"Vampire" Appliances -- They Suck Electricity Even When Switched Off

Science Daily ^ | 9-27-2002

[blam]

My satellite TV occassionally has a alert that comes onto the screen that says I should plug it into the telephone line. It wants to make phone calls too?

[A CA Guy]

I have a dog that lips the word s-t-e-a-k! Do you think this must be the end of the world?

[Poohbah]

Yup, it wants to call your ex-girlfriend and tell her what you've been watching :o)

[ErnBatavia]

This brought up a question for me....what's the wattage used for a home PC? I've heard in the area of 400 Watts.

Blam, did you weather the storm ok??

[SunStar]

Plugging in the phone line allows you to order Pay Per View and other pay-TV services without calling anyone. Plus, they are able to verify that you aren't getting channels you do not pay for...

[Willie Green]

What can consumers do? Pierce offers several actions:

We can also build more nuclear power plants.
That'll enable us to reduce fossil-fuel greenhouse emissions while still enjoying the convenience of these "vampire" appliances.

[unixfox]

It wants to place a call to your dish subscriber and notify it of any pay per views you have used.

If you are on dish network you can plug your phone line in get a pay per view, and then within about a minute unplug your phone line and voila you have just gotten the movie for free. Until of course you fill up the card that's inside your receiver. Then...you have to flush it to get rid of the pirated movies you have gotten.

I've never done it myself but I hear it works.

[Poohbah]

EARTH FIRST!

We'll strip-mine the other planets later.

:o)

[Poohbah]

I've never done it myself but I hear it works.

Yup, sure, right. ;o)

[Minutemen]

And a tip to Freepers:
anything powered by separate and ugly plug-in power supply (I call 'em "wall warts") be advised that this transformer is always consuming electricity even if the device is switched off.
Aside from being a fire hazzard, they should be out-lawed for sheer lack of utility and ugliness.

[steveo]

my vacuum cleaner sucks, really.

[blam]

"Blam, did you weather the storm ok??"

Yup, thanks. I hadn't even gotten done picking up the limbs in yard from Hanna, now they're all over the place again. ...and Lili is coming?

[another cricket]

Electrical appliances slurp up energy even when switched off in order to support features such as timers, clocks, memory and remote "on" and "off" switches, says Pierce. "Satellite receivers for televisions and VCRs, among other appliances, use almost as much electricity when they are switched off as when they are on," he points out.

Pierce, Darling, they are not off. They are powered down. That is why you have to reprogram them after a blackout.

a.cricket

[RightOnline]

"This brought up a question for me....what's the wattage used for a home PC? I've heard in the area of 400 Watts."

Depends on what you have in the little beastie. The more drives (hard drives, CD/CD-R/CD-RW/DVD/CD-RW-DVD, whatever), cards; the faster the processor.......the size and type of monitor.........all play a part.

Check your manufacturer's Web site, and there's a good chance you can do a little research and add up the "wattage' on your system. I also strongly recommend a UPS/power conditioner unit (yes, the type with the large battery inside) for your main system.

[JSteff]

Shriek!

[UB355]

Old News, called phantom loads in the alternative energy market

[Freedom4US]

I hate wall warts too. One especially bad example is modern phones. A lot of them won't work without mains power. The old rotary phones, black, ugly and loud -- they do not need mains power to operate.

[Looking for Diogenes]

Good article. These devices are real money wasters.

Some of the numbers don't make sense to me though.

His studies estimate that these so-called "vampire" appliances cost consumers ... about $200 per household.

[standby power accounts] in the United States, 5 percent [of a home's total electricity bill].

That means an annual electric bill of $4000 or $333 a month. Is that really the average household electric bill?

[copycat]

It's memory is full and it wants to download your viewing info?

[blam]

"It's memory is full and it wants to download your viewing info?"

Now my damn TV is spying on me!