Sunday, November 20, 2005

I Vant to Drink Your Vatts

Households across the land are infested with vampires. That's what energy experts call those gizmos with two sharp teeth that dig into a wall socket and suck juice all night long. All day long, too, and all year long.Most people assume that when they turn off the television set it stops drawing power.
But that's not how most TV's (and VCR's and other electronic devices) work. They remain ever in standby mode, silently sipping energy to the tune of 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per household, awaiting the signal to roar into action.
"As a country we pay $1 billion a year to power our TV's and VCR's while they're turned off," said Maria T. Vargas, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star program, which sets voluntary standards for energy use, and grants its ratings to the most efficient products.
There are billions of vampires in the United States, drawing more than enough current in the typical house to light a 100-watt light bulb 24/7, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, a research arm of the Energy Department......

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Never thought about it, but it does make sense. All these LCD displays and timers and remotes. Things like channels programmed in. Where did we put that old 1962 Zenith set? The one with just an on/off switch that you had to walk across the room to change the channels or volumne.

4:37 AM  
Blogger cyouincourt007 said...

Agreed.....I always thought it was a myth like getting sick cause your out in the rain......lol.....maybe Discovery myth busters can take this case...until proven otherwise it's time to go unplug @ will!

1:46 PM  

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