pass lab owners: can i afford one?

Don't know about straight class A, but on Pass class A/B amps (e.g., X150.5 etc) there is a standby switch. On standby, which is all the time that you're not using the amp, the current draw is "only a few watts", as advised by Pass . Cost is minimal.

I own the XA160.5's. They are fully powered up about 4 hours/day or 100 hours a month. My bill went up about 25% or $20 per month. I consider this a small price for the sonic benefits of class A amplification.

How do you notice any difference in the cost, with electricity bills rising so fast anyway? At least in the UK, utility bills seem to rise every month. Many amps draw a lot of juice, particularly tube amps. My Tube SET draws 250 watts at rest. I think it is just the price you have to pay for good sound. If you worry about it, get a 70watt Nad integrated.
I do think the idea of running Class A amps 24/7, is frankly insane, particularly with the increasing cost to the environment of accessing that energy, ask anyone living on the Gulf Coast at the moment. I used an Aleph 3 for a few years and found it got on song in about 30 minutes

They key to this question is do you leave them on 24 hours a day and 7 days a week?

I don't think saying "my electric bill went up xx%" is the best way to put it. If your bill was $20 and AP (After Pass) it's $40 then it went up 100%. If your bill was 200 and AP it's 220, then it only went up 10%.

Going with hard facts, my 100.5' monos draw 300 watts each (600 total) from the wall. Our electricity costs 13 cents per Kilowatt hour. 600 watts times 5 hours equals 3000 watts or 3 kilowatts, so it costs me 39 cents to run it 5 hours. "If" I did that every day for a month, it would cost me $12 a month. Worst case of leaving it on 24/7: 720 hrs in a month X 600 = 432000 watts or 432 kw which would cost me $56 a month. Some parts of the country could easily be twice that depending on how much you pay per kw hour.

The great thing about Nelsons newest amps is that their standby switch keeps the caps charged while only drawing a few watts. (figures to about 93 cents a month for me to leave them in standy the whole time). With the caps charged you only have to flip the switch and start listening. The warm up is painless. It sounds good right away, better after 30 minutes and best after an hour.

The Pass website shows the different wattage draws for their various amps. Pick one, find out how much you pay for electricity and do the math. To me it's worth it for the sound quality, and I don't think it's anti-green if you are smart about it and don't obsess about 24/7.