Ecotune Duet Power Consumption?

June 20, 2010 6:01 PM

Has anyone done a Killawatt (or similar) analysis of an EcoTune Duet sound machine? I am trying to find average running costs for this. Our current white noise machine of choice is a fan that runs at 38 watts. I've priced the rotary fan motor-based Marpac Sleepmate but at 13 watts max volume by Killawatt there just isn't enough delta between this and an actual fan.
posted by meehawl to Shopping (3 answers total)

I don't have info on wattage. We just use a CD player set to repeat, with a CD in it that has 79 minutes of pink noise (with a little taper up and down at the beginning and end). It just plays all night long.

Not sure if you're concerned here about power usage, or volume? Anyway, our solution is MUCH cheaper than the Ecotune, though I'm not sure how it compares wattage-wise.
posted by wwartorff at 7:55 PM on June 20, 2010

Best answer: You can find the manual on this page. Power requirement is 5V at 1A = 5W. There will be some loss through the power supply but even that should be 90% efficient or thereabouts, so let's call it 6W from the wall.
posted by 6550 at 8:38 PM on June 20, 2010

Response by poster: P = V.A. Thanks very much 6550!

I also got this sent from a tech person at Ecotone:

Assuming that your Ecotones Duets are running 24 hours per day, each unit will draw about 5 KWh/year if played at moderate volume and about 10 KWh/year if played at full volume.

Which if correct seems to indicate that the unit in fact draws well below the max spec of its transformer. Given the average price I pay for a KWh in California, I am always looking to reduce my energy bill.
posted by meehawl at 9:59 PM on June 20, 2010