Posted on 12/15/2004 8:25:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Phone rechargers, TVs, CD players, VCRs, and all those other appliances you plug into the wall and forget were called "energy vampires" Wednesday by state regulators, who voted to make them more efficient.
Proponents hope the world's first such regulations force others to the follow the lead of the most populous state. The new standards adopted by the California Energy Commission will be phased in starting in 2006.
Televisions, videocassette recorders and digital video disc players use two- to 10 watts even when they're turned off. California is requiring them to use one- to three watts.
Power adapters, also known as external power supplies - those little black boxes that power phones, razors, toothbrushes, computer components and a host of other ubiquitous appliances - often are warm to the touch, a sign they're wasting electricity by generating heat.
Even when they're not in use, they're drawing power. The California standards will require them to draw a half-watt or less.
The average California household has 10 to 20 of the devices that cost consumers up to $75 a year in wasted electricity, the commission calculated. It projects the regulations will save commercial and residential users more than $3 billion over 15 years.
Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, who chairs the commission's efficiency committee, said the standards mean the state can avoid building the equivalent of three new power plants in the next decade.
Once the standards are fully phased in by 2008, they'll save more electricity than is used by the 350,000-plus households in San Francisco, calculated the Natural Resources Defense Council, which promoted the regulations. The reduced demand on power plants, and a corresponding reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, is the equivalent of pulling 320,000 cars off California's crowded highways.
Commissioners adopted the regulations on a 5-0 vote after extensive negotiations with manufacturers in the U.S. and major supplier nations like China and Australia, said commission spokesman Rob Schlichting. The commission granted manufacturers' requests for delays in phasing in the requirements on some appliances, largely muting the opposition.
Pacific Gas & Electric backed the regulations on behalf of the utility industry, citing the savings to consumers, the environment and the power supply.
Among the appliances affected: incandescent lamps; audio and video equipment; residential pool pumps and portable electric spas; evaporative coolers; ceiling fans, exhaust fans and whole house fans; commercial ice makers, refrigerators and freezers; vending machines; commercial hot food holding cabinets and water dispensers.
"Consumers don't have to sacrifice anything. The soda will still be cold from the vending machine, the swimming pool pump will still circulate the water," said NRDC scientist Noah Horowitz. "We're substituting new, more efficient technologies ... rather than building new power plants."
The federal government already has adopted energy efficiency standards for different appliances, including residential refrigerators, clothes washers, dishwashers and other appliances. None of those is affected by the new state regulations.
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On the Net:
California Energy Commission: http://www.energy.ca.gov
How long before they want us to turn in all our night-lights?
Wait till you see the price tag for these new appliances before you tell them they are saving money. Saving electricity yes, saving money, I doubt it.
Talk about perrywis and pound foolish, they are worried about reducing the draw from 10 watts to 3 watts when their problem is in the THOUDANDS of MEGAWATT range.
Not only that, the fools in California are pusing for electric cars that you plug into the grid at night!
Manufacturers will just stop selling appliances and cars in CA. It's not worth the trouble.
Then people in CA won't use cars or appliances and then entire industries will shut down and just think how much energy California will save then.
Then all the people will move out and they will save even more energy.
Well, there goes the world's 5th largest economy, killed at the altar of environmentalism.
Our top story tonight:
California Demand Repeal of Laws fo Physics
If you can manage it, leaving the water heater on for just 3 hours a day supplies hot water for a day and a half (for a small family but NOT during winter!). Doing these 2 things ha saved me almost $400 a year.
how much is the TV tax now? $25 recycling tax on every TV in CA? Why be surprised they will charge more? The power strip idea is a good one.
Just imagine how much more you can save by disconnecting the doorbell and making visitors use the knocker instead!
" The average California household has 10 to 20 of the devices that cost consumers up to $75 a year in wasted electricity "
With the savings from the new regulations I can afford to buy a new muffler for my Lexus......in 4 years.
Well, do the math. The article said that each household has 10-20 devices which consume power while on standby, which sounds about right. If each one saved seven watts, that's about 105 watts per household. California has about 11 million households, so that's 1,115,000,000 watts, or 1.15 thousand megawatts. Since you asserted that their problem is in the "thousands of megawatt" range, this sounds like one partial solution which avoids constructing any more generating capacity.
On a practical note, I work very aggressively to cut power consumption on my railcars. They consume about 21 watts from a 12 volt battery. The battery is recharged by a bearing generator that produces 24 watts at 50 MPH. I have to do some serious paring down of power drains. That is going to take lots of analysis and probably some hardware and software modification. My payback is a more robust system that doesn't continually wipe out batteries. It is a small scale effort. It's going to cost some money, but I don't have a competitor in the marketplace.
Mandating lower power consumption is going to cause some pencil sharpening in the engineering and marketing departments. If dropping the California marketplace is causes less impact to the company bottom line than re-engineering the product for the whole marketplace...at a higher price point, then California won't be getting product. Business is in business to make money. They will find the optimal solution.
I've just discovered how much power I saved by switching to compact fluorescents instead of incandescents. Unfortunately, to a lot of people around here, anything which smacks of conservation is TEH LIBARAL PLOT'S TO DESTROY AMERICA.
All right, that caught me off guard. I literally spit diet Code Red Dew on my desk and some got on my keyboard. Good one!
So if I understand this right, California fixes their current problem and still has no growth capacity. Good thinkin'.
Are all "energy vampire" appliances now going to carry a "suck rating"?
I can't quite imagine that since I can run a 50 gal tank out on my own (in the shower), but you must be frugal.
We actually went a step further and put in on-demand water heaters - one for the whole house and one supplementary for a shower -- no need to heat a tank at all. There is no tank.
Calm down, cowboy. :^)
Conservation is cool. We all do it!
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