White noise generator?

[mightymoo]

I can't sleep without some white noise to block out random night noises. I've been running my air filter for this - but I don't have any real need to run it for filtering and recently I've been thinking about how much electricity this draws. I looked at the volts & amps and determined this filter is probably costing me $16/mo to run at nights, and sometimes it gets forgotten and not shut off during the day. So I'm thinking its worthwhile to replace it with a white noise generator. I know I won't like one that does it electronically, but I'm considering this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Marpac-980-Scr...?ie=UTF8&s=hpc

But what I'm not sure is whether this is going to draw less electricity than my HEPA filter? Anyone have one (or a similar one) they can tell me what the volts & amps are (should be listed on the bottom).

[sparkeze]

Not sure about the electricity, but we always used a clock/radio/alarm thing.

[mamamilkers]

We use a small desk fan. Not sure about the amps either.

[moonrunner]

I have a white noise machine like at the therapists office and we love it. I didn't notice any change in my electric bill for running it all night everynight. It helps all of us sleep better in our tiny house.

[Kerrie]

I have a homedics noise machine from Target. We run 2-3 depending on what room(s) everyone sleeps in and I didn't notice a change in the bills when we started using them.

[mightymoo]

FYI - you can find the Amps and volts on the bottom of any electronic device on that little info sticker. To determine the Watts (watt-hours 1/1000 of a kwh)- you multiple amps by volts. For example, my air purifier is 1.7 Amps and 150 Volts, so its about 250 Watts. That's about half my 500 Watt space heater, so its pulling quite a bit of energy.

[chel]

we live in an apartment and just use a box fan. Blocks out noisy neighbours great. Not a clue about the energy use.

[cjanelles]

Originally Posted by chel

we live in an apartment and just use a box fan. Blocks out noisy neighbours great. Not a clue about the energy use.

We use a box fan, too. It is WONDERFUL...it hums on the same noise frequency as my DH's snoring, so I can't hear him at all!!

[Josette Marie]

they also make white noise cds. I bought one for my baby. It has ocean, vaccuum, and I think driving noise (minus the honks).

[mrzmeg]

Radio static (FM turned to the lowest frequency) works pretty well, too, and would be pretty cheap to run.

[HydeParkB]

I bought some white noise cds for my bedroom and DD's. They seem to help. We use a box fan or space heater when appropriate to the weather, but the space heater has a thermostat. And sometimes we don't need either.

[emptymug]

DW and I use an older air fliter, but for our DS we didn't want to buy something specifc, so I acutally found a simple solution. There's an open source audio program called Audacity that is for audio editing. It has a function to generate white noise to whatever time length (typically cd length makes sense). So I created an 80 minute white noise cd for his room that plays on a small cd player on the lowest volume setting. So aside from the $.02 for the CD, the cost was nil.

[magpie mamma]

we have the one you are considering but DD is sleeping in the room right now, I will try to remember to look at the bottom tomorrow and see what I can tell you. It is a bit pricey but we like it.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by magpie mamma

we have the one you are considering but DD is sleeping in the room right now, I will try to remember to look at the bottom tomorrow and see what I can tell you. It is a bit pricey but we like it.

Oh thanks! I'd appreciate it.

I don't think I would do as well with electronic white noise, like radio static, etc.

[magpie mamma]

Here it is ... we have the Sleepmate model 980A which is 117 volts, 20 watts or less (don't know what this means) and 50-60 hertzs. Hope this helps.

[mightymoo]

Originally Posted by magpie mamma

Here it is ... we have the Sleepmate model 980A which is 117 volts, 20 watts or less (don't know what this means) and 50-60 hertzs. Hope this helps.

Perfect - watts is what you care about really - that's the measure of power. 20 is really low compared to the 250 my air filter is drawing (500W would be my space heater for comparison), so this will be perfect. Now, I'll have to not spend all my money this month so I can buy it!

Thanks so much for looking at that for me!

[mamashortcake]

Mightymoo,

I sent you an email through the board, but to be sure you get the message, I am posting here too. I have two of those machines sitting in a pile to go to the thrift store- they work fine, we are just simplifying. Let me know if you are interested.

Blessings!

mamashortcake