power consumption

The rating plate or handbook for each item of your equipment should give you a figure for maximum power consumption in watts. Take this figure and divide it by 1000 and this will give you the KilowattHour consumption for that item. Multiply it by the time (in whole hours or fraction of) each item of equipment is switched on for and this will give you the total consumption. Depending upon what unit of measurement your electric utility bills you in you can work out the cost of your electricity for each item. For example, if your utility bills you in "units" (where 1 unit equals 1,000 watts used in 1 hour) then say an amplifier that consumes at full rating 400 watts and is operated for 3 hours would use 400 x 3 = 1.2 KwH or 1.2 "units" of electricity. Another example: if an amp uses 1200 watts then in one hour it would use 1.2 KwH or 1.2 "units". In BTU's 1KwH (or 1 unit) equals 3,410 BTU's. Hope none of this has confused you even more...? Hope it helps, regards, Richard

Thanks Richard and Craig. To follow up, Yes I did understand everything Richard.
Now, for the better worded and more to the point question.

Does the system use more watts when it is off as opposed to actually playing and how can I find out the energy consumption when it is simply on and warm as opposed to playing and hot?

Thanks, jd

Pull the outlet out of the wall. With all your stuff on standby clamp a amp meter around the hot. This will give you your load in amperes. amps x volts = watts or amps x 120(volts)= consumed power. Richards post will do the rest. Then turn it all on crank it up and see what you've got. I'll guess twice as much power consumed. You know I own an amp meter maybe I should run a test and report the findings.

Whether the amp uses more power when playing or idling is dependent on the technology of the amp. A typical "Class A" (not to be confused with a Stereophile "A" rated) amp will use as much power idling as playing at low to medium volumes. If the amp has a standby switch, the standby mode should reduce power consumption to a very small amount. If the amp has an on/off switch, that should reduce the power consumption to nothing. If this info isn't in the manual or on the back of the unit, you'll have to get it from the mfgr, or measure it as mentioned above. To throw in a little more technicality, you'd have to use a Watt meter to get the most accurate measurement (due to phase angle), but measuring the current (amps) will get you in the ballpark.

Mrowlands: Good point. I use a Musical Fidelity X-A1 integrated amp in a guest bedroom system (also where we keep the computer) and it idles in Class A, though it switches to Class A/B at 3-5 watts output. I now turn this amp off (when not in use) even though it does not sound as good this way in order to conserve energy (we live in the LA area). I did keep this amp on 7/24 for approx. six weeks to burn in various cables and this practice was very evident on our power bills. We do not use air conditioning and such and our electrical usage is generaly the same each month. Around January we started using night lights (instead of keeping the kitchen light on at night and such) and also turn the computer off each evening, when we go to sleep. These are little things that all add up. I do leave all of the digital components on 7/24 as I feel like I have wasted my investment when I listen to them cold, but they seem to draw very little current and the amp in the main system is tube, which gets turned off when it will not be used for a couple of hours or so (I also have somewhat of a set listening schedule based on my wife's activities and both of us are home most of the time). In the good old days everything was left powered up 7/24. Anyway, other than just worrying about the gear I recommend that all power usage be given a look at which includes reajusting the wattage of incandescent light bulbs being used in various locations and anything else that can be thought of. Most flourescent fixtures use as much energy starting up each time as they do running for 4-6 hours (study done by the Des Moines, IA school district in the 60's, as I recall).