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Should There be Energy Efficiency Rules for Amplifiers?

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Ron Texas

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Unless you are living in a cave, you have probably noticed that a bunch of energy efficiency rules were just proposed in the US. These cover, motor vehicles, lightbulbs, gas furnaces and gas cooking appliances among other things. Climate, health and air pollution benefits are claimed for these proposed rules.

Should there be a similar rule for audio power amplifies? There is a huge difference between Class D or similar designs and everything else. Class A and tube amps generate enormous amounts of heat compared to efficient designs. Even class AB doesn't look so good in this respect. In keeping with the current trend of aiming to maximize energy efficiency the rule would likely only allow the sale of Class D and similar designs.

Along these lines, should the most inefficient speaker designs be banned as well? Offhand the one which comes to mind is Magnepan, but there are probably others.
 

solderdude

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Use toobs and class-A in the winter (and maybe the heater can be set a tad lower) and use class-D in the summer.
One could even dial the bass down and add a bit of upper mids to the sound in the summer and enjoy a 'colder' sound signature.:facepalm:
In the spring and fall one could opt to drag the old class AB out.
 

Count Arthur

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All the chart toppers measured on this site are Class D or SMPS powerd amps, so given that there isn't a sonic penalty, I don't see why we couldn't phase out the production of new inneficient amps, while allowing people to keep and maintain their existing ones, rather like vintage cars and motorcycles.

I dare say that globally, the energy used and pollution caused by a few inneficient audio amps is trifling compared to industry, transport, agriculture, etc., but it all adds up.
 
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RayDunzl

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Make rule, grandfather me in.

My "big" Class A (ish) amps:

About .25kWh for an hour of moderate musical enjoyment, when not using the less enjoyable 0.01kWh JBL daily drivers.

Tesla Model 3, about .25kWh per minute (?) for moderate cruising around enjoyment.

I save 60x energy by not going anywhere.

Does that count?

Let's give everybody an Energy Credit to be used as they like, until you used it all up (no rollover just to be mean), hopefully not by the 22nd of the month.
 

RayDunzl

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Old: "Put a motor in it".

NewAge: "Put a meter on it."

I vote to reduce population as the most logical Conservation measure.

I can't remember any discomfort while waiting to be conceived.

Ain't gonna happen.
 

Lambda

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I vote to reduce population as the most logical Conservation measure.
Good Luck with that!
Maybe in 10-25 years Machine learning will come to the same conclusion and help with this.

aiming to maximize energy efficiency the rule would likely only allow the sale of Class D and similar designs.
For an amplifier efficiency is not as imprtend as low load or standy consumption.

How long and how loud is the average Joe listening?
Most of the time even if its on the Amp will be at verry low load.
 

Willem

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The EU does not yet have energy efficiency mandates for audio gear other than I think a rule about standby power, but it does for televisions, washing machines, lights, etc. Individualy, not all of these will make much of a difference, but added up they will make a small difference. As was said, rules on auto off/standby probably make most difference. When I started investigating our electricity consumption the 24/7 stuff stood out.
We recently replaced our gas cooker with an electrical induction one. We are currently paying quite a connection charge for natural gas, and once we will have replaced the gas boiler with a heat pump the cooker would be the only gas applianace left, so it is financially attractive to make the switch and disconnect from the gas completely. I can only say we are very pleased. An induction stove is easy to control, easier to clean, and obviously improves the indoor air quality. You can smell the improvement, and from measurements by health authorities the reduction in carcinogenic small particle emissions is significant. This really is a public health no brainer.
 
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Keith_W

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Do you like living in a nanny state where the government regulates every aspect of your life? There is a saying in Australia to describe that particular philosophy - "if it's not banned, it's compulsory!". There is a certain economic cost that comes with reducing freedoms, over-regulation, and increasing red tape (and therefore increasing armies of bureaucrats). And it's not as if every household in the USA has a massive 300W Class A amp wasting 95% of its energy as heat. People who use such amps are very few in number. Do you think it is a good idea to introduce new legislation to ban a fringe activity with minimal harm to the environment? How much carbon do you think you will abate by doing this, compared to creating even more useless bureaucratic jobs to enforce the ban?
 

Mr. Widget

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Unless you are living in a cave, you have probably noticed that a bunch of energy efficiency rules were just proposed in the US. These cover, motor vehicles, lightbulbs, gas furnaces and gas cooking appliances among other things. Climate, health and air pollution benefits are claimed for these proposed rules.

Should there be a similar rule for audio power amplifies? There is a huge difference between Class D or similar designs and everything else. Class A and tube amps generate enormous amounts of heat compared to efficient designs. Even class AB doesn't look so good in this respect. In keeping with the current trend of aiming to maximize energy efficiency the rule would likely only allow the sale of Class D and similar designs.

Along these lines, should the most inefficient speaker designs be banned as well? Offhand the one which comes to mind is Magnepan, but there are probably others.
The EU did that with TVs. We lost plasma, but gained OLED... personally I am glad we got rid of those heavy heat producing TVs, but should it be forced on us? I'd rather it was not.

That said, lightbulbs, cars, and to an extent TVs are ubiquitous. High energy consuming amplifiers are only found in the homes of a few of us oddballs. Due to their relative rarity, it doesn't make sense to regulate them. In the commercial world where tens of thousands of watts of amplification are required, the lightweight, reliability, and energy efficiency of class D has been widely accepted and embraced.
 

pjug

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The EU does not yet have energy efficiency mandates for audio gear other than I think a rule about standby power
Is the standby rule enforced at all? It seems easy enough to find EU sites selling amplifiers without a standby feature.
 

sergeauckland

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I don't see anything wrong with running Class A or valve amplifiers when the central heating is on as the heat they generate helps towards reducing gas consumption and hence CO2 emissions. Electricity largely from renewables has a much lower CO2 footprint than gas.

However, when the heating is off, then valve or Class A amplifiers shouldn't be used, and especially not if aircon is running in summer, as that's doubly wasteful.

So, the environmentally sensitive HiFi enthusiast should have dual sets of equipment, Valve or Class A for when the heating is on, and Class D when it's off.

Simple really. Why don't our politicians take note, I wonder.

S.
 

Willem

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Do you like living in a nanny state where the government regulates every aspect of your life?
Not every aspect, but some aspects most certainly, and energy conservation is an important objective. So in the EU sales of filament lights have been banned for anything other than a very small number of use cases, and fluorescent lights will go the same way. This is important because lights are on precisely when solar energy production is low.
 

MRC01

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Make rule, grandfather me in.

My "big" Class A (ish) amps:

About .25kWh for an hour of moderate musical enjoyment, when not using the less enjoyable 0.01kWh JBL daily drivers.

Tesla Model 3, about .25kWh per minute (?) for moderate cruising around enjoyment.

I save 60x energy by not going anywhere.

Does that count?

Let's give everybody an Energy Credit to be used as they like, until you used it all up (no rollover just to be mean), hopefully not by the 22nd of the month.
Energy billing is supposed to encourage saving, especially with the same amount of energy costing progressively more as your usage increases.
In this sense, the heaviest energy users are making the biggest investment in energy infrastructure becoming cleaner every year.
Given this, let each person decide for himself how he wants to use energy.
 

Willem

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How much carbon do you think you will abate by doing this, compared to creating even more useless bureaucratic jobs to enforce the ban?
It would not add significantly if at all to the bureaucratic load since there are already health and safety standards for electronic gear. Just look into the box and see the current certification document.
 

fpitas

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They'll take my J2 from my cold, dead hands!

/Well, unless it breaks. Then I'll get a class D replacement
 
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