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Yep. According to Natural Resources Defense Council via NYT, "about a quarter of all residential energy consumption is used on devices in idle power mode" in No
by npunt 5y ago
Yep. According to Natural Resources Defense Council via NYT, "about a quarter of all residential energy consumption is used on devices in idle power mode" in Northern California [1]. Huge opportunity for efficiency improvement through regulatory action, given idle power consumption is otherwise an afterthought for both manufacturers and consumers.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/science/just-how-much-power-do-your-electronics-use-when-they-are-off.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/science/just-how-much-pow...
- Ardren 5y agoYep. This is literally why these PCs cannot be shipped. Their idle/sleep consumes too much power.
- mcswell 5y agoMaybe if they didn't snore so much?
- teruakohatu 5y ago> about a quarter of all residential energy consumption is used on devices in idle power That cannot possibly be true. I would love to know how they calculated that. In New Zealand only about 20% of home electricity is used on electronics. And in the USA it appears to be even lower. https://www.nzcompare.com/n/power/average-household-electricity-usage-new-zealand https://www.nzcompare.com/n/power/average-household-electric... https://www.visualcapitalist.com/what-uses-the-most-energy-home/ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/what-uses-the-most-energy-h... Dryers, fridges, heating and lighting are the vast majority of power and they don't use much idle power.
- boulos 5y agoI suspect it’s not quite right either, but two of those appliances (dryer, heating) are often powered by natural gas in the US (and on the East Coast, heating is done with “heating oil”).
- asdfasgasdgasdg 5y agoHeating oil is generally used more in older installations. Where natural gas is available, we're using that instead now.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- npunt 5y agoThe link to the NRDC pdf with methodology is right there in the NYT article. Here it is, page 8. I edited my comment to show the study/quote was specifically about northern california https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/home-idle-load-IP.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/home-idle-load-IP.p...
- throwaway09223 5y agoIt's not true, at least not in the sense that's implied. If you read the study you'll see they defined "idle load" not as electronics but as all devices which operate passively. They did ten case studies, and in one they found the highest idle load device was a water recirculation pump and the second was a halogen light being left on 24/7 because no one cared. If they studied my home they would consider my fish tanks as "idle load," because they are designed to run continuously. This is not a study of devices in sleep mode. This is a study primarily measuring devices left on, or devices designed to always be on.
- soheil 5y agoThis is the source NYT cited [0]. From page 11: > Per research and analysis conducted by the Stanford Sustainable Systems Labs, idle load was 218 watts on average across the 70,000 homes in PG&E’s service territory. We estimated the always-on share of this idle load to be 164 watts. Then they go on to say: > ALWAYS-ON, 23% Continuous loads > ACTIVE, 77% Variable loads, including heating and cooling, lighting, and actively used appliances So their definition of idle load includes things like heating/cooling, wtf? Then they guesstimate that 23% of that is always-on load (continuous load) where do they get than number from? [0] https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/home-idle-load-IP.pdf https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/home-idle-load-IP.p...
- WalterBright 5y agoIt's annoying that devices don't have physical power switches anymore. I usually use a bus strip with a switch on it.