Monday, 17 September 2007

Tories want to remove the stand-by button

In a latest attempt to appear green, the Tories have announced a crack-down on that nefarious pollutant, the stand-by button.

Their recently released "Quality of Life" report, at over 500 pages, seems a bit too full of waffle. However, buried amongst it is this gem:

“All new electrical items will require a functionality that switches them off after a specified period, rather than remaining on standby.”

UK consumer electronics retail giant Dixons tried this a while ago, pushing back on manufacturers and suppliers to do the same thing. Dixons got the cold shoulder - big time - and it was clear that manufacturers just didn't care.

How much impact this sort of policy will have - especially as it looks like the Tories aren't going to be forming any sort of government in the near future - remains to be seen. Is it just headline grabbing, or is there a real need.

Clearly, from research done, leaving modern devices in standby mode does unnecessarily consume power. HardCOREware carried out a review of the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii to measure power consumption levels, with interesting results.

As long as politicians jet around the world for photo-opportunities, and drag around huge armies of staff in 4x4's, I can't see how lecturing everyone else to save energy and be green can come across as anything other than the rankest sort of hypocrisy.




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