How 'Green' is Class D compared to other amplifier classes?

[Lars Clausen]

Depending on use patterns Class D is as least as energy efficient as Class A/B, increasing to much more energy efficient in cases of heavy use. (High Power many hours a day).

The assumption is this typical use pattern:

Idle On time: 4 hours per day.
Play 10W level: 2 hours per day.
Play 50W level: 0.5 hours per day.

Is this a realistic use pattern?

Assuming the above use pattern, the result is, not surprising that Class A amplifiers consume vast amounts of power:



Please comment.

[peranders]

I think your point is pretty clear and noone can argue against it.

[richie00boy]

Not to mention that class-a needs lots of aluminium heatsink, bigger PSU etc so has even bigger impact on raw materials as well.

[Pano]

Oh

I thought you meant "Green" as in "Not ripe yet."

[planet10]

Originally posted by Lars Clausen
Idle On time: 4 hours per day.
Play 10W level: 2 hours per day.
Play 50W level: 0.5 hours per day.

Is this a realistic use pattern?

Probably not. At a 10W level you are likely going to be clipping a 100W amp with real music. And more & more 100W is a big amp (a really big amp if Class A). What happens when you consider amps of 10-20W?

How much power does a typical (hi-efficiency) light bulb consume in a year?

dave

[Variac]

It's also interesting that the big drop in consumption is between class A and the others- an order of magnitude.D is not radically better than class AB.

[The golden mean]

Originally posted by planet10


Probably not. At a 10W level you are likely going to be clipping a 100W amp with real music. And more & more 100W is a big amp (a really big amp if Class A). What happens when you consider amps of 10-20W?

How much power does a typical (hi-efficiency) light bulb consume in a year?

dave

Will depend of the level of compression as most recordings has restricted the dynamic range for many reasons.
If we don´t talk about live music (were limiters sometimes kick in
)

FM broadcasting;commercial radio=


BTW efficiency can be calculated or measured or both then compered.

http://www.amplifier.co.uk/images/Da...-CFBAccept.pdf

[raintalk]

It seems like NewClassD is only addressing half the problem.
What about the power supply?

[planet10]

Originally posted by The golden mean
FM broadcasting;commercial radio=

I'm within antenna reach of at least a couple really good FM stations.

dave

[Lars Clausen]

Originally posted by Variac
It's also interesting that the big drop in consumption is between class A and the others- an order of magnitude.D is not radically better than class AB.

Thanks for your comment, you are absolutely right.



Green Class D reduces the power consumption to about half in most use patterns, even this one, where the amplifier is always on, and only used a few hours per day.

This is of course not magnitudes of reduction.

But if you care about your CO2 emissions, and want to reduce your power consumption, this is one way to improve the situation without changing your use pattern.