Video systems—displays, projectors—may be obvious candidates for greening. But some audio manufacturers are trying to cut their carbon footprints.
 NuVo Technologies' Essentia EG6 is the first distributed audio system to get the U.S. government's Energy Star seal.
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ON JULY, POTOMACEDISON INCREASED electricity rates 29 percent for its Virginia customers. It's not alone. Around the United States, many electric companies are raising their rates by 10 percent to 25 percent to compensate for the rising cost of coal and natural gas, which power their generators.
Bad news? Maybe not. Rising commercial and residential energy rates create opportunities for makers of energy-efficient AV gear. And if AV pros can tell a compelling story about the efficiency of the products they sell and install, they stand to win more business in a green-conscious world.
Although projectors and displays are obvious, visible (literally) candidates for greening (see “AV Attempts to Tread Lightly,” July 2008), a growing number of vendors are also now focusing on audio equipment, based at least in part on market demand. Not surprisingly, some say they're seeing the most demand for energy-efficient products in regions where electrical rates are higher than average.
“There are pockets, like California,” says Richard Hanson, director of sales and marketing at Knoll Systems, based in Richmond, British Columbia. Knoll makes home theater and custom installation products (www.knoll-systems.com). “The East Coast is doing very well for us. Europe has taken this by storm.”
Amplifiers, for example, typically require a lot of electricity to drive. A significant amount of that power is lost in the form of heat—up to 80 percent by some estimates. “Audio is one of the most heat-generating components,” says David Rodarte, chief operating officer of Hebron, Ky.–based NuVo Technologies, whose products include amps, tuners, and loudspeakers (www.nuvotechnologies.com).
And there's also a snowball effect: Depending on the installation, audio-generated heat may require air conditioning, which means additional upfront costs and even more power consumption. Therefore managing heat, among other things, can go a long way toward building energy-efficient audio gear.
But it's not the only innovation that companies say will lead to green audio equipment.
WASTE NOT, WANT NOTIn fact, vendors are targeting a variety of design issues as they develop audio products that could be marketed as green, environmentally friendly, or sustainable—to name just a few marketing labels. Some, like NuVo, have even submitted products to the U.S. government's Energy Star program, whose logo adorns products that meet efficiency benchmarks (www.energystar.gov).
Focusing on power supplies has proven a viable way to improve the energy efficiency of audio equipment. “Digital switching power supplies are much more efficient,” says Rodarte. “With the movement to digital amplification instead of analog, there are natural opportunities to reduce energy and radically reduce heat.”
Sunfire, which specializes in high-end home electronics and is based in Snohomish, Wash., uses an analogy to explain its Tracking Downconverter (TDC) power supply, which the company builds into receivers, amplifiers, and subwoofers for the home theater market (www.sunfire.com).
