The True Cost of Standby Power

Luther19 writes, "How much do all of our computers and electronic devices sitting in standby mode cost us? The author of the article concludes that he could save $24.44 per year by switching out wasteful power supplies. The article also touches on a global initiative to cut down on standby power, called '1-Watt': 'The idea has been promoted by the IEA, which first developed an international 1-Watt plan back in 1999. Countries like Australia and Korea have signed on officially, while countries like the US require 1-Watt in government procurement, which will have ripple effects throughout the economy. The goal of the program is to have standby power usage fall below 1W in all products by 2010.'" It's estimated that in industrialized countries, devices on standby consume on average 4% of the power used.

Comments

I agree with this

[LiquidCoooled]

But I don't think people are going to switch out their PSU mid hardware life.
Push these improvements to the manufacturers and make the next generation of devices last longer per watt.
Make them better when they are both on and off.

Also folks, switch off your keyboard indicator lights to save power.

Re:1 Watt Post!

[Bob Cat - NYMPHS]

/. could save some electrons by getting these first post guys off of standby.

Instead of Standby

[SurturZ]

This is a serious problem and we need to change, and change now. I propose that instead of "Access Standby" mode we IMMEDIATELY redesign ALL electronic items to have a "Mode Execute Ready" state which uses less power.

Traditional Power

[Anonymous Coward]

I have recently switched to a steam powered laptop. Nothing like coal and water.

-----------

James Watt XXIII

Re:Traditional Power

[Anonymous Coward]

And still cooler than a Macbook Pro! :)

Re:Traditional Power

[CreatureComfort]

You sir, have obviously never used a Macbook Pro. Especially sitting on your lap while you wear shorts.

And it costs how much?

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Postings so far have criticized the cost of conversion to save the under-$25/year figure.

But there's another cost:

How much does it cost in lost productivity, over a year, while people wait for their monitors and computer to "warm up" from power-save mode every time they've left their desks or done something OFF the computer for too long?

And for recreational machines: In lost lifetime? How much is YOUR life worth to you?

How can America measure in WATTS?

[Anonymous Coward]

A watt is one kilogram times a meter squared divided by a second cubed. The second cubed is easy to visualize, but then someone mixed it with stinky French metric units.

Re:Why use standby?

[Tiger4]

In the five seconds I'm waiting for it to restart, I'll forget why I wanted to turn it on. Modern society functions on IMMEDIATE gratification of desries. Are you trying to kill us all?

Re:You bastard.

[plopez]

Yeah nice one. Now you're just spewing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.
Unless you and/or your employer signed up for wind generated power, your laptop runs on electricity probably generated by one of these 3 things:
1) A nuclear power plant,
2) a coal fired plant that generates steam that then runs turbines to generate electricity,
3) another power plant with coal replaced by natural gas.

So, in fact, many people actually *do* have a steam powered coal fired laptop. :)

Re:Pareto

[StikyPad]

It's not unused. What the Save-a-watt fanatics don't want you to consider is that without standby power, you couldn't turn on your TV with a wireless remote. Just imagine if everyone had to get up to turn on the TV. The only thing we're doing is moving the energy consumption back to FOOD. This ridiculous proposal to eliminate standby power will result of a food crisis of never-before-seen proportions as couch potatoes everywhere compensate for the extra physical activity by eating more.

So go ahead, call us idiotic. Carry your hip "I won't stand by for standby" signs, and lobby Congress to ban devices that consume "unused power." But when the famine arrives -- and it will arrive -- don't say you weren't warned.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go stock up on canned goods.

Re:New PC PSU's might be 10-15% more efficient

[drjzzz]

it costs around $50/year to power that PC for about 6 hours per day

So that's about $150/year for most /.ers, right? That's a ~2 year payback, then (3) profit!...

Re:Pareto

[Gadgetfreak]

You just need a reaching broom like Homer...