When is almost nothing really something?
The International Energy Agency says that keeping all our billions of
electronic thingies plugged in is wasting almost enough electricity to satisfy
Canada’s entire power demand.
Part of what’s going on is all the devices that are set in “standby”
mode, so they power on instantly.
Part of what’s going on, says The Toronto Star, is the growing use of
devices that are connected to networks so they’re always “on” and accessible
from anywhere.
….and then there are all the “little” things like the 160 million cable
TV “boxes” sitting next to TVs in the U.S.
The IEA estimates there are 14 billion “network-enabled devices” around
the world, and that number is growing rapidly.
A good part of the waste of electricity is caused by superfluous
features, for instance,
“Heating food
requires 100 times more power than running the clock. But a microwave is
typically ‘on’ as an oven only one per cent of the time; over its lifetime, far
more energy is used to run the clock display than to cook food.”
Walk into every room in your house tonight at midnight, and count the visible
LEDs on your devices.
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