TV DVR units said to waste $2 billion in electricity each year

latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011...-each-year-nrdc.html

Senseless waste.

i bought leds for my outdoor floodlights.one day i cane home and noticed them glowing dimley.i thought they were burnt out already.i had only used them for
2 months.as i walked towards them they came on.so i took one out and brought
it inside.i put it in a lamp and turned out the lights.it was glowing dimly
even though the switch was off.i had to pull the plug to make it go out completely.

also my converter box for the tv uses 5 watts when off.the led bulb uses 3 watts when on.

Kissing more frogs,

Generating 'Green' Electricity: Waste Heat Converted to Electricity Using New Alloy
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110622125706.htm

I wish these journalist would learn to ask the most important question: what is the efficiency. If it isn't at least on a par with the thermoelectric effect its hard to see it as a useful source of power in the future. Still it is an interesting effect.
Demo Video

If these guys want to get any more money they had better get someone from Marketing to do the next demo video. Perhaps a drum roll at the beginning... LOL

Chevy Cruze Diesel Coming to USA

The Chevrolet Cruze, the most popular car in the U.S. last month, will come in a diesel version that could boost gas mileage to around 50 mpg (4.7 litres per 100 km), two people briefed on General Motors Co. product plans said Monday.

A diesel Cruze would help GM meet more stringent government gas mileage requirements. It also would rival the efficiency of the popular Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrid, which gets 51 mpg in the city and 48 on the highway, according to estimates from the Environmental Protection Agency.

www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/gree...mers/article2093630/

Occam wrote:




let me know when the plug in all electric version comes out.

Occam wrote:


I would argue it's money well spent. If I TiVo 6 3.5 hour Tour De France races this week, I can skip all the commercials when I watch it back. That's at least 3 hours of skipped commercials, which is time I can use to do something productive. 3 hours of productive time is worth a heck of a lot more than a couple bucks of wasted electricity, even if I'm only making minimum wage.

You could argue that the TiVo is a human productivity booster. How do you put a price on that? In fact Congress should require everyone to own an HD-DVR. We would have a huge advantage over all those people in poor countries that can't afford an HD-DVR and have to actually sit watching the commercials.

jdeere5220 wrote:


The waste is in the energy it burns when it isn't doing anything, not when it is recording or in playback mode. There is no reason it needs to burn even one watt when it isn't being used. Its bad design, because there is no market incentive to improve it.



So you need gov't regulation or a tax to make it more expensive to waste the power so consumers take notice and select more efficient boxes. Because the tax should not exceed the cost of the harm these do to the enviornment or external economy it is not likely to be enough to motivate most consumers to insist on efficient designs; nor will they be able to identify which designs are most efficient without some standardized disclosure on the box. So regulation works better in this case. It will cost consumers a few dimes more per box but save consumers dollars per year. Obviously it would be better if manufacturers just fixed this problem themselves, but not surprisingly they don't care. Which is why we invented government, to make them care.

Most electronic devices these days suck down power when they are plugged in even when they are "turned off."

I unplug my TV and computer when not in use, it not only saves money but it adds a layer of storm protection. Spotlights on a house have no effect on crime, all the they do is make it easier for a criminal to break in. He doesn't need to hold a flashlight.

MaryB wrote:


I have my boxes on a couple switchable surge protectors which I turn off when not in use. Unfortunately I usually forget so I still waste a lot of power.

These rightwing kooks go out of their way to be destructive.

money.cnn.com/2011/07/11/news/economy/li...r&&hpt=hp_c2

Instead of fixing the deficit, they launch this backward effort that will cost cost consumers billions of dollars, add millions of tons of toxins and CO2 into the enviornment and throw a monkey wrench into manufacturers production plans.