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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: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 08 2015, @08:12PM
I have several small switches that plug into the wall and allow me to turn off wall warts/chargers and other devices without unplugging -- here's one variety,
http://www.stetzerizer-us.com/2-prong-Wall-Plug-with-Cutoff-Switch_p_38.html [stetzerizer-us.com] (ignore or laugh at the ignorant discussion on this page...)
Neatly solves the problem of all kinds of things that don't really shut _OFF_. Latest is a small laser printer that wants to be on 15 watt standby all the time, disgustingly wasteful--it only takes a half minute to boot up when I want to print.
The switches with a power light are good for devices where there isn't an indicator for "on" or "charging".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 09 2015, @10:22AM
Yeah, I've got a smart strip that does the same thing - got all my media devices plugged in to it. But the idea of having to plug every little thing into its own smart strip drives me as batty as the stupid toaster.