Re: HDTV phantom power drain

On Wed, 07 May 2008 08:10:39 -0400, Agent_C <Agent-C-hates-spam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:

>I think FAR too much is made of this tiny trickle of power they
>consume while not in use, and it's often grossly overstated. For
>example, I read in a brochure from Con Edison, that some appliances
>use 'as mush as 25%' of their power while not in use; that's just
>patently false and misleading.
I suspect the TV ad's I have seen are some of the worst possible cases :/

Have you bothered to measure your stuff?
Believe me, there is stuff at both ends of the % of in normal use scale
for
stuff that is "OFF" or standby.
 Is it warm after long periods of non-use is a clue that power is being
dissipated. 

1) Wall warts never turn OFF, so if each one drew +only+ 1 Watt in idle
mode,
That is 24 watt hours EACH or a roughly a KWH every 40 days. NB Really
cheap
ones (containing cheap Iron transformers) idle at 3 to 5 Watts.

2 Having a AC power cord does not prove idle power efficiency. It depends
where the "Power" switch" interrupts the power (and to *What*). Some
things
take the /easy way out/ and just blank the displays and indicators 

Add that there are probably some things you don't want to power off fully
*ever*: Clocks, Security appliances, Freezers.
The biggest savings are for things that are not used for days at a time.
If you are talking a few hours of OFF, then I think the extra stress of
frequent cold starts is going to be more costly than the savings potential
YMMV