Easy question:

Is there a direct relationship between the wattage of your amp to the
amount of electricity that it uses?

The overall answer i'm looking for is cost of electricity.

If I played a 15w amp for an hour, I would be charged at price X.
If I played a 100w amp for an hour, I would pay even more than price X.

When an amp is on (not on standby) does, say, a 100w amp, consume
100w? Is it dependent on the volume? I would think that it does consume
the same amount of electricity no matter how you play it.

Hopefully you get the idea of my question. Did any of you'se guys notice a
change in electrical bill if you always played a practice amp (10w)and then
switched to a real amp (50W+)?

__________________

No.

taken from dakota electric's website:

To figure the average kWh consumption for an electrical appliance, multiply the wattage number by the number of hours the appliance operates, then divide that number by 1,000. Keep in mind that this is an average and appliances vary in size, efficiency and frequency of use.

To figure an estimated cost to operate an appliance, follow the procedure above, and multiply your answer by 8 cents (.08).

For example, to figure the cost to operate a 100-watt lightbulb for 10 hours:

100-watt lightbulb
x 10 hours
1,000 watts
÷ 1,000
1.0 kWh
x $0.08
$0.08 cost to operate

This is right up my alley! Calculations galore!

I'm gonna keep track of all my power usage and tally them up. I'm gonna create some havoc if my bill is off according to those calculations.

Yeah, fight the power!

__________________

lol, I didn't see any difference on the bill, first it was 50w tube, now its 100w tube rack setup with seperate pre and poweramp.

Standby uses barely no power at all. It should say in your manual. The volume you have it on, and the amount of bass used also effects how much power you use. You'll notice that when you crank it up fast, the lights with dim in the room. So there should be a range of wattage which the manual should say +/- 13w RMS or something similar

__________________

If you have a multimeter, and some wires, you can measure the current (amps) that the amp is drawing. Just connect it in series with the amp and the power outlet. WARNING: don't do this unless you are experienced. To get the Watts, multiply the amps measured by the power outlet voltage. Try that on low volume and high volume. There was another thread with all the technicalities of 'real power', 'apparent power', volt-amps, etc, but I'll steer clear of that.

Anyway, I think the power amp section of an amp is always on full power, but the preamp that drives it isn't. So, I guess low volume takes less power. If there's a transformer hanging out the back, a rough indication of power usage is how hot it is. At higher volumes, your amp should be hotter as power consumed is converted to heat. So put a thermometer in the room and play loud for an hour; see if the temperature rises Hrm, maybe your body temp might throw it off; I heard you body puts out as much energy as a 90W light bulb or something.

__________________