If I turned you off back there

[j4]

"On televisions, for example, we would like to see labels saying 'if you watch it, it will cost x pence per hour, if you leave it on standby, it will cost y pence'. Then you can present the environmental cost in monetary terms"

But that's not actually presenting the environmental cost at all, really, is it? Unless you add "WHICH MEANS that when you sink into drooling oblivion in front of the flickering forms of minor celebrities bonking in a bath of baked beans you are not only wasting the product of several thousand years of human evolution but also SYSTEMATICALLY RAPING THE PLANET and leaving it an UNINHABITABLE WASTE LAND, you selfish cretin." Really. Is it. I mean.

That's before we get to the question of how in the name of -- well, frankly, anything you care to name -- an electric toothbrush can be regarded as "essential".

I think I'm just in a bad mood today.

Comments

[lnr]

I keep wondering every time I see those posters if the soundbyte about PC monitors left on is true for modern energy saving ones which power themselves down automatically. And what about LCDs?

LCDs in standby appear to use 1 - 4 watts. Overnight (16 hours) this would amount to 43 - 173 Kj of energy. Or enough to power a 900 watt microwave for 64 - 256 seconds, or 1 - 4 minutes. About enough to heat *one* microwave meal.

Still, probably worth me hitting the extra button on the front.

The biggest figure I can find for CRTs in standby is about 15 watts, which would give about 16 minutes in a 900 watt microwave. Which might *just* heat 6 small plates of spaghetti warm enough to eat. Don't forget to stir halfway through.

(Energy star list 63 CRT monitors, which use 0.6 - 11 watts in sleep mode, and 0.0 to 7 watts in standby mode. And 672 LCDs using 0 - 7 watts in sleep and 0 to 4.2 watts in standby)

Um, sorry, I got a bit carried away there.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Yes, leaving an LCD on for a night only wastes enough electricity to microwave two cups of milk for hot chocolate, but you leave the LCD on every night, and it's an unusually miserable day if I have to have two cups of cheering hot chocolate.

[my colleagues leave all their LCDs on every night; the argument there is that this is a serviced office and turning them off would save no money, but I turn them off anyway]

[lnr]

I'm not denying it's worth it, just arguing with a poster. Of the putting on your wall type.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's definitely worth switching the things off anyway; but it also doesn't really help the environmentalists' cause if they say "Switch off yr monitor because it uses up an area of electricity the size of Wales!" and when asked "Is that true?" they have to say "Actually... no. Not really."

I mean, if I wanted a punchy slogan containing no verifiable facts I'd ask OICCU.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

Does hitting the button on the front actually reduce the power consumption or does it stay around the 1W mark?

I miss the old days when computer PSUs had mains outputs that switched off when the PC was off. That would solve this problem nicely.