Hi-fi carbon footprints

Just an idle thought, really ...

I was wondering what the "carbon footprint" of the average Hi-fi setup might be.

And would it be greatly affected by, say, the efficiency of your speakers?

 

Indirectly, I suppose; less efficient speakers = more powerful amps = more carbon fuel used.

[Disclaimer: my scientific knowledge is as near zero as makes no odds]

 

thats what I'd have said

(not the disclaimer!!)


...fairly insignificant quantities though.

 

(a) Minute, compared to that of the average electrical household appliance*.

(b) Hardly at all.

*This assumes that you don't run vast banks of Krells, operating in Class A mode and warming their area of the globe very nicely.

 

easy answer

1. Calculate the gross KwH consumption over the typical year(it's dominated by the idle disspiation)
2. Multiply by 0.45KG/Kwh for CO2 generation (UK mean for Electrical energy generation)

So, in my case, that's (1) 50w x 24 x 365.25 = 440KwH if left on all year giving (2) 200Kgs of CO2 attributable to my hifi.

That's equivalent to about 600miles in a Porsche Cayenne, or about 1400 in a low emissions hybrid car. Pretty trival in other words, and easy to offset (e.g I now walk to work)



PS. 10% of World CO2 emissions is down to people just breathing...

 

How do you work out the 50W figure? Is it based on the rating of your amp, or an average based on the amount of time you're actually playing music?

Not as trivial as I might have guessed, actually ...

If you accept the figure of 1000 kg/year which is sometimes quoted as the "sustainable" amount per person globally, then 200kg (ie 20% of what everyone should ideally to be limiting themselves to) is quite significant.

More trivial perhaps in the context of the average Brit's "footprint" which is about 9,500kg/year.

 

The 50W is measured for the whole system running, via a plug-in meter (about £15 from Machine Mart)

I agree on the 'sustainablity' comments, but I think it puts hifi into context. I'd much rather find away to save 500KgCO2 somewhere else - quite easily done, actually.

 

.......er, no.

 

.....but you breath more/harder if you walk to work?!?

 

I don't think the efficiency of the speakers has much influence, whereas valve vs solid state, without getting into discussions of class A, B or D, is quite influential, as also is the question of how long it is left on or in use.

There is quite a lot of hi-fi equipment that doesn't have an on/off switch on the front, but it is hidden around the back, discouraging the owner from switching it off (my Unico amp is like that, and my Cambridge Audio phono amp does not have an on/off switch).

Clearly, the carbon footprint of one's equipment depends strongly on how long it is switched on!

 

I don't give a monkey's about carbon footprints. It's all a big global scam anyway. Enjoy those fossil fuels whilst you can.

 

Indeed.

Why is it that they seem to want to discourage switching off? My amps are the same; the switch is on a transformer box that has to sit in a difficult to reach corner near the sockets.


Also - will an amp use significantly more power when music is playing compared to when it's just sitting idle? What proportion of the power that comes out of the wall socket is actually dissipated by the loudspeakers compared to elsewhere in the system, I wonder?

 

here here!. Sick of being told about carbon bloody footprints from people with 5 cars and 5 houses. They told us there was an ice age coming 35 years ago!.

 

It's all part of a global conspiracy to reduce our reliance on disappearing fossile fuels before their scarcity causes the breakdown of Western civilisation. Clever and great forethought, but I for one am not buying it.

 

I think this is something important that we should be thinking about. Regardless of whether or not you believe the hype, but more because of the pressure that will come as a result. We use energy for leisure. And surely that makes us good target for cutbacks. Just like the guys who like to drive gas guzzling old cars around race tracks. We like to burn a few extra trees for our own kicks. I already switch my Hi-Fi off these days when not in use (at the expense of Todd Trainers bass drum I'm sure!). My phono stage does stay on because it doesn't have a switch and the mains plug is quite awkward to get too. I'm sure Greenpeace will understand that one. Not! Air travel has is being targetted, although a growing market it only constitutes about 3% of the problem. Road travel is larger still, but the biggest is energy production (sorry don't have figures to hand). The UK has to reduce by something like 60% over the coming years and they'll be squeezing everything they can to hit those targets whilst trying to soften the blow for businesses. We're being told that we shouldn't even leave mobile phone chargers plugged in. What are we to say when Swampy finds out we leave whole systems powered up for weeks on end, channeling all that energy through heat? I'm sure there is going to be a push to get all manufacturers to limit the amount of power an appliance consumes for it's purpose. Just like they are setting targets for limiting emmisions for cars and suchlike. This means manufacturers are going to have to get on board to produce good sounding gear with low power and more efficiency. And your old Class A gear (Hi-Fi not drugs!)? Well they're trying to tax people for putting too much waste into landfill by microchips in wheelie bins. Who's to say that they won't limit the amount of electricity your household uses and then tax you more above a threshhold? Don't believe in this carbon offset? That's fair enough. But the hype is going to get you regardless. And remember, as a side note, plastic is made from oil!

Sorry for the rant. I'm on lunchbreak and my MP3 radio has a flat battery.

 

I suspect you are part of a secret conspiracy promoting the breakdown of Western civiliation. Definitely to be treated with suspicion.