Green gadget savings power

A new device may soon help couch potatoes around the world save energy and money without having to so much as flick a switch or pull a plug. At any given time, a typical Canadian household has more than 20 machines sucking power from sockets even when turned off, in order to operate features such as timers, clocks and remote controls. “Standby power costs Canadians half a billion dollars per year,” says Bruce Strathearn, a standards engineer with the equipment division of Natural Resources Canada. A team of Spanish inventors wants to help – they've come up with a device to eliminate standby power altogether.

The gadget, called 100% off, measures the current being used by an appliance during normal operations and during standby, and cuts the power supply to those detected to be in standby mode. Users reactivate the appliance by pressing a green button. The device could cut 10 per cent from electricity bills and 1 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, based on the International Energy Agency's figures on standby power use.



For Canadians, eliminating standby power consumption would save a typical household 450 kilowatt-hours of electricity and $42 a year, or 4 per cent of the home's total energy use, according to a 2008 report by Navigant Consulting Inc. Users can simply replace their power bars with 100%Off, which is compatible with all household appliances and equipped with surge protection. Ms. Albert estimates the device will cost less than $30. In the meantime, the Canadian government is taking its own steps to reduce standby power. In 2007, it committed to a two-step plan to restrict standby power consumption to one watt per appliance by 2010. “We're not completely eliminating standby power – but we're reducing it,” Mr. Strathearn says about the regulations.

Instead of idly waiting for new gadgets and regulations, Canadians can start cutting their standby power consumption and electricity bills by using the hard off-switch on their power bars, unplugging battery chargers when not in use, and looking for the ENERGY STAR symbol when buying new entertainment or computer equipment, which notes devices that use up to 50 per cent less energy in standby mode.