The Ampere Strikes Back
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 07. 5.07
The demand for high tech gadgets is cancelling out attempts to lower carbon emissions, according to a fantastically named report - The Ampere Strikes Back, by the Energy Saving Trust.
The report estimates that our demand for home entertainment goods will increase, and that by 2020 it will cost £4 billion a year to run all those gadgets. This alone would require 14 power stations, and a lot of that would be wasted power; £607 million of that figure is caused by standby wastage.
Chief executive, Philip Sellwood, explains that it's trends such as watching TV or listening to the radio on a computer which will cause much of the increase. It uses far more energy to do this, than people used to with a dedicated radio or TV. "It's highly unlikely that consumers realise that this uses far more energy than conventional means, or that some digital radios use almost as much energy when considered switched off at the unit as they do while switched on, while a new flat panel TV can use up to three times more electricity than a 'traditional' TV."
According to the report, people are also increasing the number of gadgets in the home. Often when a device such as a television is replaced, the old unit it put in another room. This also has a large impact on energy usage. ::New Consumer ::The Ampere Strikes Back report
See also ::U.K. To Outlaw Standby Buttons On Electronics ::Ecosave Stops Standby Energy Leakage
tonight at dinner out with the family, my parents were talking about a portable DVD player they had won last year in a contest, and how they only took it out of the box once. They clearly have no use for such a device; I advised them to sell it at an online auction site.
If they keep it, the battery will degrade, the device will just collect dust, and in time, they'll have a real problem trying to figure out what to do with it.
If they did keep it though, and actually used it, the directions in the box say to keep the device charged, for maximum life of the battery. I wonder if devices will ever be powered by solar, such as the ubiquitous solar-powered calculator. It wasn't too long ago that calculators were complex mechanical machines that had to be plugged in.
The point here is that listening to a FM radio may only use 10 Watts. To listen to that same broadcast through a desktop PC could use:
Router - 10
PC - 100
Monitor - 75
so that's at least 185 Watts to do the same job.
Is using 1800% more power to do the same job progress???
Another case in point is the Playstation:
Playstation 1 - 10 Watt
Playstation 2 - 50 Watt
Playstation 3 - 200 Watt
is the PS3 20 times more fun than the PS1? Will the PS5 be using 1kW while you are sat on the sofa stuffing your face?
Basically as long as we can plug stuff into those magic sockets around the house, and our gadgets just work with no indication of consumption then we will continue to remain clueless as to why our consumption keeps rising.
I have a portable dvd player and it actually saves energy. I prefer it, rather than watching DVDs on a gigantic TV. It's less intrusive, and I'm more into snappy dialogue than visual majesty anyway.
Someone should build a wind-up DVD player, like our forefather's Victrola!