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posted by CoolHand on Friday May 08 2015, @04:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the giant-sucking-sound dept.

We've previously covered how standby mode in game consoles suck. Well, it seems like many devices across the US are sucking a whole lot of power--$19 Billion/yr worth. That is just the US estimation, it is not extrapolated out across the globe.

Approximately $19 billion worth of electricity, equal to the output of 50 large power plants, is devoured annually by U.S. household electronics, appliances, and other equipment when consumers are not actively using them, according to a ground breaking study released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The report, "Home Idle Load: Devices Wasting Huge Amounts of Electricity When Not in Active Use," found most of the devices either plugged in or hard-wired into America's homes consume electricity around-the-clock, even when the owners are not using them or think they are turned off. The annual cost for this vampire energy drain, which provides little benefit to consumers, ranges from $165 per U.S. household on average to as high as $440 under some utilities' top-tier rates.

"One reason for such high idle energy levels is that many previously purely mechanical devices have gone digital: Appliances like washers, dryers, and fridges now have displays, electronic controls, and increasingly even Internet connectivity, for example," says Pierre Delforge, the report's author and NRDC's director of high-tech sector energy efficiency. "In many cases, they are using far more electricity than necessary."

 
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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @04:45PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @04:45PM (#180379)

    Woooooosssssshhhhhhhh.....

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @04:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @04:47PM (#180380)
    It's not a wooosh if you have to be ignorant to get it. It's the opposite, in fact.
    • (Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @05:08PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @05:08PM (#180386)

      It is if you're too stupid to realize that the "something" they're doing is in itself a waste of energy.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @07:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @07:56PM (#180451)
        The device cannot judge the value of the energy it's using. In one case it wastes energy, in another case it's energy well spent. If can you stupid it down to "all same fo efferybuddy!!" then yes, it's ironic, to them.
        • (Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday May 09 2015, @06:30AM

          by Pslytely Psycho (1218) on Saturday May 09 2015, @06:30AM (#180651)

          I'll wager you're a fucking blast at a party.

          --
          Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @09:00PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @09:00PM (#180472)

      As it was explained to me when I was young and "clever": if you have to explain it then it's not funny.