US electronics turned off use more electricity than all of Italy

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/10/30/vampire.electronics.ap/index.html

The International Energy Agency has estimated standby energy use by vampire electronics at 200 to 400 terawatt-hours a year. The entire country of Italy consumes about 300 terawatt-hours of electricity each year, according to the agency.

That’s amazing. 4 billion dollars a year in electricity used by things that are turned off.

italy is smaller than my dick, go hug a tree hippy

I have to question the accuracy of the study.

The latest estimates show 5 percent of electricity used in the United States goes to standby power, a phenomenon energy efficiency experts find all the more terrifying as energy prices rise and the planet warms.

I find it hard to believe that 5% of my electric bill goes to LCD clocks when there are things like refrigerator compressors running 24/7, electric oven sucking big spikes of power, etc. Then when you figure they are talking about the country as a whole, including big industry that sucks megawatts upon megawatts, standbye power of consumer electronics becomes even less significant.

But who knows, I just don’t want to turn anything off or unplug anything. :gotme:

US Population: 303,203,064 October 24, 2007
Italy Population: 59,131,287 Dec 31, 2006

Yeah… thats like saying your V8 gets worse gas mileage than my SmartCar.

It’s apples to oranges.

More Nuclear powerplants!!!1

:lol:

Probably the first and only time in my life that I’ll be called a hippy.

To me this is one of those “free energy” issues. For very little money you add the circuitry to cut the power completely to these devices when they’re not in use and you save 4 billion a year in energy, tons of greenhouse gasses, natural gas, coal etc etc.

Instead the stupid fucking hippies try and force me into a hybrid car that by the time you account for all the extra shit that goes into it I’d have to drive to 300k just to make it any more earth friendly than a regular car.

No, it’s like saying your V8 gets worse gas mileage while parked in the garage not running than a SmartCar driving 15k a year. I realize Italy is much smaller than the US. But they’re not comparing our power consumption to theirs. They are comparing our standby consumption to their full consumption. When you consider that Italy is hardly some third world country it helps put it into perspective.

It’s definitely not one of those issues you’re willing to do anything about as an individual. I know I’m not putting all my shit on power strips and dealing with that hassle for a few bucks a month off my National Grid bill. But if you make this change at the product manufacturing level you add a tiny cost to the product for a big return. Hell, give the companies a tax incentive so a product with an “auto completely off” mode is the same cost to manufacture as one without it. That’s good government spending for energy conservation right there.

That is true, and I realized that before posting the stats, someone had to post them up.

I love America.

:word: I’m going to go eat some bacon and then leave the house without turning the lights off all while my SUV is idling in the driveway. :tup:

Fuck those eye ties. They all use hand crank pasta machines.

America knows best, everyone knows that, if they don’t we just have not invaded them yet

AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!!

i agree with this. i don’t understand how my lcd tv draws more power than a crt tv. ITS NEW TECHNOLOGY, IT SHOULD BE BETTER :bloated:

^lol, for your old CRT to put out as much “light” it’d draw more power. $0.02.

JayS, you should run for… who am i kidding! :lol:

^ cover is about the only thing I should run for most of the time.

Though the idea of running for a spot on the town board in Amherst is looking more and more appealing.

swap the bacon for beef, and you have anonymity