Is it expensive to run an 800 watt amp?

[PMAC]

Hello,

I'm planning on buying the Quilter Bassblock 802 amp. 800 watts is more than I need, but it sounds great, is in my price range, and has a headphone jack for silent practicing which I intend to use. I will also be using it for rehearsing with my band and for gigs. The question is, will the amp be consuming the same amount of power as a headphones amp as it would playing loudly with a band? In which case, will using this amp cause my electricity bill to go up over, say, Quilter's 45w dedicated headphones amp? Should I be looking for a 300-400 watt amp instead if I'm worried about power consumption?

Thanks!

Paul

[Jack]

There'll be a small loss due to the inefficiencies of a large power supply idling but the short answer is "no".

Edited April 17, 2020 by Jack

[itu]

If you made a calculation of use and cost, you would be amazed.

If you took into account the amount of power in RMS you are actually using, you would see, that for £1 you can play pretty long time.

Don't worry about the consumption: probably your air conditioner is the bad, when you keep your window open at the same time.

[Steve Browning]

I have wondered along similar lines myself. Does a digital amp use the same amps as a valve amp of the same output, bearing in mind a lot of energy goes into running the valves. Not exactly your question but along similar lines.

[BassmanPaul]

In all the many years I have been playing the thought of how much my amplifier system costs to run has never entered my mind.

Remember that an amplifier does not produce it's rated power all the time - only when pushed that far into a suitable speaker load.

Edited April 17, 2020 by BassmanPaul

[PMAC]

Ok thanks! I think I’ll pull the trigger then on the Quilter. 800 watts is just so... many watts!

[Trueno]

If you have a smart meter you'll soon tell... when I put my kettle on it goes straight to DefCon3.

[goingdownslow]

If you shout loud enough into the speaker can you put electricity back into the grid?

Edited April 17, 2020 by goingdownslow

[BassmanPaul]

2 hours ago, PMAC said:

Ok thanks! I think I’ll pull the trigger then on the Quilter. 800 watts is just so... many watts!

My amplifier consists of a 2KW capable Class D stereo power amp driven by a little tube pre-amp that I designed and built for it. Into the two 4Ω Acme B2 cabinets, one on each channel, that I usually use it delivers a tad over 500W on each channel. Into all four of my cabinets it's the full 2KW.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

5 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

I have wondered along similar lines myself. Does a digital amp use the same amps as a valve amp of the same output, bearing in mind a lot of energy goes into running the valves. Not exactly your question but along similar lines.

Class A valve amps can do double duty as portable room heaters. They're that inefficient. But as to the OPs question the vast majority of the power consumption is linear with respect to output, so if you're running ten watts out of a ten watt amp or ten watts out of a 1kW amp the power meter will be spinning at pretty much the same rate.

[Dan Dare]

This thread has to be a wind up.

[itu]

I am using a Meyer Sound webpage as a reference:

"With real-world signals at high output, the power consumed is about 25 % of this value over long time periods."

This means, that out of that 800 W, the continuous real world high power consumption lies within the ballpark of 200 W.

"in UK the average cost of electricity per kWh is 14.37p", says our dear gloglo.

To consume 14.37 pence (1 kWh) then equals 5 hours of playing - and playing pretty loud, by the way. If you have two rehearsals every week, you may be able to reach that weekly 1 kWh consumption.

£1 is practically 7 times 14.37 p, i.e. you get 7 kWh. With two cancelled rehearsals you play two months for £1.

If you play just one rehearsal every week and you use only half of the potential power of the amp, for £1 you can play 28 weeks, which is seven months.

 

Let's do some practical comparison:

How long can you play with your <1 kW bass amp with the energy you consume weekly, if your one way travel to work is a 10 km drive with that 100 kW engine car (which theoretically consumes only 5 litres / 100 km)?

Do you want to calculate that? Really? OK. Your weekly driving to work and back is 100 km. This 5 litres contains approx. 45 kWh. With that amount of energy you can play your amp for one year after subtracting X-mases and few other holidays from your twice-a-week rehearsal schedule. 

Able to continue playing electric, or do you have to buy a double bass - and a bicycle?