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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: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Friday May 08 2015, @06:09PM
How many amps do a few blinky LEDs use? 20mA x 10% duty each?
(Score: 2) by sjames on Friday May 08 2015, @08:21PM
It's not so much the LEDs as the other parts still running.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @10:10PM
OS was complaining about der blinkenlights
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @08:58AM
Mobile phones have been doing this for ages.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by mojo chan on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:33AM
Sure, but how are you going to power that? You need to take 100-240V 50/60Hz AC (universal power supply) and turn it into 3.3v. Well, more likely you need at least 12v and 3.3v for the system, and anywhere from a few milliwatts to say 300W depending on the load. And it has to be cheap.
It's not easy to get super low standby power from s PSU.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:39PM
Erm, nope. There's plenty of electronics that works on lower voltages than that. Didn't I already mention mobile phones?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by sjames on Saturday May 09 2015, @05:51PM
Sure, they could do that. The point is that they typically don't for devices that are plugged in.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:36PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by sjames on Sunday May 10 2015, @01:44PM
Mine says it's right.
Perhaps YOU actually care about such details, buty the many devices that continue to emit significant heat when they are turned "off" suggest you are not in a majority.