After work many of us scurry home to be with Man’s (and Woman’s) “best friends” - no, not the four legged furry ones, but our wide screen TVs, DVD players, and super duper stereo systems - which wait patiently for us to come home and push their buttons. But did you know that even when your electronic gadgets are turned off, they’re still sucking power from your electrical socket and draining dollar bills from your pocket?
In the electronics industry it’s called ‘standby’ power… most electronic devices continue to drain power even when they’re off, some almost use as much power when they’re “off” as when they’re on. And it’s a big problem… according to a recent article, not only does it add lots of dollars and cents, and contributes to brownouts of the electrical grid, it’s also responsible for 1% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions (go go go, greenhouse gases!). Of course, it’s not just plastic and silicon devices that have this problem… it’s also a people problem. Consider how many minutes and hours each day you enter “standby” mode - that is, your brain shuts off while you stare blankly into space, daydream, or play tiddlywinks. According to a recent survey, the average worker wastes over 2 hours each day either doing nothing or being unproductive. The worst standby workers are in insurance, who rack up 2.5 hours each day with their brains in never never land. Sounds like we need to take our own personal remote controls and make sure we’re fully powered… which brings up the question, how much time did it take to read this article? :)
