Does it bother you when people dont turn things off when not in use?

[FelixDeCat]

Does it bother you when you go to someones house and they have two or three televisions, cable boxes and 5.1 stereos going on in separate rooms, a computer or two just sitting running screensavers on multiple moniters, room humidifiers / ionizers, various lights on, etc. Now of course the excuse is "well, we come and go into each room or the kids are watching tv but are outside right now or I was going to check the wash when the phone rang and I got into an hour long conversation", so on and so forth. While all that is well and good for certain people, it bothers me to no end. Multiply this behavior by thousands if not millions of homes around the country and it shouldnt make you wonder why our very own neighborhood had a blackout today. We set a record in DFW for energy use Friday, June 26, 2009.

In not a tree hugging environmentalist, but please people turn off things if you arent in the room or tell your kids to if they go outside or whatever. Its just disgusting the amount of wasteful habits we have developed and its getting worse with all the "engery star - always on - standby mode" vampires.

Or should I just mind my own business? :frown:

/rant

 

[Jeeebus]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat

Or should I just mind my own business?

we need a finger on nose emoticon.

 

[badkarma1399]

Not really.

 

[Fayd]

my overclocked computer is always on 24/7.

does that bother you?

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: Fayd
my overclocked computer is always on 24/7.

does that bother you?

Are you folding or undertaking some other useful task? If not, yes.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Depends.

I leave the computer on 24/7 (but it does act as a media server, vpn/proxy and RDP access point). Turning off humidifiers and ionizers for rooms defeats the purpose of having them. It takes a while to build to a desired level of humidity.

But I can't stand when people leave lights or TVs on and other simple shit like that.

I'd guess one of the biggest energy savings people would notice would be from scheduling their thermostat temps based on when they're home/away. Also measures like opening windows to let cool air in at night, then closing them and drawing the blinds in the morning to keep heat out, putting insulating blankets around their water heaters, etc...

 

[BoomerD]

Sometimes...other times it's understandable. MY computer is on 24/7 most of the time, yet I used to bitch at my accounting professor for leaving his on when he wasn't at school...when I was his teacher's aide, I used my key to his office, went in and shut it down for him at least once per week...
I always made sure there was nothing running first...and leave a post-it on his screen.
He'd yell and raise hell...and even called me on it in the middle of class...then thank me for being conscious of his energy wasting...

Otherwise, if I don't pay your electrical bill...I don't care.

 

[spidey07]

It's my energy and I'm paying for it, so why should you care?

In fact I'm going on vacation and I'm going to leave every TV in the house on and turn the thermostat to 65. Take that tree hugger. My kittiess deserve to be entertained and comfortable no matter what room they are in.

 

[Eli]

lol, you're a funny one.

1) I will turn lights and the TV off while not in use.

2) My computers are on 24/7. Period. I hate rebooting.

3) Turning off (de)humidifiers, ionizers and air filters is stupid unless you're going to be gone for a week.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: spidey07
It's my energy and I'm paying for it, so why should you care?

In fact I'm going on vacation and I'm going to leave every TV in the house on and turn the thermostat to 65. Take that tree hugger. My kittiess deserve to be entertained and comfortable no matter what room they are in.

Your overtaxing my energy grid! Here I am busting buns to be as frugal possible for the benefit of all the energy hogs in the 'hood and MY power goes out today?

Im sorry, but that that just pisses me off. :|


:laugh:

 

[Jeff7]

I turn off stuff, except for fluorescent lights, if I anticipate returning to the room within about 20 minutes.

My computer gets turned off each night. I use the wake-on-timer to turn it on in the morning, so there's no waiting for the llllooooong reboot. I only wish that there was the option to have two "alarms" per day. Really, it's 2009, but our computer BIOSes still act like they're stuck in the late 80's. The only major gains I think we've seen are Plug'n'Play detection and voltage/speed setting.
I did own a Supermicro motherboard once though, back in the Pentium II days. That BIOS had a GUI and mouse support.

Pimp mah BIOS, bitches!

 

[FelixDeCat]

Originally posted by: Eli
lol, you're a funny one.

1) I will turn lights and the TV off while not in use.

2) My computers are on 24/7. Period. I hate rebooting.

3) Turning off (de)humidifiers, ionizers and air filters is stupid unless you're going to be gone for a week.

I dunno, my computer hasnt been on for 24 hours plus in years. I have it automatically go into hibernation and shut down after two hours of no use. To each his own I guess.

As far as dehumifiers, etc, I dont use one personally so maybe thats why I dont understand people leaving them running all the time. Im pretty sure I will never own one.

But as long as lights, tv and stereo go off when not in use you are doing your part and I give you kudos for that.

 

[AVAFREAK182]

My computer and TV and fan are almost always on 24/7.

Hippy.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
I dunno, my computer hasnt been on for 24 hours plus in years. I have it automatically go into hibernation and shut down after two hours of no use. To each his own I guess.

As far as dehumifiers, etc, I dont use one personally so maybe thats why I dont understand people leaving them running all the time. Im pretty sure I will never own one.

But as long as lights, tv and stereo go off when not in use you are doing your part and I give you kudos for that.

Live a half mile from a lake, you'll want a dehumidifier. Almost every day, it's 50%+. Summers, it's worse. Step outside and breathe - you won't need to drink the rest of the day.
The apartment here shows the effects of prolonged exposure to humid air: Every singe exposed nail on the paneling and trim is completely covered in rust.
The day after I moved in, I bought a dehumidifier. And an air conditioner (it was August). The dehumidifier gets a break in the winter, but it's on almost continuously in the summer. The only thing I don't like about the cold, dry air in winter is that the skin on the backs of my hands gets quite dry, and it starts to break out in something like a rash - nothing some good skin lotion can't handle though.

 

[Regs]

I have "clapped on" my entire house. Each item needs a sequence of claps though to get it to turn on. Getting coffee in the morning to work is a PITA. Clap..clap clap...clapclapclap....clap...asssmack....asssmack...walla! Coffee.

 

[imported_Imp]

I get annoyed at co-workers who don't turn off their desklamp when they go home at night. Come on, you can't just "forget". That's probably a 10-20W fluorescent you're burning for an extra unnecessary 12 hours, during off peak hours.

 

[Queasy]

I have two kids. That means I'm always following behind them turning off lights, TVs, Xboxs, Wiis, etc. Most of the time I make them go turn it off but it gets old after a while.

 

[shortylickens]

No.

What DOES bother me is self-appointed efficiency experts running around turning shit off without my knowledge or consent, especially when they have no idea what I am doing or how the equipment works. My attitude holds true at home and in the work place.
When I replaced all my mom?s light bulbs with fluorescents I had to tell her repeatedly not to flip the lights on and off all day long. Multiple times I reminded her to leave the things on unless she knows for a fact she'll be out of the room for a little while.
Every month since then she spends more on electricity than when she had all incandescent bulbs through the house. It was all just a big fat waste of money.
I also try to get her to take an active hand in her computers screensaver and standby settings, instead of turning the thing on and off 20 times a day. This is especially important since her computer uses Hibernate by default.

 

[Modelworks]

It only bothers me when I am the one paying the bill.

What annoys me is the commercials "unplug your cell phone charger and save the world ". When those same people live in homes with no insulation, outdated appliances, and have the AC set to 65F.

 

[shortylickens]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
It only bothers me when I am the one paying the bill.

What annoys me is the commercials "unplug your cell phone charger and save the world ". When those same people live in homes with no insulation, outdated appliances, and have the AC set to 65F.

Thats the problem I have. Nobody has any clue how much current they are drawing. They just assume everything needs to be off, because thats all they know.
Central AC uses the most power, by a LONG shot. Next is major appliances, when they are in use.
Then computers and TV's.

Any kind of gadget that needs recharging is using far less current. And they dont keep drawing once they are charged anyway.

Folks need to buy a bunch of inline power meters before they get all bent out of shape and start unplugging crap.

 

[LS8]

I'm no efficiency snob but I am cheap so before I leave the house every day I make sure everything is off. That's just my personal preference and I don't care if other people don't like it.

I did notice a difference in my electric bill a few years ago after installing a digital thermostat with a programmable schedule function - after a year I averaged about $15 a month in savings.

As for what other people do in their own homes, I couldn't care less. If you want to run all your appliances and lights 24/7 that's your business.

 

[Fayd]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat

Originally posted by: Fayd
my overclocked computer is always on 24/7.

does that bother you?

Are you folding or undertaking some other useful task? If not, yes.

why would i do some shit like that?

fuck no. overclocked and doing nothing 12-16 hours a day.

 

[DayLaPaul]

Pay my electricity bill and I'll make sure to turn my lights out when not in use.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: FelixDeKat
Does it bother you when you go to someones house and they have two or three televisions, cable boxes and 5.1 stereos going on in separate rooms, a computer or two just sitting running screensavers on multiple moniters, room humidifiers / ionizers, various lights on, etc. Now of course the excuse is "well, we come and go into each room or the kids are watching tv but are outside right now or I was going to check the wash when the phone rang and I got into an hour long conversation", so on and so forth. While all that is well and good for certain people, it bothers me to no end. Multiply this behavior by thousands if not millions of homes around the country and it shouldnt make you wonder why our very own neighborhood had a blackout today. We set a record in DFW for energy use Friday, June 26, 2009.

In not a tree hugging environmentalist, but please people turn off things if you arent in the room or tell your kids to if they go outside or whatever. Its just disgusting the amount of wasteful habits we have developed and its getting worse with all the "engery star - always on - standby mode" vampires.

Or should I just mind my own business? :frown:

/rant

You're a freak. I agree with you on almost nothing. This is one of the exceptions. I'm not sure what this makes me.

Turning off unused electrical appliances is the way we were raised. Of course, this can be taken to extremes. When visiting my sister's, I will often have to turn the room light back on when I return after being gone just a few minutes. This behavior makes me want to act like some of the flippant posters in this thread. On the other hand, even though she is super-conscious about this, she acts stupid when I suggest that one of the their four refrigerator/freezers could be disconnected saving much more than turning lights off.

I always set up a pc to go into standby after 45 minutes. Since vista, this consistently works and wakes up quickly. It's stupid and arrogant not to if it's just a web browser/office pc. It also creates a smaller window of time in which some fucken virus can attack the pc.

 

[Locut0s]

Yes it does but it also depends on what's on. I leave my Computer on a lot though not 24/7. My printer is always on though in standby and I almost never use it. Other things like lights, the TV, and the like do bother me if they are left on.