I spent a lot of time looking for this information but with no luck. I finally decided to bite the bullet and find out myself. So for anyone who wants to know how much electricity the unit is using here's the information I gathered and the method I used.

I had already installed the unit making it impractical to connect my meter in between the radio and the car hookups so I removed the battery cable and installed it there. To my surprise, my car was drawing 2.8 amps while not running but with the doors open. Most likely a result of internal lights and other systems which activate to keep the car from being stolen. One advantage of this method is the ability to capture all electricity consumed by the radio when the system is running regardless of power routing.

Baseline Amps Watts Description

Car Only 2.8 0

Startup 3.7 0.9 11.34 Fluctuated between .9 Amps and 1.8 Amps until the unit was ready

All Off 3.7 0.9 11.34 Radio and Screen turned off, No Route Planned

Radio-Ipod 4.2 1.4 17.64 Playing Audio from the Ipod

Radio-FM 4.5 1.7 21.42 Playing Audio from the Radio

Radio-DVD 4.6 1.8 22.68 Playing Audio from a DVD

DVD-Video 4.7 1.9 23.94 Playing Video from a DVD

It's safe to say the F90BT uses between 1 and 2 Amps regardless of what state it's in. To me this is a very reasonable amount for a "standby" mode where the unit screen is simply turned off when not in use. Since car batteries have around 50 Amp Hours there is very little chance of the car dying over dinner and even over night. However there may not be enough power left to start the car which is pretty important. I'll test it this weekend when I have access to a friend and some jumper cables.

Let me know if you spot something inaccurate about my results!

I had already installed the unit making it impractical to connect my meter in between the radio and the car hookups so I removed the battery cable and installed it there. To my surprise, my car was drawing 2.8 amps while not running but with the doors open. Most likely a result of internal lights and other systems which activate to keep the car from being stolen. One advantage of this method is the ability to capture all electricity consumed by the radio when the system is running regardless of power routing.

I'm wondering how you could measure the AVIC alone if it's already in dash. It doesn't have a switch for on/off and will start if you switch your car to ACC. But then the whole car wakes up and a lot more of power will be consumed beside the AVIC...

The repair manual says the maximum power consumption is up to 10.0 A. Backup power is 6.5 mA

Another point, calculation of 1/100 of Watt if you just measure in 1/10 Ampere makes less sense.

It's safe to say the F90BT uses between 1 and 2 Amps regardless of what state it's in.

I don't agree. I assume you played the music on a reduced level? The paper says for maximum continuous power output 4 x 22.5 Watt (5% THD, at 4 Ohms), resulting in 90 Watt = 6.2 Ampere. So the AVIC can take quite more than your given 2 A in normal conditions...

In my case i can't play much more than 2 hours of music before the AVIC shut down cause the battery goes empty - with a 75 Ah battery...

I am very interested in how much this unit draws.

I have it installed in an 08 Element and have been having what I believe to be power problems.

I was sitting at a light one day with the AC blasting when something cycled in my car (either the AC Compressor or perhaps the alternator). During the cycle, the unit restarted. I thought it was a spike along the power lines to the unit, but they are protected by fuses.

it eventually dawned on me that as my car is cycling, my headlights dim, itnerior lights dim, & unit cuts out. There isnt enough power to keep the unit running steady!

I hope to remedy this by putting a Capacitor in-line between the battery & my 2 amps so there will be more power to go to the unit on those cycles.

Any chance of this working?

"I'm wondering how you could measure the AVIC alone if it's already in dash. "

You could take out the fuse that provides the 'orange' wire of the avic (constant power) and put your meter in line with it on the 10amp output. You could then cycle your tests. The only problem is that you need to shut off or isolate anything else that is powered by this fuse. You could then repeat for the signal power wire (red) also.