What uses more electricity, Solid State, or Tube amp?

  • Thread starter Thread starter capnkid
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capnkid

capnkid

Optimus Prime
I'm thinking of going solid state if it used considerably less electricity.

Add a power brake to the tube amp and I bet it's like using an electric heater.

Anyone know?
 
i think power consumption/power output is about 3-5 to 1 with tube amps. solid state i don't know.


i guess this doesn't really help you :confused:
 
capnkid said:
I'm thinking of going solid state if it used considerably less electricity.

Add a power brake to the tube amp and I bet it's like using an electric heater.

Anyone know?
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Why would anyone care? Tone is what you are after. If not why bother.
 
I'm going to guess that tube amps are less efficient at converting the energy from your strings to a certain power level to the speakers. The reason I say this is that tube amps generate a lot more heat than solid state amps, and that heat is just wasted energy.

Again, just a guess, and I would have no clue as to the actual difference in efficiency.
 
i'd bet that tube amps use/waste considerably more power.
 
Tubes are woefully inefficient devices, because they have to be heated to work. Just think about a simple 12AX7 tube, the filament power is 2W, plate dissipation can be up to 1W, whereas your typical opamp's quiescent power will be more like 0.1W. I don't do much with power tubes, but off the top of my head, a power transistor is probably 40% efficient, vs. single digit efficiency for a tube amp.

Clearly, the green solution is solid state :p
 
So what you all are saying is, we shouldn't use Tube amps because Al Gore might get pissed?
 
You guys should write George Ohm on this one.

I sure would not buy an amplifer based on how much electricity it going to use.

I suscribe to Zaphod's theory, but I think you will find a 100W Marshall, Fender, etc tube amp will blow the doors off the same manufacturers solid state version also the tone will be much richer with the tube amp. Well worth spending an extra dollar or two per month on your electric bill. Probably the fact of leaving the tube amp on or on standby would account for the major difference.

Do you think manufactures should start EPA rating all their equipment.
My VJ's are getting 60mpg since I installed Eurotubes.
 
What the hell, are you going battery powered or something?
 
Tubes require a lot more power to operate mostly due to the heaters. Another factor is transformer losses due to field leakage, coupling coefficients, hysterisis loss, and Isqr x R loses in the power and output transformers. BTW who shives a git?
 
FWIW, one day I ran my amp (solid state, rated at 112 W) and fx processor (back of unit rates it at 35W ...it has preamp tubes) thru a power measuring device that I have. I cranked the amp up fairly loud. The peak load for both was 65 W...not very much.

At $.08 per KWH (our approx electricity rate in OR) it'll cost about 1/2 penny to run it for an hour.

IOW, for most amp usage, tone is a larger consideration
 
It can be an issue if you are close to the limits of the available circuits, which is quite possible if you are in an older house or garage, and you're running guitar amps, a PCU, and an entire rack. Note that class A circuitry draws lots more juice than class B. My Avalon AD2022 draws more juice than any other piece of equipment I own.-Richie
 
Well I bought another tube amp anyway, but The amp has a wattage selection on it 25,50, 0r 100 watts.

I thought I would put a greenback in the actual amp for when I'm running it at 25 watts, and build or buy a 412 cab when running it at 100 watts.

Anyway when running it at 100 watts I thought I might try a power brake, or a hotplate. I was wondering if these eat up much juice?
 
Who cares about energy. This isn't like turning the AC down to 70 degrees or cranking up the heat in the winter. You will barely notice a tube amp in the electricity bill. But if its for conservation, in 5 years the Chinese are going to use so much energy that all of our efforts will have been completely in vain anyways.
 
Outlaws said:
Who cares about energy. This isn't like turning the AC down to 70 degrees or cranking up the heat in the winter. You will barely notice a tube amp in the electricity bill. But if its for conservation, in 5 years the Chinese are going to use so much energy that all of our efforts will have been completely in vain anyways.
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I know, but I just like my Dad, always bitchin' at the kids to TURN THE LIGHT OFF! :o

And I use energy savers.
 
capnkid said:
Well I bought another tube amp anyway, but The amp has a wattage selection on it 25,50, 0r 100 watts.

I thought I would put a greenback in the actual amp for when I'm running it at 25 watts, and build or buy a 412 cab when running it at 100 watts.

Anyway when running it at 100 watts I thought I might try a power brake, or a hotplate. I was wondering if these eat up much juice?
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Any kind of attenuator like those are basically turning the power into heat, so the efficiency goes way down. So yes, it is using juice to make heat!
 
Anfontan said:
Any kind of attenuator like those are basically turning the power into heat, so the efficiency goes way down. So yes, it is using juice to make heat!
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But...turning electricity into heat isn't wasting energy if it's cold and you're heating your house anyway (assuming your heater has a thermostat). Every BTU that is emitted from your amp (or your lights, oven, curling iron, whatever) is adding heat to the house!
 
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