Using electricity isn't a sin.
How many monthly kilowatt hours, including hi-fi, do you use?
I’m proud to say my monthly kilowatt usage is approximately 400 kWh and rises to 450 or so in the summer with air conditioning. Each night use about 4 kwh for my audio gear which includes 30 tubes mostly in amplifiers. Yes this is the worst of my sins using a tube amplifier.
Curious if you know how much you use and if so how much is it?
I’m a big proponent of conserving electricity to help out the planet.
27 responses Add your response
That's a lot of electricity. I would guess a lot of it relates to the pool. I saw your audio space and my gosh there's a lot going on here. And I bet it's really really quiet in the desert to appreciate everything. I see you also like cats. So I'm gonna spend some time carefully reviewing all that you've done with your system and looking forward to learning a lot. Thanks for sharing |
Approx. 250 kWh/month (2 bed/bath apartment billed on Southern California Edison). A/C in the living room will bump it up in a few months (run it 4-5 hours on hot days). I'm down to a few dozen incandescent bulbs and will try more efficient types soon (did not care for the light quality of the early versions so hopefully this has improved over the years). Energy usage/conservation is an important issue in California just as it is world wide.
DeKay
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Actually, the pool accounts for only about 10% of my electrical demand since I switched my main pump to a variable speed model, but it's still a 3HP unit, so power hungry at full speed. (There's a separate 1.5HP single speed pump for the water effects, but we only run that one when we're using the pool. Yeah, there's a lot going on with my system, which is set up as a playback studio. The total RMS power capability of all the amps comes up to about 7.5KW, but I use about 10% of that most of the time. Still there's some power dissipated as heat. The house's primary power demand comes from the two large air conditioners, a 4-ton and a 3.5-ton, that run basically all year round. Budget billing lands at $375/ month every month. ☹ Fortunately, power generation here is mostly from the Palo Verde nuclear plant, plus some hydro-electric from Lake Mead. 😊 |
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@emergingsoul blue states are always more pricey. I figured I either need to "run for office" or become homeless, because being working taxpayer in blue states is definitely the worst. |
@czarivey Not to sideline or make this political, but that’s not completely true. Less populated “blue” states (think Colorado, New Hampshire, etc.) have income tax rates that are comparable to “red” states. Higher tax rates are generally more highly correlated to population than to political leanings although there are a few exceptions. Interestingly, four of the five states with the highest sales tax rates are deep red states — for example, Tennessee’s sales tax at 9.55% is 45% higher than New Jersey at 6.6%. Anyway, not all blue states are more pricey is the point here. |
Go for income tax. Sales tax isn’t that of a big deal. Blue states are really cost prohibitive there. To NJ also add some draconic tolls on the roads you’re riding and highest property taxes that are also cost prohibitive + draconic insurance rates it all goes to the "office" deep pockets with lil-to nothing remaining for others. TN is still a lot cheaper than any of blue states overall you pick. So all blue states are a lot pricier than any of red states factually. Math is more important than politics. |
@czarivey No, not all blue states in terms of math. I’m not gonna post the numbers here because it’s not the place, but there are several rural blue states that are comparable in overall cost to red states. Not every blue state is New York or California, and saying all blue states are a lot pricier than all red states is just flat out wrong. I’ll just give one example but there are more — New Hampshire that voted Democrat in last five presidential elections spanning 20 years has 0% income and sales tax that are lower than most red states. If you put politics aside and just go look at the numbers this is easy to see. |
I think $.20 per kilowatt hour is not so bad. I think us audio people should be more sympathetic and not leave our equipment on all the time. I turn on all my tubes about an hour before and they run for about 4 to 5 hours and then they go to sleep when I do. Otherwise, I loath incandescent bulbs and think they have no place in your home and are grossly wasteful. And while many in the audiophile world may be a very wealthy nature I think we all should be concerned about Energy use.
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I have no idea what percent of my electric bill is because of my equipment, nor do I particularly care. The system is always on. The mono blocks draw 75 watts each, when they are on standby and the preamp is maybe 25. The DAC and streamer are on 24/7 maybe 25 watts each. The CD transport uses about 10 watts, And the power conditioner uses a watt or two. So I’m using say 250 watts when the system is at idle and add 1500-1700 watts if I crank it when I’m rocking out. |
I average 1100 kWh per month but my out-of-pocket cost is less than $100. I have a large solar panel array and a large geothermal heat pump with coils submerged in a pond. Grid electricity is provided by a nuclear power station. Oh, and my Gan1 amp uses next to nothing. I did all that because it made good economic and audio sense, not to save the planet or signal my virtue. In fact, I'm conservative and don't believe there is a climate crisis. |
I own an EV and drive about 6,000 miles per year. Some stats on my electrical usage: |
