VAMPIRE ELECTRONICS - Sucking the Money right out from under us

[Kelemvor]

Interesting story.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/1...ctronics.ap/index.html

... Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That's "vampire" electronics.

Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as "standby mode" rather than shutting it off: That's vampire electronics.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms. That amounts to about $4 billion a year....

I want to pick up a Kill A Watt and go around my house checking things like this but haven't gotten around to it yet. Hopefully someday I'll do it since I have lots of electronics that get used rarely but still draw a bit of power.

 

[HammerCurl]

I was hoping for a bad joke or a pun. But I probably should turn off my computer at night.

 

[Cuda1447]

Interesting you posted this thread now. My girlfriend and I have a small 950 sq. ft apartment that we moved into a few months ago. Our electricity bill was around 100-105. Two months ago it was at 115. When we moved in we estimated 100 for electricity costs, so we were like wtf... it shouldn't be this high. We thought we had overestimated. Well, Ive got a desktop that I rarely use hooked up with dual monitors. We decided to turn it off and see if it made a difference in our electric bill. Last months bill just came. $80. We shaved $35 dollars off our electric bill. I can't say for sure if thats due to just the computer being off, but we didnt really change our style of living aside from that. All in all, I was pretty surprised.

 

[kranky]

I don't leave my PC on when I'm not using it, but I have too many things that use power all the time - TV, DVD player, stereo, microwave, coffee maker (it has a little digital clock in case you want to set the timer), kitchen range (clock again), of course the alarm clock/radio, the emergency lights plugged into four outlets, the CO2 monitor, and I'm probably forgetting something.

 

[ArmchairAthlete]

If I turn my PC off all of the servers on it including the webserver and subversion vanish.

I do turn off the monitor and speakers though.

 

[CPA]

I don't turn off my computer because the $30-35 it costs annually to keep it on is worth it compared to the hassle of turning it on and waiting for it to boot up.

 

[Vette73]

Yea I got a kill a watt and found my cheap DVD player used 1/2 the power in standby that it uses when playing a DVD. So I have it hooked to a switch and just turn it off when not used.

 

[Kelemvor]

The main thing I'm concerned about are my HP 3330 printer and the Dell 3100CN printer. The HP is on all the time and doesn't have a power button so I'd have to pull the plug to turn it off. The Dell is my wife's color laser printer which I set to low power mode after an hour or so but she never turns it off when she's done.

Of course then downstairs we have dvd player, receiver, cd player, vcr, etc that don't need to be on... $20 for a Kill-A-Watt to possible save hundreds in a year I guess makes sense. Now to go find a good deal.

Ooo, $19.79 shipped from Meritline with their storewide 10% off deal that expires today. sw10poff

 

[FoBoT]

i leave as much stuff plugged up/turned on to make up for you wusses

 

[KeithTalent]

My rig uses a lot of juice, but I always turn it off when I am not using it. Lights I almost always have off unless I am reading or doing something else that requires, erm, light.

KT

 

[Epic Fail]

Originally posted by: CPA
I don't turn off my computer because the $30-35 it costs annually to keep it on is worth it compared to the hassle of turning it on and waiting for it to boot up.

try $30 * 12

 

[Squisher]

You'll find a lot of online articles about this if you look up "Phantom Energy Loss" or "Electrical Leakage."

 

[us3rnotfound]

Big K.

 

[darkswordsman17]

I've been hearing more and more about standby and how its using so much electricity, but I think it would be better if people used standby more. I see a lot of cases where people leave things completely on when not using them. A lot of people leave their computers fully on throughout the entire day, leave lights on all the time, and leave audio equipment on when not using it. Also, a lot of things completely lose settings if not in standby, so that's a pain.

Printers are a big thing that would benefit from better power management. I completely unplug mine most of the time since I don't use it a lot. If it would retain settings better then a complete shutoff is good. Out router and modem could probably benefit from low power modes since there's plenty of times when its not getting much use, but turning it completely off you have to wait a good 5-10 minutes for it to get reconnected fine.

Moving to using a laptop would save quite a bit of electricity for plenty of people, especially ones using a couple year old ones with CRTs. Interestingly, as far as energy consumption goes, I would think MP3 players have helped a fair amount, although its probably evened out by the fact that people are using them where they used to not use anything.

 

[middlehead]

I've had half the light bulbs in my apartment go out in the last month, replaced all the failures with CFLs. I'm curious to see if/how-much my bill will change.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: yamadakun

Originally posted by: CPA
I don't turn off my computer because the $30-35 it costs annually to keep it on is worth it compared to the hassle of turning it on and waiting for it to boot up.

try $30 * 12

fine, $360

 

[Auric]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17
I've been hearing more and more about standby and how its using so much electricity, but I think it would be better if people used standby more.

Indeeed. STR power consumption is minimal. For folks that just wanted to quickly check their email or look something up it could even potentially save power versus multiple boots since each one is a substantial draw for a relatively long time. Plus it would be friggin' annoying and there are better ways to save far more power. The main problem is not such standby modes but just the fact that many devices draw power for no particular reason when they not on due to shoddy design.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: yamadakun

Originally posted by: CPA
I don't turn off my computer because the $30-35 it costs annually to keep it on is worth it compared to the hassle of turning it on and waiting for it to boot up.

try $30 * 12

fine, $360

If you use it at about the same time each day, such as when getting home from work, you can set the RTC Alarm in the BIOS' power management section to turn your computer on at a certain time each day.

My PC, cable modem, and router are all on a UPS. I now turn off the UPS, too whenever I'll be away from my apartment for awhile. The modem gets pretty warm, even when it's not in use, so it's got to be using a fair amount of power (for something its size) to get absolutely nothing accomplished.

To "save time" while booting, use parallel processing.
In the morning, first thing I do when I'm getting ready for class is switch the PC. Then while I'm brushing my teeth, it's booting up. By the time I'm done with that, it's booted. Then it's switched back off for the day.
When I get back from classes, PC gets switched on, and then I get settled in, and maybe get supper. Again, by the time I'm done with that, the PC is ready to go.

 

[jagec]

The computer I don't mind so much. It makes sense that a machine which needs to keep a lot of very complex circuitry energized to perform high-level logic functions takes a lot of power to stay on standby. But there's NO reason for a TV/VCR/DVD player to use as much electricity as they do when "off" but still plugged in. Seriously, what's wasting all the juice? Is the "boot-up" time any different from a cold start than a warm start? Does the clock really take that much electricity to run? Funny, my watch batteries always seem to last for years. The remote control receiver shouldn't be that high-power either. Of course, I'm perfectly willing to turn the TV on manually, as long as I can use the remote once it's on.

But, of course, no one uses a rocker switch on modern electronics...all momentary, energy-sucking "On/Standby" switches.

 

[biostud]

my computer is hooked up with a USB controlled power saving socket outlet. So every time I turn off my computer it automatically turn of everything plugged into the socket outlet. This is a very easy way to get speakers, printers etc. to turn off when the computer is turned off. I've also changed all bulbs in my apartment to power saving ones which only uses 1/5 of regular ones.

 

[0roo0roo]

cellphone chargers haven't been big vamps for a while. newer ac adaptors are the less wasteful lightweight small versions. think california law requires newer ac adaptors with all new products these days.
old wallwart ac adaptors really do suck though
same with some computer speakers without a hard turn off switch.
as for computers, use standby or hibernation. if your pc is a pos and won't go into a deep standby mode hibernation almost always works.
laptops are best for power saving though, they use maybe 30 watts compared to the 150+ of a normal pc, never mind the 200+ of a gaming pc. and laptops always have working standby modes, wake in a few seconds. very convenient.
macs are also good with power consumption and quick sleep/resume features.

Originally posted by: Kelemvor
The main thing I'm concerned about are my HP 3330 printer and the Dell 3100CN printer. The HP is on all the time and doesn't have a power button so I'd have to pull the plug to turn it off. The Dell is my wife's color laser printer which I set to low power mode after an hour or so but she never turns it off when she's done.

Of course then downstairs we have dvd player, receiver, cd player, vcr, etc that don't need to be on... $20 for a Kill-A-Watt to possible save hundreds in a year I guess makes sense. Now to go find a good deal.

Ooo, $19.79 shipped from Meritline with their storewide 10% off deal that expires today. sw10poff

get a killawatt

my hp 1018 laser printer is always on but it uses like a watt or something really low so it doesn't matter. my canon also uses something insignificant when not in use and its rather old. my guess is printers were designed pretty well for not wasting power. things like cellphone chargers are quibble. better to go after big things like lighting first.


if your pcs fans are still on during standby, it means its not going into deep sleep and you are wasting your time. i had a pc like that, and it basically used almost as much power in that sleep mode as when it was on.

 

[0roo0roo]

video card power consumption can be a bit freaky
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000662.html

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: CPA

Originally posted by: yamadakun

Originally posted by: CPA
I don't turn off my computer because the $30-35 it costs annually to keep it on is worth it compared to the hassle of turning it on and waiting for it to boot up.

try $30 * 12

fine, $360

If you use it at about the same time each day, such as when getting home from work, you can set the RTC Alarm in the BIOS' power management section to turn your computer on at a certain time each day.

My PC, cable modem, and router are all on a UPS. I now turn off the UPS, too whenever I'll be away from my apartment for awhile. The modem gets pretty warm, even when it's not in use, so it's got to be using a fair amount of power (for something its size) to get absolutely nothing accomplished.

To "save time" while booting, use parallel processing.
In the morning, first thing I do when I'm getting ready for class is switch the PC. Then while I'm brushing my teeth, it's booting up. By the time I'm done with that, it's booted. Then it's switched back off for the day.
When I get back from classes, PC gets switched on, and then I get settled in, and maybe get supper. Again, by the time I'm done with that, the PC is ready to go.

yeah, too much hassle.

 

[BUTCH1]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
video card power consumption can be a bit freaky
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000662.html

I'm lucky, my 7600GT is at the top of the pack as far as 3DMarks/watt anyway..

 

[Pepsi90919]

Insert the little fangs of your cell phone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That's "vampire" electronics.

no that's called charging your cell phone