advertisement


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

No.
I have no idea how much electricity my HiFi uses, probably not that much as it ain’t that fancy.

No tumble-dryer though.
 
We were well on our way to carbon neutral before the volcanoes in Spain and Tonga blew. Now we gotta eat bugs and fake meat for 35 years to offset that
 
Is it just me or is this a ridiculous thread?

If there is a problem, it is not the use of power hungry gadgets but the use of gadgets, period. Hi-Fi is a non-essential luxury item so if you actually care about polar bears the solution is not an energy efficient Hi-Fi but no Hi-Fi at all. If you really cared and believed it mattered you'd get rid of the gadgets instead of pretending you're pure because your gadgets use a little less power than they might.

Me? I leave my system on 24/7, polar bears can swim.

So you go all the way, or you do nothing at all? If you decide to drive a car, drive a V12! If you want to live in a house, don’t isolate! I could go on, but you probably get my point. I think this isn’t your best post Mr Pig…
 
I wonder what proportion power consumption differences between components are compared to the carbon cost of making them?

Perhaps all new goods should come with an embodied energy rating (how much carbon it cost to extract, refine, manufacture and transport) That could start to strengthen the case for repair and reliability.
 
Last edited:
So you go all the way, or you do nothing at all?

Not exactly but our Western lifestyles are built on excessive and unsustainable consumption, of everything really. Energy, resources, food, everything. But we like our lifestyles and do not want to give them up so to make ourselves feel better we engage in this...bullshit about energy saving electrical goods. It's total hypocrisy.
 
Yet again a thread on doing better with less ends up heading towards the puritanical vs realist poles.

So to diffuse that tendency - here's a good one to think about, that some might have a little play at without thinking, and that is criminally under-reported for its near complete dreadful waste: crypto currencies, esp Bitcoin.

The proof-of-work in one blockchain transaction for Bitcoin currently requires 1500KwH.


Read that figure again; it came from the FT, and is one I have seen approximated elsewhere. It is about an average modest UK household entire annual electrical consumption. But because it is externalised, a bit of fun with a spare hundred quid - no-one thinks about such , in those terms.

my point:
Mithering about a 10w vs a 30w idle for the time in use, for a thing that brings you past-time pleasure is abject bobbins in comparison to the simple measures we can all take elsewhere in all our lives. More efficient lighting, weather compensation sensor for your boiler, walk the mile and a half into town, all that good stuff. Don't ever let 'better' be the enemy of the good.
 
A friend of mine runs four Nakamichi PA-7's into active Kabers... an afternoons listening equates to a couple of quid on the meter.
 
Not exactly but our Western lifestyles are built on excessive and unsustainable consumption, of everything really. Energy, resources, food, everything. But we like our lifestyles and do not want to give them up so to make ourselves feel better we engage in this...bullshit about energy saving electrical goods. It's total hypocrisy.

I do agree with that. It seems that most of the environmental effort is geared towards finding ways of allowing us to carry on exactly as we did before. Then to appease our conscience, we sign up for 100% renewable energy and say we've done our bit. So much more could be done if we were all to make a combined effort, but the worse offenders always seem to hold the trump card when it comes to voting for change.

@Mr Pig I don't agree with your tongue in cheek comment about the poor Polar Bear though! Habitat destruction of any kind is a threat to life on Earth. Governments can make the biggest changes, but we should all be prepared to make fundamental changes to our way of life.

Music brings such a lot of pleasure to me and I would hate to be without it. I don't know what the consumption of my modest active Kans set up is tbh and I do commit the sin of leaving it on 24/7. Would I pick hi-fi equipment based on it's energy consumption? No, I doubt it tbh. As it is, I don't run valve or class A stuff, but now we have a smart meter, I will get around to checking our energy usage.

Obviously if we buy a new appliance, energy efficiency is at the top of the list. Our house is insulated to a high degree, we set the heating to as low as is comfortable and wear a jumper indoors when it's cold. Could we do more? Yes for sure; our recycling bins are always full, so I'd like to do more to cut down waste. I guess for a lot of people though, all of my efforts are nullified by the fact that we have children (adults) and no, I don't regret having them either.

I have made an effort here to cover the issues at hand without side-stepping them and well done to @Cereal Killer for bringing the environmental issues of our hobby to our attention, but I agree with @martin clark , that the pleasure that we get from music reproduction in the home, outweighs to a degree, the relatively small environmental impact that it has. Having said that, the environmental impact of vinyl LP production is horrendous and I'm a big vinyl fan and I'd hate to be without that too!
 
Having said that, the environmental impact of vinyl LP production is horrendous and I'm a big vinyl fan and I'd hate to be without that too!
Is it a lot worse than CDs and cassettes? I imagine quite a few broken jewel cases have ended up in landfill over the years.
 
If one was unable to play music on a home hifi - so all music consumption had to be 'live' and we all travelled to pubs and concert halls for our music fix - how would that compare?

Stupid question and unlikely to be able to make a sensible answer. Depends on whether you banned music on transistor radios for instance, or only included 'proper' hifi systems, or allowed your Grandads Dansette to be used.

The point about comparing hifi energy use to the absolute sin that is Bitcoin - is well made
 
It is something that does cross my mind. After some reflection, I think getting solar panels and battery storage is the way forward.
 
I do consider about energy consumption, but for my hifi usage this is immaterial as I mostly listen near-field and always at fairly low volumes, hence my usage is probably only a few watts and certainly never above 30-40 (given the max power of my amps). That is far less than my computer and monitor. I see no need to switch from A/B to D (did try class D but didn't like the ones I tried).
 
I do consider about energy consumption, but for my hifi usage this is immaterial as I mostly listen near-field and always at fairly low volumes, hence my usage is probably only a few watts and certainly never above 30-40 (given the max power of my amps). That is far less than my computer and monitor. I see no need to switch from A/B to D (did try class D but didn't like the ones I tried).
I don't think listening volumes affects power consumption much. According to my plug-in energy monitor my 100wpc Class A/B amp draws around 70 watts when idle and I haven't been able to make this reading increase even when listening at my loudest levels. Perhaps I'm just not pushing it hard enough!
 
I don't think listening volumes affects power consumption much. According to my plug-in energy monitor my 100wpc Class A/B amp draws around 70 watts when idle and I haven't been able to make this reading increase even when listening at my loudest levels. Perhaps I'm just not pushing it hard enough!
That seems very high.
 


advertisement


Back
Top