The new issue of PhysicsWorld is all devoted to questions of energy, which have been a prominent topic on this site, too. There are articles about the most recent developments in nuclear and solar energy, clean coal, hydrogen fuel cells and energy storage.

The article I want to talk about here, though, is unfortunately not available online. It is the "Lateral thought" column entitled "Can an LED really be green?". In it, Colin Pykett looks at the ubiquitous stand-by functions of today's electronic devices in terms of energy consumption and comes to the startling conclusion that about 20% of the average British household's energy bill is due to the energy consumed by electronics on stand-by (the "green LEDs" of the title). That corresponds to 2 large powerplants in Britain alone.

Even when switched off, many devices still draw power (the power switch in many electronic devices sits on DC side of the power-supply...), which is just bad design, as is the fact that most VCRs still lose the time and channel information when unplugged (PCs manage to keep those, so there is no excuse). So when looking to preserve energy, we should think about unplugging our TVs and stereos at night as an easy first step towards wasting less energy.