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The Insatiable Power Hunger of Home Electronics
An anonymous reader writes "A Wall Street Journal columnist recently got his hand on a power meter and decided to write about his findings, the resulting article being discussed here on Slashdot. That author concluded that gadgets are getting a bad rap, and are relatively insignificant power consumers in the grand scheme of things. A rebuttal has appeared, arguing that not only are modern electronics significant power consumers already, while everything else is becoming more efficient, home electronics seem to be getting worse. This echoes the Department of Energy's assertion that 'Electricity consumption for home electronics, particularly for color TVs and computer equipment, is also forecast to grow significantly over the next two decades.' Are gadgets unfairly maligned, or getting an unearned pardon?"
I received an ammeter for Christmas, and I went around my flat finding just how much current these things draw. For reference, the voltage delivered is 125VAC. I'll put out the wattage instead of current drawn.
Cell phone charger: 10W
Washing machine: 790W
Computer: 240W
LCD monitor: 90W
IP telephone: 20W (!!!!!)
42" Hi-def plasma display: 190W
Crazy. That would explain why my light bill is 80 pounds per month!!
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Get a normal land line wired phone without any bells & whistles and it'll consume zero watts until you take it off the hook. IP phones are just for geeks and serve no useful purpose over normal phones other than for just showing off to other geeky friends.