Yes I know its off topic, but this is a poll for the TT regulars, so screw it.

When I moved in, I plugged my 42" TV into the wall, and piled the DVD player, Xbox, and the roommates ghey little gamecube under it. When you want to use the Xbox, gheycube, or DVD player, you have to unplug the system you don't want, and plug in the one you do. PITA, so I dug out one of my old powerstrips, figured we'd plug everything in at once.
Ms. Grateful Dead had a proverbial cow over that, because of all the parasitic power usage, 'its totally bad for the environment man...' Heres the thing... theres a neat little contraption on the power strip, you push it one way and theres power, you flip it the other way, and theres no power. I think they call it a power switch... 'No way man, the power strip uses electricity even if theres no power going to anything....' Ummm, I'm pretty sure thats exactly opposite of the truth. I think when you turn the power off, theres no power. I'm no electrical engineer though...
The funny part is, the TV is plugged in 24/7, complete with little red 'standby' light on the front, that she doesn't seem to care about, and theres always one other accessory plugged into the other recepticle, just turning that electric meter...

So, to the actual poll. By the results of this, we'll know who's an idiot.

 

Flipping an off switch creates an open circuit...it CAN'T conduct electricity and uses NO POWER when it's off. It's just like a fuse. Using a power strip is no different than plugging stuff into a bazillion wall outlets.

Your roommate is an idiot and probably sports that as an inherent belief picked up from some misinformed parents. My parents were both electrical engineers on the other hand

 

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/...icity-phantom/

 

^that oughta teach your roommate to unplug the TV, lol.

The powerstrip isn't drawing anything on its own though, so as long as you switch the powerstrip off, you're saving lots of electricity.

 

5 seconds & a volt meter will tell you your friend is not a total jackass but half of one for believing that.

 

she says she 'studied' this stuff in college. She's going to college to be a professional hippy. Doubt they take any electrical engineering courses.... I did threaten to break out the multimeter, but to be more dramatic, I might strip an old cord and bite on that **** to show her theres no juice going to it. I'm a little crazy like that.

I'm gonna print and show her that link, thats the type of crap she's into, so when one of her own says you can use a power strip, maybe she'll believe it.

 

yeh I saw a commercial on tv today about electrical devices that are off yet still plugged in use electricity, and you should use a powerstrip so you can flip the switch off to keep it from using electricity.

 

Don't do that achTTung...

While the appliances aren't drawing any current from the wall, some appliances can have a large amount of capacitance, i.e. they can store electricity. If you used a volt meter to try and prove her wrong, you might get something turning up there because of it.

Also if you chow down on your TV's plug you might get a surprise...the EMS crew will probably nominate you for a Darwin award as well [8D]

 

Well, I'm a little wild, but I'm looking to shock her, not myself, so I do know enough to unplug everything NOT needed to prove my point.

BTW, its not hard to tell what might be parasitic... No, a lamp won't be, yes, anything with a transformer eg. laptop charger, cell phone charger, house phone, hippy roommates Mac thats always running. My custom rig, that practically dims the lights when I kick it on (she doesn't know thats always running, and that bioch is overclocked in every aspect possible, so I have enough fans to cause a breeze in the room practically).

 

Usually the Tv will use no more than .5 to 2 watts of electricty in standby. That's barely anything.