I've had a look around and have really only found out about power supplies needed for particular units but I'm curious as to how much power different units would consume (mainly as energy bills are rather costly in Australia and are the major reason as to why I haven't imported units from Japan), so if anyone has any - what was the general difference in power consumption once you had the unit or units and types of them on? Honestly put, I would be interested in having some sort of arcade but working out power consumption to how much it would cost to keep the machines running would help me immensely. I'm namely looking at some older arcade cabinets but favorites of mine are light gun cabinets (I would love to get the Biohazard Gun Survivor 2 cabinet), certain racing/biking ones, snowboarding/skiing ones and some select fighting ones (I'm preferential to Tekken over Street Fighter) but I know that many cabinets are just houses/shells and the games can be changed depending. I'm also interested in pachislot type machines like the Shadow Hearts to the mini/desktop Persona 3 pachislot. I've checked a couple of arcade resource sites but have mainly read about older cabinets and haven't found much detail aside from the various sizes, weights and typical conditions that most cabinets would be labeled as, so any arcade tips or info would be greatly appreciated! I know how to do a couple of repairs on some older cabinets like some very old King of Fighters, Tekken, Crazy Taxi and an old skiing one that I can't recall the name of at the moment but I haven't had access to older cabinets for quite a few years and am unable to ask the owner of the hotel as I believe it's changed hands since I last saw him. I'm fine when it comes to older, more plain pinball machines (simple text-band screen, not many lights compared to a fully coloured and lit screen) as a family friend has a couple of pinball machines he lets me look at whenever we visit his lodge. Mainly as the prices of the units themselves haven't been too bad from what I've seen (anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand for the larger ones) but I'd still like to have some more information as I know quite a few people on here have some units.
Over on facebook in the Arcade Otaku Group I asked about this and I don't remember the exact voltage but their powerbills did not shoot up that much for having large home arcades
Lamont, try emailing this company, they're a huge restorer and seller of arcade machines, http://www.tntamusements.com. Email: tntquality@aol.com If they don't know the answer, there isn't one. I'm addicted to their youtube channel right now http://www.youtube.com/user/tntamusements On their youtube channel they go over different machines they're selling and what specific parts are inside etc. Amazing stuff and the guy who hosts the videos is pretty funny.
Thanks guys, that does help quite a bit. At the moment I'm tossing back and forth about importing the Biohazard and Biohazard 5 pachislot machines but I may just wait until I've moved before I do that.
The arcade systems themselves probably use the same or a little less than a desktop PC. The monitor probably uses about the same energy as a regular CRT TV. That's just an estimate. There's also the sound amp, and I'm not sure how much power that uses. Probably not a lot, though. Honestly, the power usage shouldn't be much of an issue. More of an issue is finding the space for them (for me, anyway).
Well, I just figured I'd ask as it makes it easier for me to work out as to whether or not the power bill would spike with certain ones in use if I can get them as if I only leave the fridge on, maybe a television, cable box and either the washing machine or dryer on and in use - everything else on standby - my power bills still end up being around $1000 or so, somehow even towards $2000 (I don't use air conditioning or heating, heated flooring and I occasionally have a fan on) which is why I just wanted to try and find out how much power they typically use - though I would assume the newer cabinets would use more power than the older ones given the better display but given what you've said, the smaller pachislot machines shouldn't use that much power. I have an entire basement to use for space but if/when we move, we will most likely make a dedicated gaming space so my partner and myself can have everything organized or on display (his collections: Biohazard/Resident Evil, Silent Hill but mostly Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid, my collections: Clock Tower/DEMENTO/Haunting Ground, Drag-on Dragoon/Drakengard but I also collect some Persona and Biohazard items (I like the Airsoft guns so if or when I'm out of Australia, I'll most likely be grabbing some along with the REmake and RE5 Pachislot machines) that I can put the units into. However, we would be interested in opening an arcade at some stage so it's both out of personal and possible business interest. ^^;
$1000 - $2000 AUD a month for power? I have no clue about power bills down under and I realize there can be a ton of variables but that seems extreme considering how frugal with power you say you are. I would seriously look into having an electrician come and check for abnormal consumption. I had a family member with a faulty dryer and when they finally caught it and replaced it their power bill dropped by over $100.00 a month.
I've been to TNT Amusements. The place is amazing. Their prices skew (very) high, but they really do have great service - especially if you are in the area and can conveniently swing by. I remember when when I was a kid, they had their infomercials on the local public access channels. The guy always had me cracking up! I love the giant hour glass & the hand caught under the pinball glass gags.
Have already had it checked (there are two dodge-y power points and one of them was damaged when the water heater blew up (idiot neighbour that has an adjoining parking space in the underground garage somehow managed to bump his car into the water heater, didn't tell us and it was only when we went down there was when we saw that he had cracked it, hot water was spilling out everywhere but we couldn't get the main shut off for about an hour, during which the top of the tank exploded off but only really damaged part of the temporary wall we had put up to avoid the same neighbour from piling up wood for his carpentry near our basement again) - but they are never used but we can't put a hole in the wall to have an electrician remove them as we're currently renting) due to the house previously being flooded repeatedly, the issue is that taxes and prices have risen repeatedly on power bills in the last year and a half or so - previously the power bill would be a maximum of $500 but would rarely peak over $370 and that's with two large t.v.s, cable boxes, consoles, laptops, fans and everything else on standby and stuff like the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher all being in use. That's mainly why I was curious as to how much power various types or arcade set-ups would use so I could try and factor in any additional usage if I were to get one whilst I'm in Australia.
You can buy power usage meters for not very much money (maybe $40?) which will tell you exactly how many watts a device is consuming. I'll echo everyone else thoughts on this and say that I doubt it's the arcade machines causing the huge power drain, unless you have them all running all day every day.
I don't actually have any arcade machines, I was asking about them due to that otherwise I would've checked the usage myself - as I said before, the amount of my power bills are due to increases in the actual rates, taxes and the like (have had the appliances, outlets tested and we also have regular meter checks as well) which is why I was just wondering how much they actually use as I am interested in purchasing a few different types of machines in the future so I can factor the total general cost of purchasing, shipping the unit and how much more they could add to my power usage (or how much energy different types of units consume against a retail shop space with a combined electricity bill factored into the space rental to see how many units would be easy enough to maintain initially). Given that I would rather figure it out before importing some machines, plugging them in and then having my power company try to charge me even more for an amount of usage that would be impossible after counting how many electrical devices I've had plugged in and on or in standby and have counted the amount of time against how much power they use in both standby and in use (as I've already checked what I currently own, but not having any arcade machines myself or knowing anyone that I could visit to test different types) is why I figured I'd ask on here.
Power bills in Australia are generally expensive, like most stuff down here (consumer electronics, food, water, internet, pay TV). As for an arcade cab, I've got an Astro City and the bill shock is non-existant. I'm running a SUN PSU and a fluoro via a 240v - 110v stepdown, and the CRT is powered off 240v via a new 15k/24k chassis. It comes down to the game in terms of how many watts they consume, but it's not much depending on the title. Mine's setup to swap out JAMMA boards and I've put harnesses together for kick buttons on CPS1/2/3 titles, power distribution for Model 2 and Model 3 games, adapters to switch between JAMMA power and Naomi power, and separate voltage going to a negatron if I need it (pot-switchable to generate negative DC voltages if required) and a small 12v audio amp (switched to grab line-level or amplified audio, though I've been lazy and haven't added a line level filter for JAMMA audio, so I keep the volume low and gently increase it for JAMMA boards!). SF2 (a CPS1 board) doesn't need much of a kick, CPS2 titles seem to run without much extra push on the +5v but Model 2 and Model 3 games need significantly more oomph. Haven't plugged the Naomi in for a while, but that one's a bit thirsty as well. Most arcade titles leverage +5v for the logic, +12v for the audio amps built-in for JAMMA boards, and +24v if needed for some titles (pretty sure machines with hydraulics or other stuff need +24v, such as recoil guns on some shooting games). Some titles use other variations (-5v for some audio amplifiers on JAMMA boards, +3.3v for newer hardware like Naomi and System 246 IIRC), but the comment about a PC power supply as a benchmark is certainly the max draw you'll get - before I had the SUN PSU, I used to run an old AT PC PSU modified to a distribution board for Model 2 and Model 3 games for example. As I said, it certainly hasn't made a dent in my power bills, though real life gets in the way of firing my cab up as much as I like.
Ok I'm hooked on their channel now too. Todd may look like a sleezy porn producer but that's part of his charm. Wallace reminds me of Scruffy from Futurama. Thanks for turning me on to them.
