Out of interest I thought, with the current energy prices, I would have a go at calculating how much per year it costs me to leave all my Naim kit on standby.
So I purchased a device, on line from Geoff, to measure how many watts each group of equipment was using in standby. I accept that it is not the most accurate bit if measuring equipment coming from China as it does. However for a ball park “wet finger in the air” result it is ok for me.
My main system comprises of SN3+Hicap Dr + NDS+ XPS DR which when all standby uses a total of 65W.
I pay, in round figures, 20p per Kwhr day rate and 12p Kwhr night rate.
So to have it on standby for a year, I calculate comes to £118.44.
My Atom at 14 watts standby comes in at £19.67 per year.
My Mk1 Qb at 3 watts standby comes in at £4.56 per year.
So a total of £142.67 per year.
Needless to say I do not leave anything on standby now. I know this flies in the face of perceived wisdom. However if somebody came up to me once a year and asked if I would like £143 I am unlikely to say no.
So I am putting £12.50 per month aside to pay for any increased servicing needs brought about by turning the equipment off and on. Better in my bank then my energy providers bank.
It’s an interesting one. Driving 12 fewer miles per week would save over £120 per year. So many short journeys made by car could be done by walking or cycling. Turning down the heating by 1.5 degrees would also save £120.
I do hope so. Despite what I said above, it’s pretty inexcusable for manufacturers not to be doing everything possible to save power. I have my NDX2 set to go into standby after an hour and it works really well.
This sounds like the SN3, HC, and XPS are turned on, no? The 65 watts usage would be consistent with that. As far as I can tell, only the NDS in your main system has an actual standby mode
Nowt as queer as folk but I was surprised how small an amount the cost of having Naim products always on that you have calculated.
I have a 300 and 552 PS which I leave on unless I’m on holiday. I had taken to putting my chord DAC and Auralic Aries into their standby modes but there was a good 45 minutes until things sounded okay once turned on and I’m not organised enough to think to turn on 45 min before I’m going to listen.
I’d be more worried about the environmental reasons rather than cost but I rationalise my usage by the units longevity and repairability vs the power needed to create new units.
I was surprised earlier in the year when I was considering upping ship and starting again by the amount of class A power hungry amps that I was being shown.
It’s completely in line with the published idle power usage values and what other people measured in the several other threads we had about this topic, one just recently. So yeah, it makes sense from this point of view.
The cost it creates and energy it wastes is judged differently by everyone. I agree with the part where I’m not going go give myself a headache because of less than 50 euro cents per day. If one uses heating in winter, the waste heat offsets some of these costs.
As for environmental impact, it differs for everyone and their moral judgement. My CO2 impact is very small otherwise, so I am allowing myself this indulgence, and of course I have a power provider who invests my fees into renewable generation. You are of course very correct that a Naim unit that is in use for 2 decades or more, and stays turned on, may well be using less resources than equipment that gets turned off but it’s thrown out every few years.
As for Class A, the usage is obviously high but they don’t stay turned on when idling
I’m surprised your rates per kWhr are so low. I’m now on capped variable as my fixed rate expired. I pay 40p day and pro rata night, so for me it’s actually twice what you calculate. I have an NDS, 555DR, 252, SupercapDR and 250DR. Plus, phono stage, Ethernet switch and turntable power supply.
I’m trying with the system off for a while and looking how my smart meter daily consumption changes.
At the current charges, it’s really not trivial at all
Good to know that your system stabilises after about an hour. That seems reasonable and I can live with that
Contrary to perceived wisdom my gear is always powered down after use as power cuts can happen anytime not just during storms. As to the cost of keeping gear on standby it’s not really possible to calculate is it ?
As I have a smart meter so daily readings online, I’m going to average night time consumption before and after switching it all off for a week or so… it should give a good indication of consumption.
If we are talking monetary cost, it’s perfectly possible. Either use the published consumption numbers in the specs if you don’t need precise numbers to the penny, or buy a cheap meter that you can plug between device and wall socket, which shows you the consumption. Add up the consumed watts, multiply by the number of hours per day, divide by 1000, and you have the kWh per day. Multiply with the price in your contract.
Lots of stuff including measurements and calculations here:
So, the moral in that is to do those things, together with turning off gear instead of leaving on standby and the combined saving (of both money and energy, and associated pollution) really starts to add up.
Of course, some of us already avoid driving except for journeys not possible by any other means, otherwise opting to cycle or walk as whenever possible, and have invested in a high level of home insulation reducing the cost of the last 1.5 degrees to which they heat their homes to probably considerably less than £120. No doubt there are people who, as the weather gets colder, wear thermal underwear and thick jumpers to avoid putting the heating on until necessary, and only heating to such temperature as sufficient to be comfortable in their homes. For these people saving standby costs is a greater percentage of their potential to save.
That is the same fallacy as saying if you can afford to buy an exotic car you don’t need to worry about the cost of running it.
Some with very expensive systems may have bought it using only a fraction of disposable income, or perhaps with more limited means may have only been able to afford an item a year, upgrading regularly to get where they are, usually buying new, but still have a good amount of disposable income. However, others will have saved for long periods to get to the system of their dreams, avoiding expenditure on anything non-essential to do that, and only buying secondhand for best value, with every penny making a difference.