both 8 ohm. Just two examples of old v new tech i suppose.
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Erm... no... You have 127A mains plugs and sockets at your place? And your amp needs 127 x 240 = 30.48 KW to output 140WPC?
 
You need to look at your whole footprint, as above - I run class A SE valve hybrid mono blocs, the lights dim in the entire apartment block when I turn them on. But…they’re now 25 years old, I never bought anything new to replace them with(well, I keep buying 2nd hand stuff to compare them with :)). What cost this economy of throwing stuff away to buy less consuming alternatives? Look at the bigger picture IMO - as. Hobby I buy faulty/cheap hi-fi, repair it and resell it - I think keeping legacy stuff in circulation is much more environmentally friendly than folks who buy the latest, greatest thing…especially when it is not really :)

having said that, I just invested €430 in a new AYA 5 DIY DAC - and for that I feel guilty, given my current Micromega Duo sounds great, as did the Camelot Arthur before it. First new thing I bought in more than 20 years…
 
I've tried to switch back to a single integrated amp from from four monoblocks and a preamp but it just doesn't sound live and like to to play fairly loud at times, so switched back to the mono's fortunately they are supposedly a Class G implementation so use slightly less than normal implementations, but with a Valve preamp, power USB to SDIF converter, four monoblocks, a Dac with separate power supplies, i would imagine im running 400 plus watts sometimes 15 hours a day, plus in the living room i have incandescent bulbs, as im not keen on LEDS so another 100w or so... it all mounts up.
 
Arkless Electronics said:
Not at all. I'm a fan of class A amps. If you get big enough ones you won't need to switch the heating on so the "waste" heat ain't wasted!
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Makes perfect sense........as long as you don’t turn on your air conditioner full throttle when you listen to AC/DC out loud in July ! :D
Oops, forgot they are using all the power they can even when no music plays............
Jokes aside, class A amps really sing and make people completely addicted so I understand the hype 100% !
 
The thing that gets me is the sheer quantity of single-use plastic. It is almost impossible to go supermarket shopping without coming back with a shed-loads of it. That is the first thing that needs banning/regulating. Someone spinning the meter for a few hours with a 30 year old Krell, Pass or 60 year old valve amp is harmless in the grand scheme of things. Consuming plastic and creating landfill is the real death of this planet to my mind.
 
Cereal Killer said:
Funnily enough even before the last energy price increase, the trendy venganistas fronting the challenges of global warming, and the carbon footprint of the 21st century, I had become rather conscious of how much 'fuel' was required in the tank for a decent sounding system - hence a move towards class D/energy efficient products over the last 12-18 months. When we buy anything; kettle/washing machines/TV etc, one of the first elements of the spec I look for is the power usage....

How many PFM'er look at this as a prerequisite when selecting new kit, and if the majority do/will do, do you think this will naturally guide the market and future production directives to low energy products?

Or have I become my dad, you know.... the guy who walks around the house, hands behind his back switching all the lights off, tutting and mumbling on about energy bills.
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How did he switch the lights off with his hands behind his back? Or don't we want to know? o_O
 
For example in my electricity bill actuall electricity is less than half. Cutting it down by few percent will not change much anyway. Things like transfer fee, vat, fee for connection capacity takes bigest part of bill.
 
I did my bit when I got rid of Naim amplification that needed a power supply on 24/7. I moved to Linn amps as I replaced the Naim with x4 LK100 that were amazing at topping up the heat in a room but now I use new Linn Magik amps that have a more frugal power supply and they even go to sleep themselves saving me the bother to do even switch them off.
 
Junk mail is the major waste that really bugs me! It should be banned. I reckon I get on average about 12 items a week through my letterbox. It all goes in the bin without being looked at. Take away food leaflets are the single biggest culprit but there's also loads of others... specsavers, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, double glazing, estate agents, charity appeals plus others make up the rest. There's also about 2-3 large plastic bags for clothes to be given to charity on top of that... FFS how much old clothing do they think people have stashed when they are being asked to hand them over up to 3 times a week!? "yep I've found yet another bin bag full in the 3 days since I last gave you a bin bag full.... come back in a week and there will be another 2 bin bags full" NOT! At least they do as... bin bags!

The paper, the energy used in printing them, the transport costs of the raw materials and the distribution of the finished leaflets must add up to loads of money!
 
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