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TrickleSaver
Engadget recently posted an article on the TV TrickleSaver by TrickleStar. The purpose of the device is to cut off the standby power (a.k.a. vampire load) to your gaming systems attached to your TV. So when you turn off the TV, the TrickleSaver cuts off any standby power to your PS3 or XBox 360. While the device looks pretty slick, I’m not really buying the author’s statement of “each of which should (in regards to PS3/Xbox) consume more than enough power to eventually cover the $34.95 price tag for the TrickleSaver.”
My biggest problem with journalists/bloggers when they write about energy savings is that they don’t bother to actually crunch numbers themselves! They just make statements and hope they are correct.
Luckily, I have a Kill-A-Watt so I can see how much my very own PS3 is consuming in standby mode. I just did this and I can tell you that my Kill-A-Watt is telling me that my PS3 consumes 1 Watt in Standby mode. So, to do a cost analysis on how much a TV TrickleSaver will save you by cutting off the standby power to your PS3 (or XBox or other gaming system) you do the following:
- Estimate how often your PS3 is plugged in and not being used. For worst case scenario, I’ll assume I never turn on my PS3 and it is always in standby mode. In my case, 8,760 (24 hrs/day * 365 days/yr) hours in a year
- Multiply the standby load of the PS3 – 1 Watt – by the number of hours it is in standby mode. In my case, this comes out to be 8,760 Watt-hours.
- Divide this value by 1,000 in order to get the amount in kiloWatt- hours. In my case, 8.76 kWh
- Multiply this amount by your electricity rate.
I pay around 10 cents/kWh. Therefore, the TrickleSaver would save me at most about $0.87 per year! Wait….87 cents? How much does this thing cost again? Engadget says $34.95. That’s a 40 year payback! So yes, the TrickleStar eventually covers the cost of purchase, as long as your PS3 works for 40 years!
To truly make a difference in your energy consumption, you have to go after the big loads first! Once you have those under control, worry about standby load. But you don’t need to get expensive gadgets. Just get a power strip, plug the devices into it, and turn it off when not in use!
This calculation is incorrect. I read the article on the TV TrickleSaver and the $250 number is based on a PS3 / games console being left in the ON state – not in a standby state – so you need to get the numbers correct first. You are mixing up standby, idle and ON states.
There is plenty of research that shows that a number of people leave their game consoles on all the time or in a n idle state – with no power management configured. NRDC published an article last year, see: http://www.nrdc.org/energy/consoles/files/fconsoles.pdf
and this shows that the PS3 consumes 150 watts in active mode, X-Box 119 – the Wii was best at about 20W. Any calculation that you do needs to look at number of hours in standby + number of hours idle + hours left on.
Have a look at at this artcile
http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-1.htm
they did a detailed power measurement with an accurate power tester.
Lastly you should also look at doing an analysis on carbon pay-back and not just a financial pay-back. That would be interesting to see and much more interesting to know.
Brandon,
Good comments, but as Eli says below, do you really want your PS3 cutting off without proper shutdown? My interpretation is that the TrickleSaver is just to limit standby power, hence the name “Trickle”. I might be wrong on this though. My goal is not to bash the TrickleSaver, but to highlight the fact that people do not need a $40 gadget just to limit standby power. Instead of spending that money, just get up and turn off the console. I would rather see that money spent on 15 or so CFLs, which have a much, much larger economic and environmental impact.
I also had a problem with Engadget’s “reporting” here. I also apparently went deeper than just reading a blog post of a blog post of a blog post of a PR Wire “article” and went to Trickle Star’s site and found their PC version.
I think that if you leave your PS3 on Life With Playstation when it is idle and you turn the TV off, then you’re saving about 160 watts. But you also may have crashed the PS3 while it’s writing to disk, and that system really doesn’t like that.
What I found about the PC version of the TS is that it only shuts off your computer peripherals when the computer is completely off! IT CANNOT DETECT SLEEP, which to me makes it entirely useless if not for the ‘save you money’ button that you have to pay extra for. When my computer is on or not in sleep, I have a 75 watt monitor, 18 watt light, 11 watt speakers and 12 watt DAC on. when it’s not, those devices draw zero on my smartstrip. But their total wattage in standby is also 28 watts, so they are a bigger annual load than a 1 watt ps3.
guys i think we are talking about 2 different products here. a product for PC’s and a product for a home theatre.
Re the TV / PS3 product – my understanding is a good deal of people don’t use the on-line capability of their PS3 and play in an unconnected mode – so not sure about the writing to disk issue. when they are finished playing they just shut off their tv and leave the console running – which is drawing tons of juice. if the tricklestar tv product can reduce that and it gives a payback within 12-18 months then it is worthwhile.
re the pc product – from reading their website, i understand it is quite a simple product and just detects the state of the pc from the usb port – no software to install. i think the idea is to have a very simple product that can work with an existing powerbar which you don’t have to install any software for. i have loads of peripherals connected to my pc. I don’t think it is a big deal to shut down my pc to switch everything off – in fact i think it may even be better – because i don’t want all my gear turning on and off when i wake my pc up. don’t think it is a big deal to just turn off my pc when i am finished with it. i think i will get one and try it out.
from what i can see the main thing to work out is what you want to connect to the tricklestar savers. not so sure about cfl’s – i am all for saving power but what about all those nasty chemicals when it needs to be disposed of : )
I bought a PC Tricklesaver. Works fine, just plugged my strip into it. Switches off my stuff when I am done with my PC. Nice n simple.
Mercury vs power production for incandescent The quantity of mercury vapor in a CFL versus the mercury spewed from power plants to produce the electricity for more demanding illumination. There are programs to recapture the mercury in CFLs and other toxic electronics.
I think the real problem with the PS3 is leaving it on for folding@home. 165 watts x 24 hours x 365 days a year = 1,455 kWh/year. I know people say protein folding simulations are for a great cause, but is it worth the carbon of 1455 kWh of power generation?
Eli,
Youre absolutely right. I am operating under the assumption that nobody would leave the power hungry PS3 on all the time, but I guess there are a lot of people who do that!
I was just assuming the TrickleSaver is for limiting standby power to PS3, not operating power.
It’s really not that hard to turn off the PS3 when you’re done with it, you just hold down the middle PS3 putton on the controller and it asks you to turn off system.
Only lazy people need the TrickleSaver, but as I’ve said many times, this blog is not for lazy environmentalists, but those dedicated to doing all they can to reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact!
Thanks for your comments and discussion!
Chris,
I have a friend who says he’s helping out by folding, and he really can’t afford to keep that stupid brick on.
Also, standby on tv power-off? When I’m watching a movie, and I have to use the facilities, i turn the tv off. Oops, there goes the ps3/360.
My right index finger is still my power saver. Flip from 1 to 0.
Hey Eli.
If you want the PC peripherals to be switched Off when you PC is in Sleep/Standby Mode just use the TV TrickleSaver!!!? Just connect the PC instead of a TV – that’s pretty simple. So the products are not that “useless” anyway.
/Bob
Bob,
I dont know if the product is worthless, just that it has an extremely long payback if all it is doing is limiting standby/vampire load.
Individuals put way, way too much emphasis on standby load and not enough on the large loads that really matter.
Think of it this way. My AC uses around 2.2 kw. My PS3 or computer standby load is around 2 watts. Therefore, my AC has a 1,000 times greater impact when running. While the AC is only on intermittently and the standby is constant, it still pales in comparison to the large load.
I’m sure the TrickleSaver is a “neat” device, but the money spent on it could be spent on much worthier energy saving causes.
Hi Chris
See your point if you only include your PC and PS3 in the calculations.
I borrowed one of these Watt Meters from a friend to check the standby of the devices connected to my PC. I have the following in my setup: Lexmark printer (photo), External HD (for backup), multi-function scanner/fax/laser printer, mobile phone and iPod charger, loudspeakers (with external power supply), monitor and two power bars (with LED on). The LED on the power bars actually use 4 watt each! All this ended up in 47W in standby. My Modem and Router use 19W and 25W respectively but as my wife also use the wireless connection these are always on. The 56W is when all the products are in Standby Mode but I almost NEVER switch Off my different devices (Ext HD, Multi Function Fax/Printer/Scanner) when I switch Off my PC so the “standby” power is actually higher.
Quick calculation with 4 hours of usage a day: 365 days x 20 hours x 0.047kW x 0.15$/kWH = $53. For a $25 device. That’s a payback of a bit less than 6 months.
This is not that bad an idea when you look on your whole set up instead of just individual devices. I’m going to buy one!.
Just discovered that the vendor have a standby power calculator on the web site for both PC and TV systems. Cool little application – have a look:
http://calculator.tricklestar.com/
I agree that AC’s etc use a lot of power (in the areas where AC’s are used) – but I still think these products is good. Imagine families with a couple of kids with their own PC setups!
/Bob
Great point Bob and thanks for the link to the great calculator. Your comment is great and really helps drive home the point about journalists not doing simple analysis like we are doing on this post!
So, it looks like if you have to choose between purchasing a TrickleSaver for your PS3 or your home computer system (printers, speakers, etc.), then the computer system has the much better impact!
Chris,
Just for fun I measured the standby power of my TV setup as well. I don’t have any Play Consoles but I have a 45″ LCD TV, a DVD payer (one of the cheap ones) believe it or not but I still have my old VCR as I have quite some movies on tapes which I like to see, some loudspeakers and an amplifier for the speakers, again two power bars with LED’s on (same as in my PC setup) and a satellite receiver . A very basic setup. Standby power in this setup is surprisingly 42W (not including the TV)! Turns out that the DVD player use 29W in On mode and 24W in Standby mode – read some where that some DVD players only turn off their display when in standby mode and all the electronics is still On – guess mine is one of these. My satellite receiver is also always on – keeps its channel settings when powered off!
Again quick calculation with 3 hours of TV every day: 365 days x 21 hours x 0.042kW x 0.15$/kWH = $48
The 42W also includes my amplifier also being on (I honestly don’t bother to switch it off by pressing another remote! – guess I could buy a $15 universal remote but I haven’t). So pay back time is a bit less than one year (TrickleSaver $35).
I’m sure that many DVD players use less standby power than mine as it is a cheap one but again I have multiple friends who have much larger TV setups than me and who also both have a PS3 and Wii. Their setups will likely use the same or even more in standby mode or even let the devices stay on when TV is off (I’m quite sure I’m not the only lacy person on this planet).
So I think the TV TrickleSaver is of same great value as the PC version – again I think most people just take some individual devices instead of the whole setup in which the TrickleSavers are used.
I made a quick search and it’s the same on other blogs – people unfortunately don’t fully think through what these smart power products can do for them – bit of a shame.
/Bob