What a busy summer! But finally, today, I can breathe again. YAY! Thanks to a stomachache at 4am, my dream for an 11 hour sleep post-residency recovery sleep just went poof! As I stumbled out to the medicine cabinet in total darkness, I realized that the house is pretty well-lit by strange power sources glowing in the dark everywhere.... Nice... looks kinda like the early morning light, except... why are they... patchy. Rubbing my eyes, I realized that some were green, while others, orange. In my sleepiness, I was thankful for the 5W night lights that we had plugged into strategic wall outlets exactly for this purpose. But even in my sleepiness, my eco-anxiety meter skyrocketed when I realized that the rest of the lighting came from an unbelievable number of standby power sources around the house!
Standby power is the bane of energy efficiency. Any light from an idle equipment is a sure sign that the electronic product is consuming power even though it is not in use. As I discovered by accident this morning, absolute darkness is the best way to identify standby power.
So yeah, I am a morning person... when I couldn't fall back asleep, I decided to grab a notepad and start jotting down all the sources of strange glowing lights.
I was wide awake by now, and so decided to do some small (5am) quick fix projects...
- Unplugged and stored the guest room DreamMachine alarm clock, which has digital LED readouts and instead replaced it with a spare analog clock that has been hanging out on top of our bookshelves sucking up battery power anyway.
- The entertainment cabinet holds a Tivo, PS3, PS2, Wii, and TV -- all of which were on standby. They were all plugged into a single surge protector power strip. However, the requirement is for the Tivo to be on at all times to record tv shows. So I decoupled the Tivo from the surge protector, and changed the position of the power strip so that its "Off" switch is more easily accessible. Turned off with a single flick the PS3 (0-1W), PS2 (2W), Wii (8W), and TV. Total saved: ~10W. (Source).
- Unplugged Roomba vacuum cleaner. It was in the charging dock fully charged, but there were 3 lights -- 2 from the charger, 1 on Roomba which said "CLEAN". (Postscript: iRobot's instructions indicate that Roomba should be left connected to a charger when it is not in use to extend battery life. I've plugged it back in just now. Need to do more research.)
- Turned off the sound system. It has a lot of informational displays!
Here's the list of standby power I discovered (and possible improvements in "[]"). Have an idea? Please submit comments to this blog.
- Wine fridge temperature display [now at 46F; can wine withstand higher temp?]
- Normal fridge - temperature display (2), ice maker indicator (1), water dispenser lighting upon usage
- Tivo wireless sensor was pretty bright, and the machine itself hums pretty loudly
- PS3 and PS1 standby light
- Power strip with LED lights on them (we have at least 6)
- Microwave and oven time displays
- Roomba charger has 2 LEDs and the vacuum run button is lighted [research effect on battery life if unplugged]
- Wii remote controllers would blink blue when I accidentally touch them
- ~Four 5W night lights
- Electric toothbrush charger light
- Shaver charger light
- Alarm clock display
- Sound system LCD displays - it has no standby mode so was on
- Dimmer switch for track lighting
- Always-on-PC which is on for peer-to-peer download [need to work with hubby to identify opportunities for turning this off sometimes]
- Mouse with bright red light that flashes occassionally
- Keyboard light
- CPU with bright green light
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