The Norman Baker TV Standby Mode Challenge

Standby modes on consumer electronics are under attack again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4620350.stm

My problem with this is that I think a lot of the criticism is
justified, but I get really annoyed by exaggerated claims which are
endlessly lapped up by lazy journalists. Take this quote, for example,
from Norman Baker, the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman,
advocating a "polluter pays" approach to the standby problem:

"In the end, there has to be costs in the form of manufacturers paying
something to recognize the damage they are causing. Some of these
standby modes for televisions use two-thirds of the electricity that it
would if it were on. I think some people think that standby is a tiny
red dot that has no impact at all."

He'll be telling us next that a TV on standby uses *more* power than it
does when it's switched on. Actually that's a claim I've already seen
made, and of course for some values of 'on time' versus 'standby time',
it can actually be true! The question of instantaneous power versus
overall power consumption just gets thrown into the mix without any
comment or qualification.

Anyhow, my challenge to you all is to find a TV with a standby mode as
woefully inefficient as the one which so exercises Mr Baker's vast
political intellect. Name and shame, that's what I say!

"Pyriform" wrote:

Anyhow, my challenge to you all is to find a TV with a standby mode as
woefully inefficient as the one which so exercises Mr Baker's vast
political intellect. Name and shame, that's what I say!

Dunno about TVs but how about this measurement:
Goodmans GDB2 (DTT STB) - on: 36mA (8.6W), standby: 34mA (8.2W)

--
Dave Farrance

Playing devils advocate, can you point me at some official TV specs. (i.e.
off the Sony/Panasonic etc websites) that state how much power is used in
standby mode? I've never spotted them given (unlike some PC monitor
manufacturers).

The set-top box words were interesting though. Bet a set top box does slow
down the processor when "off", even though downloading an update can't be
anything like as arduous as rendering real-time images.

BTW, if you want to see a real power hog, look at the specs. for a Pentium-4
PC. It has a power save mode that can at best be described as "not quite as
bad as the full speed mode but still a small room heater".

Paul DS.

"Paul D.Smith" wrote in message
.. .
Playing devils advocate, can you point me at some official TV specs. (i.e.
off the Sony/Panasonic etc websites) that state how much power is used in
standby mode? I've never spotted them given (unlike some PC monitor
manufacturers).

The Philips website lists them under "Specifications" for each set.

Most sets appear to be 1W in standby.

"Pyriform" wrote in message
...
Standby modes on consumer electronics are under attack again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4620350.stm

This really does wind me up. Standby may use some power, but if you are
going to have a go at people wasting electricity, why not ban excessive
Christmas lights... This year has been by far the worst, with whole streets
seemingly competing with each other to try and blow their local substation.
Now that is a real waste.

Perhaps I'm way off the mark here, but what happens to the "wasted" energy
from TVs on standby? Presumably it is disipated as heat - contributing to
the warming of the room - so the central heating can run that slight bit
less....well in winter at least. The other thing to consider is whether a TV
left on permanent standby is likely to last beyond one which was switched on
and off daily. The effect of continual heating up and cooling down of
soldered joints is well known.

I was talking to someone the other day who was employed to preach the evils
of the standby mode to the good people of Lancashire. She said that the next
target was to actually get people to unplug TVs, computers and the like,
because the power switch on the front is only a low voltage affair requiring
part of the PSU to be powered up to monitor it...

I should add, that I DO power-off my TVs at night.

Adrian

"Pyriform" wrote in message
...
Standby modes on consumer electronics are under attack again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4620350.stm

My problem with this is that I think a lot of the criticism is justified,
but I get really annoyed by exaggerated claims which are endlessly lapped
up by lazy journalists. Take this quote, for example, from Norman Baker,
the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman, advocating a "polluter pays"
approach to the standby problem:

"In the end, there has to be costs in the form of manufacturers paying
something to recognize the damage they are causing. Some of these standby
modes for televisions use two-thirds of the electricity that it would if
it were on. I think some people think that standby is a tiny red dot that
has no impact at all."

Lol, what a nice little technically illiterate world they inhabit, if only
we just switched the TV off in the evening and planted a few windmills in
the ground and covered our tiles a 80w solar panel then everything would be
just fine... we could decommission 40% of our generating capacity and
neglect to replace it with anything but the said windmills and everything
would be happy clappy... don't you see? You must be stupid if you cannot get
your head round simple logic like that!

I don't seriously believe we will address this problem in a realistic
fashion until the lights go out, only then will these foolish notions be
cast aside in the cold light of day.

Gizmo from Maplins. Fits between wall socket and plug, remote control, ON or
OFF. Recorder & STB on separate socket. Bingo - all off when not in use.
Quite useful as at the last count there are eleven standby items in one room
alone.

--
John the West Ham fan


"Adrian B" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
"Pyriform" wrote in message
...
Standby modes on consumer electronics are under attack again:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4620350.stm

This really does wind me up. Standby may use some power, but if you are
going to have a go at people wasting electricity, why not ban excessive
Christmas lights... This year has been by far the worst, with whole
streets seemingly competing with each other to try and blow their local
substation. Now that is a real waste.

Perhaps I'm way off the mark here, but what happens to the "wasted" energy
from TVs on standby? Presumably it is disipated as heat - contributing to
the warming of the room - so the central heating can run that slight bit
less....well in winter at least. The other thing to consider is whether a
TV left on permanent standby is likely to last beyond one which was
switched on and off daily. The effect of continual heating up and cooling
down of soldered joints is well known.

I was talking to someone the other day who was employed to preach the
evils of the standby mode to the good people of Lancashire. She said that
the next target was to actually get people to unplug TVs, computers and
the like, because the power switch on the front is only a low voltage
affair requiring part of the PSU to be powered up to monitor it...

I should add, that I DO power-off my TVs at night.

Adrian

"housetrained" wrote in
:


Gizmo from Maplins. Fits between wall socket and plug, remote control,
ON or OFF. Recorder & STB on separate socket. Bingo - all off when not
in use. Quite useful as at the last count there are eleven standby
items in one room alone.

Saw one similar in one of these "offer" magazines that comes with the Sun
or News of the World, but with the tv supposedly on the "control" socket so
everything else switches off when the tv is switched off.

Ideal I'm sure for video recorders, Sky+, PVRs, etc etc :-)

Bet there will be people rushing out to buy it without thinking through the
application properly!

Dave Farrance wrote:
"Pyriform" wrote:

Anyhow, my challenge to you all is to find a TV with a standby mode
as woefully inefficient as the one which so exercises Mr Baker's vast
political intellect. Name and shame, that's what I say!

Dunno about TVs but how about this measurement:
Goodmans GDB2 (DTT STB) - on: 36mA (8.6W), standby: 34mA (8.2W)

Your entry fails the challenge on 2 counts:

1) It's not a TV.

2) Your calculations have neglected power factor.

Dave Farrance wrote on Mon, 23 Jan 2006 16:10:54 GMT:
"Pyriform" wrote:

Anyhow, my challenge to you all is to find a TV with a standby mode as
woefully inefficient as the one which so exercises Mr Baker's vast
political intellect. Name and shame, that's what I say!

Dunno about TVs but how about this measurement:
Goodmans GDB2 (DTT STB) - on: 36mA (8.6W), standby: 34mA (8.2W)

It's a STB. If you put it into standby you just turn off the video
output, the reciever is still powered up so it knows the time, etc.

--
David Taylor