What are they thinking

[LSMFT]

Talk about wasted oil imports, or coal or CO2 how about this.

I just check my power usage on my entertainment center with a new power gadget.

Sitting idle, turned off, not in use my tv, dvd player, satillite DVR, and stereo are burning 40 watts. 40 Watts TURNED OFF! Takes 150 watts turned on.

That adds up to .55 cents a day, $16.79 a month, $201.48 a year. That's real money.

If my light bill is $36.00 a month, by unplugging the power strip my bill drops to $20.00 a month.

Think of all the entertainment systems in the country!? .37 KWH times

200,000,000; that's 74 million KWH!!!!

We are certainly not trying to save energy by manufacturing devices that consume power when turned off. It's Nuts!

[Frank]

They call them power vampires:

says if off, average savings would be 0.08% per year.

I turn off what I can but cable TV boxes if turned off need time to reboot and it is a PITA.

[greenpjs]

40 watts = 55 cents per day? That would be 57 cents/kwh. Where do you live?

[Kurt Ullman]

And, for at least one of my TVs, if I cut off power, then I need to reprogram it. PITA. ANybody care weigh in on whether I should turn my computer all the way off then boot up again the next morning?

[LSMFT]

OOPS! I had it programed wrong, .59 instead of .059. The money is wrong but the watts are right. It's still pissing millions of KWH down the toilet for devices that are off, in unused mode.

[dpb]

On 4/25/2011 8:57 AM, LSMFT wrote: ...

But they aren't truly unused; they're saving preprogrammed data and the other aforementioned annoyance of slow on-time, etc., etc., etc., ...

If you want to try it and see how you like it the other way, put them on a power strip and turn 'em off and see how that goes for a while.

There is no free lunch; you're paying for the convenience and the facility to have those kinds of entertainment devices ready at hand when wanted. (I'll not discuss whether that's a need or not since I'm the type who's yet to program the VCR (which hasn't seen more than one or two uses in its life) and don't have DVD other than the drive in this machine which has, as far as I know, never had a DVD played in it...altho I might be getting ready for the first; I bought a Leigh dovetail jig the other day and I just _MIGHT_ try to watch a little of the instructional DVD... :) ).

--

[notbob]

Only $.059/kwhr!? Again, where do YOU live? We pay $.14 kwhr.

As for the vampire thing, start walking thru yer house. Clock radio, night light, electric toothbrush, cordless phone, lighted doorbell button and light swithces, microwave, digital clock on stove, blah blah.... ad nauseum.

It's positively shocking how much crap we have leeching pwr 24/7. The power companies love it. ;)

nb

[bob haller]

satellite boxes espicall DVRs are power hungry, turn off a satellite receiver only turns off the modulator, leaves everything else on.

a easy test...... feel the item if its wearm its wasting energy:(

[DA]

Many of these devices are never actually off. Cable TV boxes and I presume your satellite DVR are only turning the front panel display off (or simply switching it for a digital clock). They are constantly in communication with the mothership to check if you're still paying for the channels you expect to come on at a click of a button.

I have my entertainment equipment hooked up to a power conditioner device that has one big OFF button. When I'm done, I just switch everything off through that device. One disadvantage is that Verizon FIOS box takes 3 minutes to come online - won't work until it's authenticated with their servers and it takes time. I've been doing it for 2+ years and everyone in the household is still complaining about that wait time. We're so used to expecting these devices to be on instantly.

I've heard stories that Comcast sales reps are mentioning that their arch-rival Verizon FIOS's devices consume more power, even when off. I don't know if this tactic is working yet - power is still very cheap, most people would hardly notice the difference on their power bill. It must take either serious power cost increase or an EPA intervention to make the manufacturers re-design their devices and procedures. Right now the convenience of "always on" is winning.

------------------------------------- /\_/\ ((@v@)) NIGHT ():::() OWL VV-VV

[Twayne]

It's the users and purchasers that insist on the "instant on" features on everything. No one is willing to wait any more. I'm not sure I trust the accuracy of your measurements, but the gist of y our comments are true.

HTH,

Twayne`

[Twayne]

Depends on whether you believe that turning hard drives on/off noticeably shortens their lives due to excessive wear patterns vs being green. My PC, monitor and laser printer all consume 5 to 7 watts when in standby/off modes. If I'm goign to turn the computer off overnight I'd use Hibernate mode so that when you come in next morning there's no boot up to wait for. Turn computer on and everything is simply read in from storage on the hard drive instead of booting.

HTH,

Twayne`

[notbob]

This used to be the case a long time ago when HDDs were clunky and prone to failure. No longer. I run my computer all day long and turn it off every night. It's over 9 yrs old.

If anything is gonna fail, it's the monitor. I still use old CRTs and I've been through 3 (all acquired used, mind you) in the last 3 yrs. My next will be a LCD/LED/whatever.

nb

[LSMFT]

I guess if you are regular in your entertainment times the best bet is to put the power strip on a timer. I only watch from 5pm to 11pm. Set my timer to warm up the stuff 15 minutes before 5pm and to cut it off at a half hour after 11pm in case I want to watch the news again.

[LSMFT]

Central Maine Power. It's .059819 a killowatt after the first 100 kilowatts. The first 100 is a flat rate of about $8.45

Where is it at .14?

[leonard hofstadter]

the national avg is almost 12, so 14 doesn't sound out of line

[notbob]

Eight thousand feet in the CO Rockies. It was $.12 back in SF Bay Area. Not cheap, out West.

nb

[Mark]

in Maine in the winter, the power wasted is not really "wasted", it helps keep your house warm...

but in the summer if you are using A/C, then its more like DOUBLY wasted, you pay for the heat and pay again to pump the heat out.

So turn all that stuff off in the summer but don't worry about it in the winter.

Mark

[notbob]

Probably not, but we use propane whenever possible. That can be expensive, too, at as high as $200 mo in dead of Winter. Then go 6-8 mos on one tank. I love it here in Rockies, but cold costs! ;)

nb

[bob haller]

Cut power to some stuff too long like satellite and cable boxes and NO SERVICE will greet you when you try to use it again, and DVR boxes must be powered on to record when needed. Some things deauthorize themselves when off line too long

although I agree theres way too much waste!

[Jules Richardson]

That's OK, KWH are easy to find. I can see several now, right from where I'm sitting.

;)