Standby power glowing in the darkness

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...

1. 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.
2. 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).
   
3. 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.)
4. Turned off the sound system. It has a lot of informational displays!

Lots more can be done but that's enough for this morning.

Here's the list of standby power I discovered (and possible improvements in "[]"). Have an idea? Please submit comments to this blog.

1. Wine fridge temperature display [now at 46F; can wine withstand higher temp?]
2. Normal fridge - temperature display (2), ice maker indicator (1), water dispenser lighting upon usage
3. Tivo wireless sensor was pretty bright, and the machine itself hums pretty loudly
4. PS3 and PS1 standby light
   
5. Power strip with LED lights on them (we have at least 6)
6. Microwave and oven time displays
7. Roomba charger has 2 LEDs and the vacuum run button is lighted [research effect on battery life if unplugged]
   
8. Wii remote controllers would blink blue when I accidentally touch them
9. ~Four 5W night lights
   
10. Electric toothbrush charger light
    
11. Shaver charger light
12. Alarm clock display
13. Sound system LCD displays - it has no standby mode so was on
14. Dimmer switch for track lighting
    
15. 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

A plastic container with one minute useful life..

We chanced upon a wonderful restaurant in romantic little B&B town in California this past weekend. It overlooked a beautiful vista point. The view from the restaurant was gorgeous, and the life music... wonderful. I was enjoying the saxophone and keyboard when the waiter brought the couple next to us their bread and olive oil. And then my evening was ruined...

The olive oil came in a small disposable plastic container, whose whole purpose in life (in this case) seems to be to carry the small dollop of oil from kitchen to table. Its content was swiftly emptied onto a ceramic plate, and it disappeared into the trash. My jaw just dropped. I could not believe it. Later, we had our bread, and I confirmed with the waiter that the plastic container was indeed discarded, not reused. I did a quick mental calculation and realized that recycling would not be practical since to wash off the oil would require too much soap and water compared to the amount of plastic saved. The only phrase that came to my mind was... "how sinful it is to waste so copiously".

I think they may be putting the olive oil in the small container in order to have the right ratio of garlic to balsamic vinegar to oil, but there MUST be a better way! We did end up having a good meal. The cooking is definitely good but I just can't support a business that is as irresponsible. I won't name names publicly since such practices are unfortunately still common so it is unfair to them, but I can say I will not go back to the restaurant.

Empty room fridges in hotels

Was staying at a La Quinta Inn (chain hotel) this past weekend, and the room fridge was really loud. It was one of these 3.5 feet tall fridge. Lo and behold -- it is empty -- but cold as ice! What a waste of electricity! I unplugged it after some effort to drag it out so I could reach the wall plug at the back. Couple months ago, I was at Hotel Del Sol in San Fran -- and needed the fridge to store some leftovers -- and found that they had removed all mini-fridges to save energy. I wasn't that happy then but I was completely annoyed today to see such a huge empty fridge consuming unnecessary electricity for no good reason. Perhaps hotels should give us guests the option of plugging in the fridge or not.

One toilet at a time

I was staying with a friend in her one bedroom rental apartment, over the weekend, and was bothered by the drippy toilet all night long. Talked to her about fixing it, but finally decided to take a look at it myself. The top was jammed, which turned out to be due to the metal tissue box wedged on top of it. After removing it (which must be the reason why my friend thought the problem was not fixable), I figured out what made it leak. An old mechanical arm needed to be propped up. After searching around her kitchen sink cabinet, I found an old piece of foamy plastic. Folding it several times made the plastic thick enough to be jammed into the tiny space that lifted the arms sufficiently.

I tested the flush several times. Seems to work fine. The dripping slowed significantly after the tank was full. (I can still see a little ripple but no more noise, and much less ripple. Will need to learn more about fixing toilets to stop it completely.) Yipee!!! I hope it continues to work. All it took was some will to do more investigation. It feels so good to solve a problem.

Judging from a quick Google search it probably saved between 22 to 100 gallons of water per day.

Tip: Even if you toilet is not obviously leaking, check it for hidden leaks. If food coloring placed in the tank leaks into the bowl within about 15 minutes, you have a leak to fix! Time to whip out those thinking hats.