[LINK] Blackle increases power use with small LCD monitors

[Adam Todd]

At 08:24 AM 7/12/2007, Tom Worthington wrote:
>At 06:16 PM 4/12/2007, Kim Holburn wrote:
>
>It might be interesting to see if the Chinese approach was taken, 
>where mobile phones are charged from USB plugs, if this would save 
>power. You would need just one mains adaptor to power one hub to 
>charge all you gadgets. That would save having lots of plugpacks. 
>But if that one larger supply is powered all the time, would it use 
>more electricity?

I already do this and have been for some years.  I avoid anything 
that isn't 5 Volt, 9 Volt or 12 Volt or doesn't have a USB port for charging.

I'd have to say that it doesn't 'save' power if you are using your 
laptop USB because you drain your battery faster, and if you have 
external power connected, you just draw a little more.

As to using a USB hub, most require a USB Host to be connected before 
they will activate any of the ports.  Plugging two phones in is 
unlikely to do much other than consume power at the wall wart plug 
pack which does nothing beneficial.

I have again, purchased 9 Volt and 12 Volt USB hubs that run of our 
solar batteries 24 x 7.  It's not a lot of drain and the solar panel 
delivers more power than we consume during the day.  Having the extra 
batteries means that the extra power is consumed, but presently all 
batteries to full.

We're running a fridge, Digital Set Top Box, LCD Panel, a couple of 
laptops, some lights, chargers for AA and AAA batteries, chargers for 
mobile phones.

Panels are cheap now, and to be honest I can't see any reason why 
every house hold can't have 2 or 3 on the roof adding a new deep 
cycle battery every few months by saving those extra few dollars.

Building the system is cheap and easy.

I will admit, panels in Australia are nearly double the price 
elsewhere.  Primarily because we have the 50% government rebate.

Just like Health Insurance went up 30% when the rebate was 
introduced, Solar systems jumped as well.

Strangely when the baby bonus was introduced, Mid Wives upped their 
fees, and when the Babu Bonus jumped from $1500 to $3000, so did the 
midwife fees.  We didn't use a midwife for our last birth, did it 
ourselves :)  So we had a nice bonus to put towards baby's future.