My home theater, my electric bill

I've now received my first electricity bill after I assembled and started enjoying my fabulous new 21st-century home theater. And the verdict: it's costing me.

I can't be mathematically certain down to the decimal point, but the combination of my lovely TV, my DVR cable box, and my new audio system is probably costing me an additional $8-$10 per month, at least in these warm months when my local utility raises its rates.

How do I feel about this? Not great, but I'm loving my new high-definition entertainment experience.

In my own defense, I chose a relatively small 32-inch LCD TV which, on its own, doesn't consume more power than the old-fashioned 27-inch Trinitron it replaced. LCD is a good technology and far less power hungry than plasma. The problem is that people tend to replace 27-inch TVs with 40, 42, 46, or 50-inch displays, with the corresponding need for more juice.

Of more concern to me is my 800-watt sound system. It's clear to me now that I over-bought in this case. I live in an apartment, and I can only take the system to about 30 percent of its full potential before the neighbors get rattled. If I lived in a McMansion on a couple of acres, I could really crank it up to 11, but in my more humble surroundings I should have shopped smaller.

The receiver really heats up and seems big and bulky for what it does. What's going on inside there? I'm starting to wonder if it's full of vacuum tubes or something.

Don Willmott's blog posts are provided by LifeWire, a part of The New York Times Company.