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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, Funny) by Katastic on Friday May 08 2015, @06:10PM
I've seen very rarely any problems with power supplies. And thank God, because I've got dozens if not hundreds in my house.
The only ones in recent memory that caused problems are laughably, the Chinese eBay lithium batteries that go by the brand name "UltraFire". I've seen two chargers smoking/catching on fire. But with a name like UltraFire (and their competitor "BestFire!" both of which feature actual flames in their logo) perhaps I should have known better.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Friday May 08 2015, @06:43PM
Yeah, I avoid anything with "fire" in the name. AW batteries work for my needs and are good quality.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday May 08 2015, @07:45PM
Like firewalls? ☺
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @07:53PM
Got fire in the name, nope don't trust them. How many are out there, how many have let the bad guys in :)
Talking about batteries though :)