I was doing some energy auditing around the house
and I remembered this thread and someone asking about turning off their subwoofer at night
presumably out of energy consumption concerns (?)
anyway, I connected my SVS 20-39 PC+ subwoofer to this little gizmo that monitors energy use (watts) and energy cost-per month/year (based on EU average electricity rates).
Belkin Energy Saving Insight Energy Cost Monitor: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories
With the subwoofer set to auto-on, receiving no signal from the receiver
it is continuously consuming 12.2 Watts, which would cost £1.08 per month, or £13.14 per year in electricity.
*This doesn't take into account the amount of electricity the subwoofer will use when its receiving a signal from the receiver/amplifier [During movies or music listening]. The £1.08/month or £13.14/year, is just the cost of electricity if the subwoofer is left constantly on stand-by for a whole month/year
without being played.
*Also, when it comes to the Auto-on setting, I found that whether the LED was Red or Green didnt make a difference in electricity consumption. Infact, leaving the subwoofer on the Always-on setting consumed 12.1 Watts which is a negligible difference. I would have thought that on stand-by with the LED lit Red, the subwoofer amplifier would consume very little electricity, but there was no change. For comparison I checked my TV and later my receiver whilst they were both on stand-by
and they both consume under 1 watt of electricity.
All subwoofers arent the same so yours might consume abit more or a lot less during stand-by. But if like me youve found that the subwoofer wasnt being activated/woken up when you were using the receiver (while it was set to Auto-on)
the lesson here is that you could just leave the subwoofer on Always-on and its possible there wont be a power consumption difference.
My subwoofer has the older SVS bash amplifier. According to the SVS website the newer sledge amplifier has a green stand-by mode so its consumption figures might differ. PowerSoundAudio also note on their website that the amplifier on all their subwoofers consumes less than 1 watt on stand-by.
So there are highly regarded subwoofers out there that are green when on stand-by, if that is high on your list of requirements.
Picture 1: Auto-on, Red LED, 12.2 Watts
Picture 2: Auto-on, Green LED, 12.1 Watts
Picture 3: Always-on, Green LED, 12.1 Watts
Picture 4: Auto-on, Red LED, £1.08 cost/month
Picture 5: Auto-on, Red LED, £13.14 cost/year