SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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."
(Score: 4, Funny) by bob_super on Friday May 08 2015, @04:54PM
When I unplug the cable box (no off switch, no sleep mode), I get told that I'm a bad person because it takes over a minute to power back up...
Because for someone who lives with me, apparently it's torture to wait a minute before watching commercials.
Multiply by tens of millions.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by skater on Friday May 08 2015, @05:15PM
We have a DVR that never shuts down - the "off" button really just turns off the signal (actually, it doesn't even do that any more - it shows a message telling you to turn off the TV). A standby mode which spins down the hard drive until it's needed to record or until someone turns the DVR on would make sense. Probably not a huge power savings, but it's something...
(Score: 2) by quacking duck on Friday May 08 2015, @06:21PM
It literally isn't a huge power savings.
Back when I had a cable digital PVR, the unit used 25W when on, and 20W when "off". The only obvious difference was that the hard drive was spun down in the latter.
I have no idea what the heck 20W was being used for when idle, but for sure having the HDD spun up or down made very little difference.
(Score: 5, Funny) by mtrycz on Friday May 08 2015, @06:31PM
I have no idea what the heck 20W was being used for
Why, mining bitcoins, of course.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 1) by skater on Friday May 08 2015, @06:56PM
Okay, it's only 5 watts, but isn't that kind of the point of the article? These relatively small vampire loads adding up?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday May 08 2015, @08:03PM
Forget the 5W from the drive. Why would it use 20W when idle? Cheapo laptops don't use that much when running 1080p screens.
20W times 35 million idle boxes is one nuclear plant, or worse a couple coal plants, running for nothing (other than utility profits).