A little standby goes a long way
posted September 20th 2004 9:43AM
Ourselves, we never thought all that gear we keep shut off and plugged in really pulled that much off the grid while in standby, and who would? If you just told us that some 10% of our electricity came from gear in standby, we'd outright not believe you. But PC Mag's Bill Machrone was struck by the notion that small amounts of electricity in aggregate could quickly add up, so he rigged up an AC breakout system to meter the juice sucked up by his gadgets and electronics while not in use. The results are pretty crazy: 9% of his yearly electricity was being consumed by his turned-off computer gear (that figure doesn't include turned-off home electronics like TVs, microwaves, etc.). We doubt most of America has as many electronic toys as he or we do, but even a little goes a long way when it comes to 280 million people. Looks like EnergyStar should start with some belt-tightening right quick.
Keep in mind that anything that has a AC to DC adapter either in the plug unit/cord or built into the device sucks power unless there's a physical switch between it and the outlet. The conversion of AC to DC power usually is done via induction if I remember correctly. This means that energy runs through a wire coil and induces current in the wire that actually goes to the device. This means that the cicuit is always closed on the AC side of the adapter and thus is always drawing power.
I admit this is anecdotal hearsay but I read from a reliable source that I can't remember that a TV uses 75% of its power while in standby mode.
I just read an extended essay on easy ways to reduce power consumption and was about to add an entry on my blog on this topic, when I checked Engadget.
As well as unplugging all gadgets when not in use it's worthwhile making sure your PC's processor is being put to use. It's designed to do lots of calculations all the time. Most of the time it's hardly doing anything. I donate spare time on my processor to a non-profit research project at Stanford which helps medical research:
http://folding.stanford.edu/
I can navigate through my house at night, in the dark, just from the glow of all the standby lights -- four monitors, three printers, one fax machine, one copier, 5.8GHz phone system (the base of each handset has a charging light), two vcr's, one tape deck, one dvd player, one home theater receiver, even my Gyration Ultra Mouse has a charging light. That's eighteen standby lights, and I did this list quickly, so I may have missed a few.
One of my DVD players has a standby LED. That is, an LED that glows when the device is *off*, and is off when the device is on.
Why do I need a light to tell me the device is off?
My receiver has a standby LED that is always on. Again, why? To tell me the device is plugged in?
At one point there was a proposal for a new standard that would encourage devices to consume less than 1W when "off". I'm not sure what happened to it.
Computers use more power when they're crunching something@HOME than when idle, so you're not necessarily putting wasted power to work by doing that.
I agree that standby LEDs are pretty pointless; I guess they let you know that the device is plugged in. (After all, that is the first question the tech support people ask -- "Is it plugged in?")
there was a story on NPR last year that was about this. The reporter concluded that VCR's wore the worst culprits. Some of the cheaper brands consume almost as much off a on.
Anything that can be awoken by a signal (such as a VCR or TV and even a computer in standby) is obviously going to be drawing power for powering the sensors whilest waiting for that all important signal from the IR port or mouse/keyboard.
I'd like to know where the trend for stand-by lights on devices came from. I remember most stereos and televisions before the 80's never had any kind of standby light. I guess the LED didn't really come into play until the 80's.
So who started it and what was there original idea? Why did everyone do it? Why wont everyone stop doing it!?
I fail to see how it's a technical support thing to. If someone asked me "is it plugged in" i'd look at the plug! I don't need to save valuable seconds by looking to see if there's an illuminated LED on the front!
You'd think in the 21st century, now that everything is digital and usually firmware powered, we could have an option in the TV's OSD.. "disable standby LED". It wouldn't take much.
Having said all this, i'm still the kind of person that leaves all their equipment on standby. The lounge dimly lit all night by the glow of red, orange and even blue LEDs. So i shouldn't rant too much :-)