[JeffGrimes]

has anyone who recently upgraded their receiver or amplifier noticed a change in ther Electric bill.


Our viewing hasn't changed...but going from an Onkyo 575x rated less than 70wpc to the Harman kardon 7200 rated at 100wpc has DOUBLED my monthly electric bill...


Ouch!


Good thing we watch TV in the dark

 

[fatbottom]

Do you leave the amp on 24/7?


Perhaps someone has tapped into your house wiring. Do you have anyHomer-like people in your neighbourhood? :-D

 

[TheDesolateOne]

Double - unless there is something drastically wrong, I can't really see it doubling even with a higher amp..I can't really seeing it drain that much resource from your Electrical supply to actually double your monthly bill...I would take a good serious look at what the problem is!!! Keeping it on all day and night, would not double the bill unless the amp is actually running eg: Music playing full whack, night and day, then again I could be wrong, after all what do I know..lol


Mark

 

[Dennis Gardner]

Sounds like over reading or estimating your usage. My HK 7200 stays on most of the time and I haven't noticed any increase even with my old JVC being left on in a different room. Ask a family member to turn your receiver on and off while you watch your meter to see if you can tell a difference in the amperage pull or wheel speed if you have an old style.


Dennis

 

[DrSpike69]

Even if it the receivers were the ONLY things that you ever used power for I couldn't see it doubling the bill.


I would venture to guess that something else in your house is different than it used to be, not just the receiver.

 

[Yamahaluver]

Even if you are running a tradational pure class A amp on whole day, the amount shoudnt be substantially higher.

 

[jehrico76]

Quote:

Originally posted by JeffGrimes has anyone who recently upgraded their receiver or amplifier noticed a change in ther Electric bill. Our viewing hasn't changed...but going from an Onkyo 575x rated less than 70wpc to the Harman kardon 7200 rated at 100wpc has DOUBLED my monthly electric bill... Ouch! Good thing we watch TV in the dark

I went from a 100wpc receiver to 500 watt monoblocks, power bill increase was noticable, but negligible (roughly 5-7% increase, or $10, if even that?). Considering the season, did someone else in your house hook up a little electric space heater without you knowing? Now those things will draw some extra juice.

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

ok what crap is this.... an amp will only draw as much current as it needs.....so unless you are running that amp full power 24/7 you sould not see an increase of 100% in your electric bill

 

[rich wu]

Our electric bill increased by about 40% after adding 2 plasma displays. It was even higher when one of the plasma was powered through a PS Audio P600 power regenerator.

 

[Larry Fine]

Any of you with the big bills notice it coincided with the onset of winter, and you have heat-pumps and/or electric heat? Own a hot-tub? I have extreme doubts that an amplifier would cause even a 2% increase in electrical costs.

 

[dirk1843]

I have heard that plasmas are very power hungry..................


I too once recived one of those "double" electric bills..............


Never knew why, but the next month was normal

 

[MrMcGoo]

My bill went way up, but it was minus 22 degrees for a few nights. The heat from the amps acts as a space heater.


Bill

 

[jehrico76]

Quote:

Originally posted by MrMcGoo My bill went way up, but it was minus 22 degrees for a few nights. The heat from the amps acts as a space heater. Bill

LOL. If you have to crowd some piece of electronics to keep warm, I guess it may as well be a sweet sounding amp, eh?

 

[Swampfox]

Quote:

Originally posted by JeffGrimes has anyone who recently upgraded their receiver or amplifier noticed a change in ther Electric bill. Our viewing hasn't changed...but going from an Onkyo 575x rated less than 70wpc to the Harman kardon 7200 rated at 100wpc has DOUBLED my monthly electric bill... Ouch! Good thing we watch TV in the dark

Perhaps the record low temperatures have something to do with your energy usage.

 

[Az Barber]

Quote:

Originally posted by MrMcGoo My bill went way up, but it was minus 22 degrees for a few nights. The heat from the amps acts as a space heater. Bill

Get a dog, it will far safer than sleeping with amps.

 

[JeffGrimes]

Purchased the receiver in June. Cold temperatures were NOT a factor. gas heat anyway...


Air conditioning played into that as well, I'm sure...I'll go do a month/month plot. Seeing if It came back down after A/C season.


I just remember looking at it in Spetember and going holy cow...July was double...but it wasn't that hot.


Great interest in this...more to come

 

[lespurgeon]

You must have gotten the 1500 Watt space heater package rather than the music package (warm sound?). No, this makes no sense to me either.

 

[Cliff Olson]

Wow. I've gone from a 27" tube TV to a 65" RPTV, and also from 875w to 1300w, and I've noticed no change whatsoever...

 

[Dave Milne]

Do the math, for gosh sakes.


A 100 wpc amp probably idles at about 50w (depending on bias point) and consumes maybe 400w at full sail. Take an average of 200w (actually, this is very high considering the 10:1 peak:average ratio in music). This is 0.2kw or 0.2 kwh every hour. Electric rates in most of country are about $0.10 per kwh.


So, the amp will cost you about two cents per hour to operate. If you run it 10 hours per day, that's 20 cents per day... or about $6.00 per month.


Any change in the bill greater than that is due to something else.

 

[Swampfox]

Quote:

Originally posted by JeffGrimes Purchased the receiver in June. Cold temperatures were NOT a factor. gas heat anyway... Air conditioning played into that as well, I'm sure...I'll go do a month/month plot. Seeing if It came back down after A/C season. I just remember looking at it in Spetember and going holy cow...July was double...but it wasn't that hot. Great interest in this...more to come

It comparing seasonal energy usage you need to compare similar cycles. So you need to look at July 03 vs July 02, and compare kilowatt hours not dollars.