Watts up?

A recent New York Times story—written in lay-person’s terms—explained the relatively insatiable appetite for electricity that is lurking behind so many of the new gadgets we have around the house. Flat screen TVs, mobile phone chargers, MP3 players. laptops and other computers… all kinds of devices that are relatively new to the American home, but sucking the kilowatts out of it.

Implications: Just as major appliances are now labeled with their estimated annual consumption of energy, I’m wondering how long it will be before manufacturers are invited to disclose the “ghost consumption” of electricity behind many of these new products. (Specifically, I’m talking about those devices whose chargers and adapters continue to drain electricity, even as they are thought to be in an “off,” or “hibernation” state.)

I bet that topic comes up about the same time that some other product begins competing for its rightful place “on the grid.” (A product like the electric car, perhaps?)

Mike Anderson