Diane had a dentist’s appointment this morning and I took advantage of her absence to do something that was likely to be annoying if she had been home.
I decided to test the power consumption of the various devices in our A/V rack – both while they were running and when they were in standby. That required me to keep turning things off and on and plugging and unplugging them and having them make noises, something best done in solitude.
I was surprised at the results.
| Device | Standby Power | Active Power |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 Boston Subwoofer | 15 | 18 |
| 2009 Sony LCD TV | 0 | 200 |
| 2009 Sony Blu-Ray Player | 0 | 11 |
| 2011 Denon Receiver | 2 | 45 |
| 2015 TiVo Roamio | 15 | 24 |
I expected everything to draw a lot more power when it was in standby, but it looks like the subwoofer is the only thing worth unplugging when we’re away (and the TiVo if we don’t plan to record anything).
I had the audio gear at the level we usually listen at – it would take a lot more power if I turned it up, of course.
I did a little research and found that a modern LED TV would use only about 25% of the power that ours needs – we would save dozens of dollars over the course of a year. That might not be a winning argument!