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The same, in principal, happens with battery chargers. If you detach the cell phone but leave the charger plugged in, it will continue to draw power.
Portable printers and scanners that are operated by software programs often don’t even have off switches, and these can be very problematic if left plugged in. An unused but connected scanner can draw 12 watts continuously, says Meier.
We’re likely to see much more efficient electronics as this becomes a more well-known issue. According to most experts I’ve spoken to, the cost to manufacturers to design their products to use energy more efficiently should not result in an increase in pricing. In many cases, the design changes are simple. But what are your options to save energy, money and a piece of the planet in the meantime?
First, Meier says, unplug anything you don’t use often, like your old VCR. Then plug as much of your other gear into surge suppression strips with switches on them, and switch them off when you’re not using them. We’re told by surge suppression strip makers that a surge suppressor will still stop a surge when switched off, as the circuit is broken. Just make sure it’s a surge suppressor—a good one—and not just a “power strip.” Whenever you buy new electronics or appliances, look for Energy Star-rated models. And if you want to check on what’s using power in your home and how much, buy a Kill-A-Watt device. It’s not 100 percent accurate, but it will give you a good idea of what’s using too much electricity.
We won’t even go into cable and satellite TV receivers and many TiVo players that remain always on (for cable boxes, that’s about 30 watts being drawn 24/7). Energy Star is in the process of developing a spec for more efficient set-top boxes. More on this later.
Very useful information, thanks. Add to that, I should mention the radiation from the electronics -when they’re in “standby” - still goes on and the risk of cancer also goes on.
Well said, Mark. +1
Fred, here’s the scam in “global warming/climate change”...
The climate change alarmists want the US to enter into an agreement to cut back CO2 emissions to some incredibly low level, which will cost billions and billions of dollars to realize, if it’s even possible at all. Carbon credits will be bought and sold on the CO2 market as part of this scam, with some people making lots of money off this trading. Someone’s getting rich as a side-effect of “Global Warming”, but not you or me (Al Gore perhaps?).
The dirty secret that no one’s talking about is, these CO2 emissions reductions will have a basically imperceptible effect on “global warming”. That’s right, billions upon billions of dollars wasted (money out of your pocket through higher taxes and increased pricess of energy and other products/services) with no real results, other than making some “Global Warming” insiders rich.
Now that’s a scam!
On a side note, global warming isn’t a scam as far as the temperature HAS increased very slowly over the past couple of years. The question is whether humans are causing this or if it is part of a natural cycle. There really is no way to answer this, because we only started taking accurate temperature measurements around the start of the industrial revolution. There are ways to gauge what the temperature was thousands of years ago, but they’re not accurate enough to prove whether the last 150 years of global warming was caused by humans or not.
In short, is the planet getting warmer? Yes. Is this a bad thing? I don’t know. Is it caused by humans? I don’t know. Is it caused by the blinking light on your idling LCD tv? Definitely not.
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Mike,
Glad you liked the article. I am curious as to the essay you received citing this as a source. Any chance I can see it? My email is .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Many thanks.