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Company’s Gadget Tries to Slay ‘Vampire’ Power Use
Wall Street Journal
MADRID — It has been called “vampire power” or “phantom load,” likened to the power-hungry HAL 9000 computer in Stanley Kubrick’s movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
The unblinking little red light on the television set is silently drawing energy from the grid, and studies show it can add 10 percent or more to a household energy bill.
Now Spanish entrepreneurs claim to have invented a way to end a problem that has bedeviled energy regulators, environmentalists and appliance manufacturers. They have patented an algorithm that can detect when an appliance is in standby mode and automatically switch it off completely.
The standby-mode killer has yet to be proven commercially and must contend with other new products designed to tackle the same problem. But despite some doubters, the Spanish inventors say theirs is the only product able to completely do away with a large, and growing, worldwide problem.
“We have a product on the table that will solve the standby problem definitively,” says Jorge Juan García, a founder of Good for You, Good for the Planet, the Madrid-based company that invented the technology.
Created to help the world’s couch potatoes turn the tube on and off without having to make the arduous 6-foot journey to the TV set, the standby feature has spread to virtually every appliance in the home and office.
Microwave ovens, cellphone chargers, DVD players, computer monitors and printers all silently consume power when they aren’t in use.
The cumulative result is huge. A study by the European Commission found that Europeans waste $9 billion a year paying for appliances in standby mode, which account for about 10 percent of total energy use.
The drain can be higher. A study by the University of California, Berkeley, found that such snoozing machines consume as much as 26 percent of electricity used in gadget-stuffed homes in California.
Machines on standby are responsible for about 1 percent of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the International Energy Agency.
Click here to read the rest of this story in the Wall Street Journal.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:53 pm
Since it has been decided to turn off these devices who is going to spend the time reprograming the devices you deprogram by removing power. Wouldnt it also be a good idea to produce more energy and quit with the green bs.
January 7th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Well DUHHHH!!!! It’s about time somebody figured this one out! I usually just unplug things (tv, rechargeable power tools, microwave, etc.) when I leave the house because I know they suck energy and raise my electric bill. If only I had been thinking outside the box then I could have been a contender for a million dollar idea like this! For those of you who don’t want to wait for a gadget to come onto the market here’s a cheap idea for you: Here in the U.S. most rooms have one outlet controlled by a wall switch (it’s usually the upside down outlet). You can use this to power down your tv, vcr, cable box, satellite receiver, or other electricity stealing appliances. Think about it: When you’re sleeping plus the time you’re at work adds up to about 16 hours of electricity usage (times 30 days) that trickle onto your monthly bill. A few dollars here and there adds up to a lot over the months!
January 8th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
!
January 9th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
In the winter, the “wasted power” from standby appliances turns into heat which helps warm your home. Turn them off and you spend the same amount of money running your furnace.
Vampire power is only important in the summer, when you pay for it twice: once when it runs, then again to pump out the heat.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Don’s tight, and if your house isn’t set up like that, power strips don’t cost very much and allow you to do the same thing. We’ve saved a lt by doing that for our TVs, computers, and home entertainment gadgets.
January 9th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Don’s *right, and if your house isn’t set up like that, power strips don’t cost very much and allow you to do the same thing. We’ve saved a lt by doing that for our TVs, computers, and home entertainment gadgets.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:25 am
Response to Slusher
Been turning off TV stuff and never has to contend with reprogramming each time because the information is already saved indefinitely unless you want to reprogram.
Savings is HUGE! I even turn off computer, printers, everything whenever I go to bed or when I go out for longer than 3 hours.
the savings per month amount to more than 25 dollars a month.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:36 am
I plug my gadgets into a power bar and only let them have power when I use the appliance. I have noticed smaller kwh usage.
January 11th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
@Hal: Do you run your hot water in your bathtub all the time, just so it’s ready when you feel like taking a bath?
I think the idea behind this is that we want to “conserve energy” which leads to reduced dependence on foreign supplies of fossil fuels, reduces the demand on our own supplies, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all while decreasing our utility costs.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
We should just burn Green-Nazis for more power and the problem would be solved.
January 11th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Unless your appliance is ACTIVELY drawing power (whether on or in “standby mode”) than it is not drawing much if any electricity. This campaign to unplug your appliances even if they are off is pretty bogus. I talked to a grounding electrician about this issue once and he said that you are not saving any energy unplugging appliances that are already off.
January 11th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Green me this. Green me that. I’m really getting fed up with the non-stop homage to green that’s being paid by essentially every news outlet from TV to the Internet. Enough already! Do you think it’s going to make me buy your products? Read your junk science? Good grief. Do you not realize that all of this lunacy started over a 1/2 degree temperature variation over 100 years??? That’s 5 one thousandths of a degree per year! Do you not realize that the daily temperature swings in any part of the world are thousands of times greater from noon ’til dusk?
January 11th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
For the most part, I turn off or unplug things when I’m finished using them. My electric bill runs $44/mth. When my husband was alive, the bill ran $84/mth….tv, DVD, VHS, computer/monitor, Nintendo and Play Station.
I’m really getting sick of the global warming hoax!!!! Over 600 world scientists have debunked it. But Al Gore has sweet-talked a bunch of dummies into believing him. Pathetic!
January 12th, 2009 at 1:40 am
Now that global warming is over and the new worry is a comming ice age, we all need to be using as much power as possible to warm things back up. We need to produce as much CO2 as we can to help replenish our protective greenhouse gasses to keep the planet from freezing.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:00 am
How much energy is used when the “powered-down” appliances are “powered-up” from a completely cold status? Stand-by mode ususally keeps the tool/appliance “warm” so less energy is used to bring it to complete operational status.
January 12th, 2009 at 7:10 am
An appliance/tool on stand-by takes less energy to warm to complete ready status than when the item is completely cold.
How much energy (CO2)does it take to bring the item from “cold” to “ready”? It may be more than leaving it on “stand-by”.
January 12th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I put my chargers and other always-on gadgets on inexpensive power strips (ones with switches.) When I’m done with the gadgets, I switch the power strips off. Simple as that.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I pay for it. If want to leave every light and appliance on in my house 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, then as long as I pay my bill…
… there is absolutely no empirical evidence that proves conclusively that humans burning fossil fuels contributes in any significant way to global warming.
January 12th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Expanding on Hal’s comment:
Modern TVs, DVRs, etc., auto-program when they are first plugged in – and again after they have been without power for some period of time.
If this is a consumer product, some people may choose to purchase it. Some will then abandon it. If it is mandated by the government, it will never work:
Unless future electronics come with either nonvolatile memory to store settings and channels, or a backup battery to protect the volatile memory, people will simply come up with ways around the device, including:
1. Turn it on earlier, to allow it to program, and leave it on between “desired” uses
2. Insert a UPS between the vampire-killer and the device
3. Simply never turn the device off
So, a better solution is for the manufacturers to design their devices to preserve settings and fully power off.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:55 am
What they don’t discuss is how much more power it takes to turn the items back on. Standby mode was created to also protect the appliance from energy bursts while it is being turned on and off.
This makes sense for something that is rarely used, it doesn’t make sense for items that are probably used once a day.
If turning the item on/off decreases the life expectancy of the product, then what is the environmental cost on items being thrown into the landfill?
January 13th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Menards, Lowes, Home depot already sell this type of device. Its a plug strip that senses standby appliances and shuts them down. leaving only one in powered mode. no resetting clocks or preferences. Its not all your items but better than nothing! and its here now and inexpensive too boot ;-}
January 13th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
If a network (FOX) would go against this crazy green cult and truly be “fair and balanced” their viewership would explode! (FOX) – “the truth IS out there” why don’t you take a stand against this green non-sense
January 13th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
The standby mode is a very useful tool in many appliances. Many devices have internal clocks and memory. Every computer I have ever had seems to start up in about 1-2% of the normal start up time if it was left in the standby mode. This made me more willing to shut down to standby mode than to just leave it on for periods when I was not using it. We should look at technological solutions such as memory in appliances that does not require electricity. Flash memory exists, but is not used in many appliances. We can isolate clocks to separate circuits so that they use less power. The best solution is to make the same standby features use less energy rather that scrap the entire concept of standby or to use a whole separate device that will shut systems down more than desired or necessary.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Great idea, but they’re going about it all backwards. The question raised in comment #1 must be addressed first or it will never fly… people will not want something that requires them to reprogram their devices every time they want to use them (let alone PAY for this inconvenience). Think of all the flashing clocks when your power goes off. In some instances, for instance a DVR, it may take 15 minutes before it will rebuild it’s guide so you can see what’s coming on TV. They must FIRST change the appliance and electronics industry to create products that are READY for this technology.. when the transition can be seamless, it will be welcomed with open arms. As it stands now, it will be nothing more than a thorn in the side of the consumer due to what appears to be poor planning.
January 14th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
What happens with the appliances that have failed prematurely due to the constant had on/off? Many household appliances, like TV’s, have the ‘easy on’ feature where they are in standby, because it is harder on the appliances to have them start up from a cold state. Many of the modern LCD’s use this technology now, as well as the older TV’s. They always had a portion of their circuitry on because of the inrush of power causing failures.
Personally, if I have a microwave over my stove, I don’t need a clock on each. One works fine. but those are milliamps of power, just like the LED night light in my kid’s bedroom. Maybe if we started using coal, or, God forbid, started developing our own oil fields or nuclear power plants in America, we wouldn’t have the greenies whining about ‘vampire’ power use.
The night light uses less power in one year than the greenies use in a week documenting wastes of energy… Wise up.
—>Rob
January 15th, 2009 at 1:35 am
YES… Over a few months you can even buy a cup of coffee with the money saved. Just walk or ride your horse down to the general store next to the blacksmiths shop and trade for a nasty cup of black coffee. Come on people, are these little green dots of light, or even the really bad red ones going to bring us to our knees. Enjoy life. I’ve got money to purchase even more energy if they will produce it.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:41 am
In order to curb everything the digital readouts would have to be removed form everything we have. Televisions looks off but have the remote control circuit enabled to be able to sense the request to turn on. In order to be dead the whole house would require a lack of remotes, and only battery powered clocks. You COULD use a battery backup for the remote control circuit in a television, but then wackos still claim batteries harm the environment.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:05 am
While I like the innovation, it’s fast approaching the time we do need to find alternative power sources or usage that have a much more advantage overall for the planet, and people.
Greater science in these areas would by far be better in the long term rather than a stopgap measure for a planet now only starting to understand the problems facing the 21st century.
January 15th, 2009 at 7:39 am
Why don’t they just stop putting the little lights on equipment? that’s the easiest thing
January 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
We plug things into power strips, so turning off the power strip kills power to the devices. Organize by usage category (e.g., TV, DVD player, game console all on one strip) and it’s easy to control vampire power. All your electronics should be on some kind of surge protector anyway, so it’s kind of a no-brainer.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
All,
I am an expert in the field of electrity. I can tell you this story has the same merit as Obama telling us that if we air up our tires we can solve the oil dependence problem…Not So!!
Factually he is right, there is some savings but the savings don’t add up to a reduction of oil usage in the US. You could save dollars a year at the most off your electric bill with such a device. Look into how your electric meter works and educate yourselves. Stop listening to the bull! Our government should start giving tax credits for improving the insulation in our homes. This would make more of a difference to save energy. Massive amounts of electric power are lost due to improper home insulation guidelines for construction of new homes. Just turn off the lights when you leave the room and insulate your home. This is a better plan.
I am unconvinced of this huge savings.