Apparent power consumption of whole audio system during daily audio listening sessions: how SDGs-friendly is it? (not the idle power, please.)

[Willem]

I guess I could have measured idle power consumption, but I did not. I do not leave the system on when I am not playing music, unless I forget. But clearly the Quad 606-2's consumption when not playing any music is a bit higher than the subs' joint consumption when playing organ music. And it does get hot to the touch- it is an older design. I did not test sleep mode consumption either. I expect it to be much lower again, but of course that would be 24/7. For this, there are now European directives.

 

[Willem]

I did a long video conference yesterday evening using my wife's old but powerful computer, measuring the combined electricity consumption of two largish monitors and the actual computer: mostly just over 200 watts, with occasional peaks above 250 watt. I left the system on during the night, and the combined sleep mode consumption of the computer and the two monitors is about 8 watt, so well above the current mandatory EU standard. The technical difference with current low power systems is quite significant, but economically it does not warrant replacing the system if there are no other reasons to do so. Given her use of the computer, we could save perhaps a hundred kWh a year, or 25 euros at current energy prices. In her case, the system is old enough to soon run out of Windows support, so that will be the clinching argument, and not the electricity consumption. Equally, when we buy her a new computer, we will try to benefit from modern far more frugal systems.
This reflects our experience with many energy saving measures that we have taken, both in terms of home insulation and the heating system, and with electrical equipment of one kind or another. Replacing existing and still functional things rarely makes financial sense, but paying close attention if and when something has to be replaced in any case does.