DIYbanter - View Single Post - Range clock

dpb

wrote:
In misc.consumers.frugal-living Jeff wrote:
wrote:
In misc.consumers.frugal-living Jeff wrote:

Many appliance use more power "off" than on (collectively).
Uh, cite? No, never mind, the above statement is just
pure BS.

kitchen appliances. In the average home, 75% of the electricity used to
power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.

That is not the same as "appliances use more power 'off' than on."
The power usage rate is certainly less during standby than during
regular usage. Duty cycle of off time vs. on time can certainly
mean that an appliance *may* use more energy over time during standby, but
only because it is in standby for much longer periods. When dealing
with kitchen appliances, the standby current is very low relative to
in use current because most kitchen appliances tend to be fairly big
energy users. I doubt the LED clock on my stove uses as much energy
in 1 year as one burner uses to boil a pot of water in 5 minutes.

The big hits on standby power are going to be VCRs, computers, TVs
and the like. Those tend to not use a lot of power when in use, so
the relative difference between standby and in use is not as much to
overcome.

All true but it's still hard to believe the "average house" over 75% in
standby, even for electronics. Maybe I have a hard time thinking that
because I'm sure my house is far below average in numbers of these
devices so I suspect my estimate of "average" is skewed as compared to
the sample mean.

--