Good grief, why does a plasma TV suck so much juice when turned off?

ToddZ

Blurtek: I don't give a shit about the strain on the environment.

If it inconveniences me, I won't have any part of it.

WV.Hillbilly

What I hate are the tags the put on like the
"...cost US consumers $3 billion a year"
in order to make the problem look bigger that the $50 a year the average person spends.

arcticJKL

I'm not sure if the chart is too accurate. Maybe that's too harsh -- I should say maybe the chart is too generalized, as one laptop isn't exactly like another, for example.

However, I still find the chart useful. If anything, it reminds me to be more mindful with energy consumption.

Pete

Their chart isn't very sccurate. Their vampire load for the laptop for example is way too high, its almost as high as my laptop when its running normally.

enine

Don't forget that some devices will break much faster if you constantly turn them off/on with a power strip, like TVs for example.

holyspidoo

Hey JARICK, $1.44 is not the cost to leave your radio on. It's the cost to leave the radio off.

pertu

Yea, I'm in agreement with Jarick and hillbilly... it's not worth the effort. And it's not because I'm "lazy," just that I value what little time I have to relax.

If the situation was reversed, and there was some device that saved people from constantly having to switch a powerstrip on/off or unplug devices (for only a few dollars a year!) lifehacker would probably be writing posts about how great a timesaver it is because, after all, all those little diversions add up to a lot of wasted time!

mmalone

I have a contact that works at my local energy company, and she was telling us similar info that this chart does. I would have liked to see a digital cable box listed, as it is apparently one of the worst culprits. The only thing is, if you unplug those you have to wait about 20 minutes for your interative guide to re-load (at least on mine).

So to solve this, I bought a powerstrip that has a 7 day programable timer on it (about $15 at Home Depot). It has 4 outlets that turn on and off with the program (and 4 that stay on). So I have it set to turn off at night after I'm in bed and turn back on about half an hour before I get home from work. This way I can shut down my TV, DVD Player/stereo, and cable box while I'm not going to be using it.

I think I might buy another one for my office, though there it would be easier to just shut off a powerstrip.

As for WV.HILLBILLY -- it's not about the cost!!! It's about less strain on the environment! If everyone took steps to truely shut down some of these things, it can make a significant reduction in overall energy use in North America.

blurtek

How cheap are people?
My time is worth more than the savings of plugging and unplugging everything in the house.

WV.Hillbilly

Wonder if their computer figures are for S1 sleep mode, S3 sleep mode, or powered-off.

HeartBurnKid

I'm glad Conigs cleared things up about the Wii. I was going to do the same, but he did said it all.

Now the PS3 and Xbox360 are another story. The Wii was designed with low power consumption in mind, they weren't.

ahawks

I came away impressed with how little it costs to leave all my stuff on. $1.44 for my radio? Small price to pay to keep my Beagle from howling.

Jarick

It you want to know exactly how much energy your stuff is using get a "Kill-a-Watt". [www.amazon.com] It even has a button to tell you usages in kilowatts per hour which is what your energy bill is shown in.

Whitehead

Plugging your devices into a power strip, then turning it off is a good idea. A lot of businesses are enacted a similar policy for their employees. I do the same for my workstation.

Also unplug those DC adapters. You know how they become warm to the touch, even when you are not using them? That sucks up your energy too.

Vytorious

Regarding the Wii... from what I've read, the Wii only uses 18W while in use (ie, actually playing a game). So even if you were to play a game 24/7/365, it would only consume around 158 kilowatt-hours for the year. In standby, it would consume 87.6 kilowatt-hours a year, not the 233.9 reported here. Also note that this list uses a 2005 survey for its numbers. (And I really have to question these numbers. At the time, the highest a console would use in standby was 2W, equating to 17.5 kilowatt-hours/year, a far cry from 233.9.)

However, the takeaway of turning more devices completely off is a good one.

conigs

I'd be interested in seeing "remote on" power strips so you could use a universal remote to turn on the strip. Convenience is no doubt a major barrier to getting the couch-potato generation to save energy.

dostillevi

Yeah, this chart is pretty much useless. All the numbers are way too high. Game console in standby? PS2 should be at about 2, not 200 or whatever huge number it was on there.

OmegaRed59

@WV.Hillbilly: Thats a great attitude to have...your kids and grandkids will greatly appreciate it.

BruceMagnus

Seriously... can someone explain the Plasma??

surlyscarab

@BruceMagnus: Yes, because your little radio being plugged in and using a couple of dollars of electricity per year is going to cause the polar icecaps to melt and the world to be covered in a smog blanket.

There's such a thing as diminishing returns. Look it up.

HeartBurnKid

Don't believe everything you read. Based on articles like this, I was thinking about getting a "smart powerstrip" (detects when the primary device goes off and then shuts power off to all the connected devices) for my video/music equipment. I used my kill-a-watt (mentioned above) on a 32" CRT TV, a VCR, a DVD player, and an amplifier. Power usage when all were in the Off/Standby mode was only five watts. Cutting power to all four devices over the course of a year would save about $5 - I'd need six years to recoup the cost - far greater than the "few weeks" advertised. Don't buy into all the environmental scare tactics. Where possible, test things out yourself. I highly recommend the kill-a-watt. It's great!

mentat2025