MtG: When is "off" not "off."
 

Um, does her bill usually drop this time of year?

Originally posted by Zkribbler
She was told by a friend of her that her toaster draws power even when it is not in use. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/lol.gif @ her friend

on a serious note;

I think she mainly lowered his electricity bills by being more attentive to open light, radio, television, etc (she must have been more aware and more attentive to any waste of energy)... Looks more like a side effect of being more conscious than anything else.

Yes, it would generate heat.

Yeah but Standby power is a sophisticated feature in TVs and computers (and Hifis, using that standby light) that toasters generally do not provide...

Originally posted by Thue
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

According to that article, up to 13% of power use is wasted standby power. Standby power is used to run stuff like clocks, indicator lights, remote control receivers, etc. Toasters don't have those.

Originally posted by Arrian


http://www.discussworldissues.com/im...ons/icon14.gif

I dunno where this friend of yours lives, but where I am we're into that time of year that we don't really use much heat, and it's still too cool to need A/C. Our heat is oil, but maybe hers is electric...

Daylight savings = less need for lights to be on...

The comparison needs to be April 2007 vs April 2006.

-Arrian not just that but also needs to be KwH usage vs. actual dollar amount.

If you have a plug switch on, it is probably emitting radiowaves at the same frequency as your mains supply. Usually about 50-60Hz

It would be a miniscule amount of energy consumption though.

Originally posted by Dauphin
If you have a plug switch on, it is probably emitting radiowaves at the same frequency as your mains supply. Usually about 50-60Hz But the circuit would still be open, even if the plug switch is on (assuming this is a toaster).

What is it with Germans and invasions http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...smilies/hm.gif

Locutus'/Solver's Toasters http://www.discussworldissues.com/im...ons/icon14.gif

Rah's toaster http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ons/icon13.gif http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/scared.gif

The wavelength of radio waves at household electrical frequencies is in the thousands of kilometers, by the way. So your toaster (at best an antenna of length ~1 m) is going to be an extremely inefficient antenna (ideally, antennas have length 1/2 that of the waves they are emitting/receiving). This is in addition to the fact that low-freqeuency EM waves are very low energy. Which means, as Dauphin said:


It would be a miniscule amount of energy consumption though.

Originally posted by Zkribbler
I received a disturbing e-mail from a friend of mine this morning. She was told by a friend of her that her toaster draws power even when it is not in use. My friend began thinking about this, went out and bought a bunch of power strips, and plugged all her applicances into them, T.V., telephone, etc. She now keeps the power strips turned off except when she's using the appliance.

She just got her first electric bill since she started doing this. Her bill dropped by 1/3 http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/greed.gif

If this phenomenon holds true across the country, that means that we're wasting 33% of our residential electricity. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...milies/eek.gif Think of the extra power plants we have to build to generate this wasted electricity. Think of all the non-essential greenhouse gasses we're churning out. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/scared.gif

MtG, you're our resident energy expert. Is what my friend reporting to me reasonable and accurate? Are we actually wasting this much power?! sounds like bull to me. Toasters don't draw any electricity. Electronic gear does, as it is always in "standby". But certainly doesn't account for 1/3 electricity usage.