Forums > Social Chat > The little red button...

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
i know what people quote, but do TVs these days really use any power other than negligable amounts when in standby? On old TVs that had to warm their tubes for minutes before use, standby meant they stayed on all the time, but these days that isn't needed. If i were to design a TV i'd make the standby feature use enough electricity to run the IR reciever, and the red power LED, which amounts to virtually nothing.

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
right...

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
there ya go, the power use in standby mode is virtually nothing:

https://www.energystar.gov.au/hometech.html

(provided the tv is energy star complient. Not sure about TVs, but virtually all computer monitors these days are)

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
yeh, cheers flid, im after a real world eyeview on things though, energy star is like... an optional thing for manufacturers isnt it and i bet theres no more than 50% of tv's out there that are actually energy star compliant or that will be in phase three 01.07.05.

Ive been told that the amount used in one night on standby is enough to boil two litres of water in a standard kettle. Thats a fair amount when you times it by the number of tellies and divide it by half.

Im going searching...
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Posted: 26th Jan 2004
so those figures show that it would take between 20 and 100 tvs on stand by to use the same power as one light bulb, how about computers that are left on? Does anybody know how much they use? How long would a person have to be away from a computer to save power by shutting it down?

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
https://www.usatoday.com/news/science/wonderquest/2003-09-11-wonderquest_x.htm

about the third article down, doesnt really mean much in figures but its nothing if not suggestive is it ? whats usa today ? is it a credible thing or not ?

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
y run the ir reciever as well ? what is it ?

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
actually I don't even know what you mean by stand by.

I just have an old tv that I don't really watch.

is stand by different than being off?

what's the point?

Maybe these are dumb questions, but just humor me

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
heh, nevermind wan, youve put that smile right back on my face, i agree what is the point?

But just in case anyones interested:

"Focus on Energy Efficiency Plays to POWI's Strengths.

According to Berkeley National Laboratory, household appliances and consumer electronics waste more than $4 billion of electricity a year while they are supposedly turned "off." By some estimates, standby or no-load power consumption accounts for about 7% of residential energy use. Standby power refers to electricity drawn by a device when it is plugged in, standing by, and ready to attain full power when needed. A printer, for example, wastes energy while it waits in standby mode until it is activated for printing. No-load power loss comes from the power drawn by an electronic product that is plugged in but not performing any actual function. Cell phone chargers continue to draw power even when they are not charging a phone, and desktop PCs that are turned off but plugged in also consume electricity.

In response to this waste, countries around the world are implementing regulations and statutes to promote energy conservation. The Energy Star program in the U.S., for instance, encourages electronics manufacturers to comply with EPA energy efficiency standards such as the one requiring that televisions and VCRs use no more than 3 watts of electricity per hour when in standby mode. Previous guidelines permitted the use of up to 30 watts of standby power. In addition, in July 2001, President Bush signed an executive order dictating that most household electronics and appliances purchased by the federal government use 1 watt or less per hour when not in use.

Power Integrations' patented EcoSmart technology has been incorporated in all its ICs since 1998, allowing highly integrated power supplies to meet the new energy-efficiency guidelines being promulgated by governments around the globe. We believe this trend will drive more and more electronics manufacturers to use POWI's ICs."

I pulled that off an Investment Banking website.

Who would have thunk it? George Bush got there before me ... I feel really stupid now.

But good on ya George
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Posted: 26th Jan 2004
Actually it took me a while to realize what you were talking about. My TV goes "Off" when you push the button (which just happens to be red) but I have seen entertainment systems where the TV screen kinda goes dark grey when you try to shut it "off". Some TVs do this when you shut the cable box but not the TV.

It's an interesting point but I think there are better ways to concerve energy.

Well, shall we go?
Yes, let's go.
[They do not move.]

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
I think the person needs to make coherent posts.

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
The posts seem coherent enough to me now that I know about this stand by thing.

I still don't know why they don't just go off and use zero watts when they are not being used. That seems simple enough to me.

I guess with the tv maybe it has to use some power so that it is ready to receive the remote control's order to turn on????

That doesn't explain why other, non remote controled appliances need to use power when they are not on.

I'm confused

but that happens to me regularly, nothing to be alarmed about, but hopefully somebody can explain.

Posted: 26th Jan 2004

Quote:

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It's an interesting point but I think there are better ways to concerve energy.

---

this kind of attitude makes it sound like an either or situation.

There may be ways to conserve more energy than these will save, but why not do those and think about this.

It's obviously substantial when added up across the wasteful western world and it seems to me to be completely pointless.

Down with senseless waste!!!

Posted: 26th Jan 2004
ok, to put it in perspective:

considering only tvs, lets say in the USA:

150 million tvs (1 for every 2 people???) probably a conservative estimate considering all tvs in residential and public places.

150 million X 30 = 4.5 billion watts = 4500 Megawatts (old tvs)
150 million X 3 = 450 Megawatts (new standards)

so the actual amount will probably be between 450 and 4500 Megawatts. (tvs only)

I used to work at a large, dirty coal power plant. It was quite large and very, very polluting and it produced a lot of pollution and 900 Megawatts. It would take between a half and 5 of those power plants to power America's tvs when they're not even on!!!
That's not even considering other appliances or computers.

This doesn't seem insignificant to me, I hope somebody can explain why it makes any sense at all for appliances to use any power at all while they are not being used. I suspect that nobody can explain it though, because I don't think it makes any sense

Posted: 27th Jan 2004
There's an ad campaign running on Irish TV at the moment to encourage people to get off their lazy lard-asses and switch their appliances OFF at night, instead of leaving them on stand-by.



According to their information, most appliances left in stand-by mode can use up to 20% of the amount of power that they used when switched on. Also, appliances which are left on stand-by can account for up to 6% of residential energy use.



This is just darn laziness. We should try to conserve energy, however possible, at all times (like leaving the tap running on full while brushing your teeth really peeves me too)

My mind not only wanders, it sometimes leaves completely