Modem on: Forgotten way of being an energy guzzler?

Yes & no . . . no not specific when I thought, "etc" stuff - but yea, the cable box IS what ever they have - and if you unplug them - it takes several minutes for them to reboot & sync with the company. As for the modum stuff ... yes it has to run all the time because ours needs to constantly push data onto the cloud, as well as (stated in prior post) other functions. The brite side (as Sage mentioned) is these devices are pretty low power.
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hmm. I unplugged the turkey I found in my hotel room, and within I'll guess 10 - 15 seconds of plugging in the TV had a picture.

 

I definitely need to perform that test at the next opportunity.

 

I put all the TV electronics on a pow strip except the DVR. It takes but a minute to fire up the system, time I will give up to save KWHs.

Icarus

 

The US spent about $400B in 2011 on electricity. If we shut off all these modems, the article says we what? Might save $1B, 0.25%. That seems really minor. If we switch to add 1% to renewable energy, it likely won't save money but it would reduce pollution by over 4 times having everyone turn off these devices.

Swap 5% of the power from coal to natural gas, as has occurred recently in the US, and reduce ghg emissions from electricity production by 2.5%, that is 10x more reduction than turning off these devices. Turn off your modem if you want, but keep the significance in perspective.

 

The article is advocating for more efficient devices, not turning them off. Their goal is 25% less power.

So they are hoping for a $250 million dollar savings from a $400 Billion electricity bill.
Now, I don't know if my setup is typical, but it uses half the power they assumed. So as far as I am concerned, they are advocating for a $125 million dollar savings (unknown if possible) on a $400 Billion national electric bill. That works out to be a 0.03125% savings. Or put another way, if in fact it was possible to engineer a 25% power savings over what I have now, and the device lasts about 3 years, the incremental marginal cost ignoring R&D could be no more than $3.88 per device before the upgrade costs more than the electricity saved.

Silliness, really. I do however agree that all these devices should have typical use power ratings disclosed. I suspect more to the point is advocating for efficient power supplies and transformers, although that might be happening through competitive markets anyway.

 

I'm not sure where my modem is. I just plug my wireless router into the cable outlet in the baseboard.

 

Sounds like you have a combo device. Modem and router in one package.

 

My bad ... I should have more clearly stated that I was talking about unplugging our cable box. The very low draw on our other hardware would never make it worthwhile to unplug any of it.
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I think we are talking about the same thing. I unplugged/plugged a Comcast supplied box that sits between the wall outlet and the TV. The hotel used to plug the TV directly into the wall, but Comcast now requires the intermediary box. I presume it is there for monitoring/piracy-prevention but I don't know for sure.

 

I don't think so. I bought the router myself years ago and plugged it in when we went to a two computer/laptop household. Without it, just plugged the cable from the computer into the baseboard outlet.

 

Huh, that is unusual. Do you live in an Apt ?

I'm curious what the plug that inserts into the wall looks like:

1. Telephone plug ?
2. Oversized telephone plug ?
3. The type used for cable TV ?
4. Something else ?

 

A modem is likely running behind that baseboard outlet, it is just hidden. I wouldn't worry too much about it though as long as it keeps working.

 

The plug outlet looks like any other wall cable outlet, except I had most outlets in the home placed in the baseboards since they're tall enough. Built much of home interior myself - just can't recall what the cable company did to hook us up. It could be in the attic, but it's a not a conditioned space.

 

Does the connector look like this ?

 

Yes - for the end that plugs to the outlet.

EDIT - I take that back. Now that I think about it, I think it might be an RJ12 or RJ45 connector that plugs into the wall. I'll have to check when I get home tonight.

 

Then I am amazed you can connect directly to a laptop. If you get a chance, I'd like to see a photo of the laptap with this kind of connector jack.

 

I edited my post immediately after posting it. It actually looks like a phone jack. I'm not very technical - sorry for the confusion.

 

I want to be untechnical like you, if it means I can build my own house