Controlling power levels of house electronics

[asif49]

I'm interested in creating a central 'hub' that can power up and power down all electronics in a person's house. In specific, my focus is on high energy consuming electronics such as the television, PCs, and games consoles. When I say "power down" I mean put the device in a state where it would consume less energy - not necessarily that the device has to be switched off, but ideas of that nature are welcome too.

Is there a way of achieving such an effect via hardware/software means? Any existing stuff out there that can be leveraged to achieve this effect?

And probably the most important (and likely difficult) criteria... can this device/technology be created in a way that it's generic enough to easily be modified to interface with different devices. So it shouldn't be reliant on the make of devices, rather the type should be sufficient e.g. work with most new brands of tvs is good, work with only Samsung tvs from the year 2008 isn't good.

Ideas I have - (these are probably terrible compared to what some of you can come up with)
- Some kind of a secondary socket like contraption which the user plugs their switch into, and this contraption is plugged into the 'real' switch. Essentially this contraption toggles electricity between an on and off state based on user of the central hub. The benefit of this idea is it can work with all products that are switched into a socket. The downside is, I think you'd only be able to toggle between on and off rather than power normal and power down.
- Maybe all electronic devices have some kind of standard which means you are able to externally send a signal (infrared/bluetooth/etc) to ask them to enter a low powered state. Given my current low level of electricity knowledge I don't know how stupid this might sound, but hopefully not too much

Please share your thoughts!

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

The stanby power of most of these type devices is insignificant in my opinion.
What you ask can be done, but not sure its worth the trouble. Phantom power may cost a few dollars a year, but your paying for the convenience of the remote control, clock display, or quick boot up.
Unless you have a lot of electronic devices, I wouldn't bother.
You could use home automation devices the remotely switch off outlets, but that'd probably consume just as much energy.

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

You'd probably save much more money by doing an energy audit of your house.

 

[Minder]

When I say "power down" I mean put the device in a state where it would consume less energy - not necessarily that the device has to be switched off, but ideas of that nature are welcome too.

!

So you want an alternative to ON or Standby, what other state do you suggest?
M.

 

[Gryd3]

When I say "power down" I mean put the device in a state where it would consume less energy - not necessarily that the device has to be switched off, but ideas of that nature are welcome too.

Not possible I hate to say...
TVs typically operate on and off... There is an option to enable power-save modes that usually dim the display or dim the back-light. Building a device to automate this task would rely incredibly heavily on the specific model you are working with. So a 'generic' solution goes out the window.
Computers for example already have a number of steps between on and off... known as sleep and hibernate typically. You would need special software installed to tell the machine what to do, it would be easier to simply use the built-in functions to tell it to hibernate or shut off after n minutes of inactivity...

The last thing I want to cover here is doing something potentially stupid with a device... You should NOT EVER artificially reduce the voltage below what a device is designed for. A dimmer for a light-bulb for example will reduce power to the bulb, but using this on any other devices can cause odd behaviour or irreversible damage.
You would not manually unplug fuel injectors on a car to save fuel, don't do this with electricity.

The best way to save energy is to be concious about it. Do an audit like Tha fios agaibh mentioned to find out what devices are consuming the most energy... be careful here though... don't simply look at the Watt rating and assume it's horrible... you need a combination of Time and Power.
Take the Power rating in Watts and multiply by the expected time the device is running. A 1000W kettle may only be on 10 minutes a day, which equates to using 5kWh a month.
A 60W lightbulb on the other hand running 4 hours a day will consume 7.2kWh a month.

There ya go. Figure out what devices are using the most energy and simply remember to turn off your light or computer when you are done with it.

 

[davenn]

The stanby power of most of these type devices is insignificant in my opinion.
What you ask can be done, but not sure its worth the trouble. Phantom power may cost a few dollars a year, but your paying for the convenience of the remote control, clock display, or quick boot up.
Unless you have a lot of electronic devices, I wouldn't bother.

completely agree

In specific, my focus is on high energy consuming electronics such as the television, PCs, and games consoles.

those things don't even come close to the high energy user appliances in a house and 99.99999% of TV's already have a very low power standby mode

Hot water heater is the main one followed by oven/rangetop, fridge/freezer, microwave oven and lighting


Dave

 

[asif49]

Wow, what an awesome forum!

I can't believe I got such detailed and to the point replies from really smart people. Glad I asked here.

My plan isn't to save my own electricity, but rather I'm looking at energy saving ideas. I have interest in building a business with the purpose of making the world reduce energy wasteage, and thought electricity, being so prominent in our lives would be the place to start. Seems there will be a few hurdles based on the responses.

How about if I want to control just one device - to keep it simple. To enable the TV to be switched off. I can't reveal some details of my plans but let's just say there will be sensors that detect certain 'changes' in the environment - and when that change occurs I'd like to be able to send a signal to the TV to switch off. I guess it's kind of like building a universal remote in this case, but can something like this be built? I.e. can I program a computer or a mobile phone (say, an app) to communicate this signal to the television - and have the underlying method be generic enough to apply to multiple TVs without extensive setting up knowledge.

Also - out of interest - you're all very deeply ingrained in electronics. Are there any fields you think are worth exploring in this 'reduce the world's energy wasteage' mission I find myself on? Think as in or out of the box as possible.

 

[Gryd3]

Wow, what an awesome forum!

I can't believe I got such detailed and to the point replies from really smart people. Glad I asked here.

My plan isn't to save my own electricity, but rather I'm looking at energy saving ideas. I have interest in building a business with the purpose of making the world reduce energy wasteage, and thought electricity, being so prominent in our lives would be the place to start. Seems there will be a few hurdles based on the responses.

How about if I want to control just one device - to keep it simple. To enable the TV to be switched off. I can't reveal some details of my plans but let's just say there will be sensors that detect certain 'changes' in the environment - and when that change occurs I'd like to be able to send a signal to the TV to switch off. I guess it's kind of like building a universal remote in this case, but can something like this be built? I.e. can I program a computer or a mobile phone (say, an app) to communicate this signal to the television - and have the underlying method be generic enough to apply to multiple TVs without extensive setting up knowledge.

Also - out of interest - you're all very deeply ingrained in electronics. Are there any fields you think are worth exploring in this 'reduce the world's energy wasteage' mission I find myself on? Think as in or out of the box as possible.

Take a look at home automation solutions.
They are quite literally just a software package and some hardware designed to do the same actions, but with a different motive... ie, convenience over power savings.
To control most consumer devices, you will need 1 of 3 things:
- An IR or Radio transmitter within proximity to each device you wish to control. (To be programmed like a Universal Remote.)
- A simple Relay to cut power. (For simpler devices)
- Generic I/O pin that can be used to trigger a relay, button, etc for other devices that are neither simple, nor controlled via IR or Radio.

In addition to this though, the first step to save energy is to be aware of how much is being used... you can do this the old fashioned way mentioned above with a calculator and some time, or you can buy devices that will actively log energy use for you to review at a later date. Of course, you don't have to do an energy audit. Most consumers would happily plug in a form of 'smart plug' that cuts power from a cell phone charger when the plug detects it's not in use any more xD


Short answer. Yes, very possible

 

[asif49]

+1 for the suggestion of checking home automation solutions. The "smart plug" in this example is the most elegant solution I've seen thus far and would help me accomplish my goals: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-...2381!&ef_id=Vav9EgAABT3PjDd6:20160227130139:s

I wonder if these can be purchased from a manufacturer directly of partnering with an existing company would be more viable.

 

[cjdelphi]

How come you can't/don't want a kill switch / fully off state?

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

Air conditioning is usually the largest load in a house. I have heard stories of people capturing the heat being dissipated by a condensing unit (noisy thingy outside) with a heat exchanger and then using it to heat their swimming pool. This idea could also pre-warm water before entering a hot water tank.

Perhaps you could add Peltier tiles to the side of it to exchange that heat into an electric current?
There are possibilities to explore.
I just think saving standby power on a tv is not a biggie on energy waste.

John

 

[asif49]

Those are some fascinating areas to explore. Converting wasted heat energy to electricity seems like a pretty great option, and I'm sure there are solutions built around these that businesses are providing. Does Peltier tiles allow sufficient electricity generation to make the idea and expense of the initial setup worthwhile?

Whilst this would be great for hotter countries such as in the middle east, but I'm in the UK, and the amount of houses that have Air Conditioning systems must be in the single digit percentages so not sure how much usage can be gained from this idea.

 

[Tha fios agaibh]

I know next to nothing about them, but I believe they work from a temperature differential. The amount of electricity produced is not much, but if you can find a way to exploit waisted energy, cumulatively you may be on to something big.

 

[CDRIVE]

The hysteria about wallwarts left plugged in, TV's in sleep mode, electric clocks, etc was created by the over the top Greenies, who never took the time to consult with professionals. The same morons created the low volume (water conserving) toilet that takes at least two flushes the evacuate the bowl! They never consulted with so much as a plumber!!

Chris

 

[cjdelphi]

Maybe there needs to be an IR led mounted at the bowl at the toilet and a sensor up top...

While the IR can't be detected, the water continues to flush (yeah yeah, what if the LED / Sensor fails... what if a jet engine fails...)

It would solve the over flush and under flush problem lol