TV Off? How Much Power are You Still Using?

A recent News.com article reminded me of something I thought about a while ago but then promptly forgot about … how much power is wasted by devices we either think are off (but really aren’t) or devices that are trickle charging.

For example, think about your TV. If you’re like most people (including me), you don’t walk to the TV and turn it on. You point your remote control at it and turn it on. But if it was really “off”, you couldn’t do that. There’s always some power running through it. Anything that will respond to a remote control is using power. In fact, consumer electronics account for 15 percent to 20 percent of household electricity use today, up from 5 percent in 1980, according to figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

When you turn off your PC by using the Windows Shut Down menu item, it’s still on also. If you were to open up the PC and look at the motherboard, you’ll see some lights still on. The only way to really turn it “off” is to connect it to a power strip and turn that off or to use the switch located on the back of the PC … or of course, unplugging it. By the way, you should remember this in case you ever have to add a card or RAM to your PC.

In my case, even turning off the power strip leaves something using power. I use UPSes on my desktop PCs, and the batteries on those are charging all the time. Even with a normal power strip, if it has some sort of LED on it monitoring power, that’s using power. Speaking of batteries, that brings up items like cell phones … if you have them plugged in, even if fully charged the charger continues to trickle charge them. I also have some power bricks that have LEDs on them indicating when power is applied … once again, even if the devices are off, the bricks are using some power, since the LED is on … and even without the LED I could verify this by touching the bricks (they are generally slightly warm).

So take some time to think about it. How many things do you have plugged in that don’t need to be? And remember, it’s not just about your wallet, it’s about wasting power that could be used by the rest of the world. Remember, we only have so much fossil fuel.