I have a system incorporating a Nac272/XPS and NAP DR300. I currently leave it switched on standby 24/7. As energy rates are set to double in a couple of months here in the UK I’m wondering what impact it’s having on my bills.
I’m guessing I could do the math on the rating for the power amp or just check my meter (not so easy as its in a locked unit on the other side of the complex).
But before I do, does anyone have any info on how much the convenience of always on may be costing?
The manual contains the consumption, here it is for the 300:
I suppose you will find it in the 272 manual as well.
The VA value is equivalent to Watts. The year has 8760 hours, so 27 Watts idle consumption is 236.52 kWh per year
Don’t go by the manual. That’s instantaneous consumption. The numbers won’t add up right. Get a wattmeter for $20, program in your average cost per Kwh and stick it on the system.
You’ll find that for a bunch of boxes the usage is negligable and cost very little compated to heating etc. I went around with a wattmeter just this week after an astronomical bill. The stereo on standby was about 5 watts and cost about $12 (non Naim and I’m Japan).
Conversely heating in winter here was 1.8Kw!! and costing about $6k a year!! Blasted rented apartment with only AC heating and poor insulation.
My Naim sydtem is in storage but the last time I checked, it was about 40w idle for the SCdr, XPSdr, 250dr and HCdr combined if memory serves. Going by other things in the house around that, that costs about $140 a year ish. A fault due to repeated power cycles would cost more than 10 times that to resolve and the carbon foitprint of shipping and spare parts manufacture would be far more than the carbon footprint of keeping it powered on.
My heavy hitters were heating, washer, dryer, and TV. Everything else was fractional. LED lighting so small as the be nothing more than a rounding error difference if all powered on 24/7 or all off.
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As mentioned, power meters are a great way to check what you are spending. Below are some of my workings for different Naim kit. As you will see I ditched the old inside freezer (on freecycle) and got a new one, to save £66pa. Helps a little against the £100pa cost for the HiFi usage.
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Was this really necessary Suedkiez….?! 
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Ok, I always went with manual information for all my gear, Naim or not, and the idle power was always approximately correct. I guess a meter is better but I note that @GadgetMan’s meter result is close enough compared to the result based on the manual
~6.50 euros per month, not killing me 
Its an interesting topic energy consumption at the moment and a good idea to minimise energy use. I pondered turning the Naim kit off fleetingly, but Naim recommend leaving on and if turning on and off leads to a component failure…….it could be a long wait to get an expensive repair/service.
Hi Suedkiez, it can’t take many halogen down lighters to make up for the Naim boxes’ consumption. We are lucky only to Led bulbs here at 4 watts a pop. Makes me feel better leaving the boxes on 
ATB Peter
It is a complicated decision. Of course energy consumption should be minimized for other reasons than money, but it’s always personal as well. In my case, I have used the bike to get to work for decades, I travel very little and barely ever fly, I’ve minimized other consumption in my household otherwise, and so on. So I’m granting myself this one indulgence without too much of a bad conscience.
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I had thought about turning the 135s off but when I remembered that a Cappuccino and a Latte at a local coffee establishment cost me £6.50iirc for a very short-term pleasure, as it were, the cost of keeping the system powered up is quite reasonable, particularly given my hifi and related expenditure in 2020 and 2021 which was five figures to the left of the decimal point.
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Thanks for the help guys. The power meter gadget sounds perfect, not just for the Naim gear but also some oil radiators I suspect are driving the bills up.
I’d be interested to see your findings. I have a 2KW oil radiator, but the overall heat it gives out I suspect is nearer 1-1.5KW. So they heat up quickly at 2KW, but then forever go into off-on-off-on mode as dictated by the thermostat. Not necessarily an issue, just don’t expect a 2KW oil radiator to give out 2KW’s of heat.
Whenever we have a high heating bill certain eyes fall on the hi fi. A quick bit of measurement against the Duellit toaster and the kettle soon ended that discussion.
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I think if you can afford to buy naim kit in the first place then you will not be worried about the fact it costs you £100 a year in electricity to keep it switched on all the time.
Do drivers of Ferraris complain about the cost of petrol?
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No, but the AA/RAC do 
Spot on, 100%. Which is why I raised the consideration of product longevity changes due to power cycles and the knock on footprint that has for repairs/replacement of a simple unit just blowing the footprint of the whole system being powered on out of the water.
But in general, there’s really no point crusading. Everyone makes cuts in their own way to the best of their ability. Rather than saying, “everyone should cut 20%” or some arbitrary number like that, we should be saying “everyone should cut what they reasonably can”. You’ll find some households can slash waste energy by 50% and others by 5%. But overall as a collective, the saving is large.
I try and go for energy efficiency rather than conservation. The difference is important.
- Efficiency: less input for the same output.
- Conservation: less input but also less output.
So yeah I leave my Naim on 24/7 and for work a rack of servers that suck 200w 24/7 that can’t be helped. But without really careful efficiency tuning that could have easily been 1.5Kw (efficiency). My wife and I walk or cycle or take public transport and we’ve never owned a car (conservation) - and that takes some doing where we live.
Basically, if you are doing what you can, I’d not beat yourself up about leaving the hifi on.
As for wattmeters, you’d be surprised what they dig up. Like my fridge is rated as 50w full or 5w idling. But Over 24hrs, I found that it really only peaks at 45w when the compressor kicks in and idles at 9w and averages 12w in 24hrs. The other myth the meter busted was that wallwart charger myth. They waste no energy when not charging. Absolutely zero consumption for anything made in the last 20 years. So anyone switching them off at the wall or unplugging them when not in use, is wasting their time. The data on how much they waste idling over a year is woefully out of date based on the worst models from a bygone age I expect.
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I recently started turning all my Naim system (8 boxes, 4 PSUs) off at night, and I turn them on again late in the afternoon an hour or so before I use it to play records, etc. Honestly, I have noticed no negative effect on sound quality, so it seems to me at least that the 24/7 thing for best sound may be a bit of a stretch.
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That is an oft trotted out but completely meaningless argument. The fact of money possibly saved over a long time and spent with careful budgeting doesn’t mean someone can afford to throw money away - especially as they get older, and perhaps retire etc.
And these days there are reasons other than just money for minimising energy consumption - though of course we all make our choices, living as we do in an affluent society and having become accustomed to various luxuries.
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I agree. I did everything I could to get to where I want to be with Naim kit before I retire. Now I am in the position where I only need to spend on maintenance (recaps, cartridge retips, etc) and don’t expect to purchase any gear. Once my income is based on selling retirement investments, saving energy cost vs unnecessary waste of energy will be welcome, not to mention it does the environment better, even if just a tiny bit.
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