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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: 2) by sjames on Saturday May 09 2015, @05:51PM

    by sjames (2882) on Saturday May 09 2015, @05:51PM (#180815) Journal

    Sure, they could do that. The point is that they typically don't for devices that are plugged in.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:36PM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Saturday May 09 2015, @11:36PM (#180904) Homepage
    My CV says your guess is wrong.
    --
    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

      by sjames (2882) on Sunday May 10 2015, @01:44PM (#181078) Journal

      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.