Standby power is not a household term yet, but it will be soon. Standby power for home essentials is a concept that will help you cut unnecessary electricity consumption significantly. Here is a movement to save standby power as much as possible by a group of electronics engineers and leaders of the electronics industry.
A monthly seminar was held at the auditorium of the Electronics & Information Club (ENI Club) of Korea (02-568-3277, www.eniclub.or.kr) located in Seoul's Yeoksam-dong, Korea's Silicon Valley, on Thursday May 21. It was raining heavily, but participants of the seminar were as eager as young students waiting for their teacher. It was part of the monthly programs that the ENI Club has been hosting for its members since its founding in 1996. However, there is no monthly program in July because of the heat wave and vacation season.
The seminar presentation for May was given by Dr. Gimm Yoon-myoung, a professor of electronics engineering at Dankook University, on standby power saving at homes. He began his presentation by showing data based on tests and observations of his own home electrical appliances. He had used a standby power measuring device made in Korea.
First of all, he checked the standby power consumption or waste on almost all electrical appliances in his home, such as desktop and laptop computers, fluorescent lamps, a vacuum cleaner, television sets, a VCR, a DVD/CD/VHS player, a radio/cassette player, a radio/CD system, an audio system, a washing machine, a cellphone battery charger, a water purifier, a microwave oven, and an electrical cooker, with the exception of the refrigerator whose electricity Gimm considers effective or functional electricity.
As a result, Gimm found out that his family can save 1.2 kwh of standby electricity a day, or 432 kwh per year. Roughly, the electricity saved per home is worth W86,400 (US$69.20) per year. He assumed that if all homes across the country save standby power at the same time, it will be worth roughly W1.7 trillion (US$1.36 billion) per year throughout the country. He suggested Korean homes save standby power as much as possible, considering that Korea ranks fourth among the nations of the world in terms of the amount of oil imports and ninth in terms of energy consumption, ranking seventh in terms of oil consumption alone.
The ENI Club's standby power saving campaign coincides with the government's plan to achieve a Low Carbon, Green Growth vision. To gain momentum, the club hopes that academics and students will play a leading role in this campaign with the help of the Korea Energy Management Corporation, women's and civic groups and local administrations.
The ENI Club plans to host another seminar on the Significance of Place-or-origin Labeling on Thursday, June 25. The June seminar presentation will be given by Mr. Rha Kyung-soo, ENI Club's vice chairman.
