Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A force as insidious as Dracula is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of the electricity that seeps from your home's outlets.
Insert the little fangs of your cellphone charger in the outlet and leave it there, phone attached: That's vampire electronics.
Allow your computer to hide in the cloak of darkness known as "standby mode" rather than shutting it off: That's vampire electronics.
Electronic 'vampires' suck energy, not blood - USATODAY.com |
While there are some products that can easily be designed to not pull power while plugged in, those are becoming less and less of an issue (though they do exist). They can easily be designed not to pull power by a change simple circuit design.
As for the ones that are in "power saving mode", those devices do so because they serve a purpose. A computer will run in stand by mode which follows certain procedures to which allows immediate access to resources. For instance, if a person wants to be able to quickly get to a file they were working on, the machine can turn on and be exactly where they left off (being that it takes a constant energy pull to keep power in volatile memory). A printer may be left on in standby so that it can be accessible immediately without waiting for it to warm up and run its initial communication protocols to the computer. A monitor for a computer might also follow the same principal of not having to warm up for function by staying in a power saving mode.
With coffee makers, it is somewhat similar. The product might have a clock, which needs to pull power to keep the time (unless you want to pay for batteries). Also, if you want it to make coffee automatically at some time of the day, you need to have it powered so it can perform this function.
There are many products out there that take power for legit purposes as they could not provide their function without doing so. Some are also designed to last longer by this design. For instance, a computer turned on and off constantly will have its circuits weaken and decay at a much faster rate than if it stayed on. Heating and cooling of these circuits puts extreme pressure on them.
As I am sitting here at my desk, I can see several devices that provide reasonable power use due to their design and would be considered somewhat of a "vampire" device by some standards. The answering machine always shows the number of messages digitally and that takes power. The charge and power led on my phone lets me know it is functioning properly. My microwave at home displays a digital clock, again, more power consumption.
Point is, is it a "theft" or "vampire" effect that these products are producing or is it a service they provide by their design?
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
