How much power does a CD recorder use?
About the same as a CD-ROM drive, even when recording. Some simple experiments suggest that the only significant power drain occurs when the disc is spinning up. Some personal notes follow. I connected an external Plexwriter 8/20 through a “Watts Up?” power meter. The Watts Up? device is designed for moderate loads (20W up to about 1700W) and isn’t good at detecting small fluctuations, but it’s accurate enough for this purpose. I connected the CD recorder and a fan drawing 50W through the meter, and subtracted 50W from the results. When completely idle, the CD recorder and its power supply draw 8-9W. Since the recorder isn’t actually doing anything, I’m guessing most of this is loss in the power supply itself. In any event, it establishes an idle-load baseline. While playing an audio CD through the front panel headphone jack at 1X, there was no change in power usage. While playing an audio CD through Windows Media Player, the load increased to 9-10W. I got a similar drain while extract
(2003/04/12) About the same as a CD-ROM drive, even when recording. Some simple experiments suggest that the only significant power drain occurs when the disc is spinning up. Some personal notes follow. I connected an external Plexwriter 8/20 through a “Watts Up?” power meter. The Watts Up? device is designed for moderate loads (20W up to about 1700W) and isn’t good at detecting small fluctuations, but it’s accurate enough for this purpose. I connected the CD recorder and a fan drawing 50W through the meter, and subtracted 50W from the results. When completely idle, the CD recorder and its power supply draw 8-9W. Since the recorder isn’t actually doing anything, I’m guessing most of this is loss in the power supply itself. In any event, it establishes an idle-load baseline. While playing an audio CD through the front panel headphone jack at 1X, there was no change in power usage. While playing an audio CD through Windows Media Player, the load increased to 9-10W. I got a similar drain
