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Vampire devices are a big source of power consumption in the home. The worst part is that they aren't even doing anything useful with all that power. Leaving your mobile phone plugged into the charger, putting your TV on standby -- these things add up to a lot of wasted electricity.
Turning things off at the mains when you're not using them is one way of avoiding this, but people often find it too much effort. Then there's the issue that some devices can't keep the correct time when unplugged or lose other settings, which also discourages people from pulling the plug. Intelligent design is the answer, and some devices are being slowly weaned off power drainage by designers.
Fujitsu Siemens claims it has come up with some new monitors, which are the first on the market to consume no mains power when in standby mode. This would mean big power reductions, especially in large offices where a sea of TFTs sit on standby every night.
A clever system inside the screens cuts out the power when there is no video data coming from the PC. Small capacitors, which act sort of like batteries, store enough power to flick the system back on when it detects a signal again. Solar panels will keep this no-power standby going for up to five days, but after that it needs to be turned on at the mains again, which is no big deal as most computers get used more often than that anyway.
The company claims that the technology is also applicable to TVs, but for now the clever power-saving widgets will only be used in monitors, with the first hitting shops next spring.
According to Government figures, devices on standby account for eight per cent of domestic electricity use, so cutting down on this even partially could amount to huge national savings in carbon emissions.
11 November 2007 12:16pm
Surely this is an awesome idea. It'll save millions of dollars from businesses, and if it's also going to be available for domesitc purchases, will save (as stated above) around 8% on electricity bills.
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