Prosthetics progress

This was really cool! Nice prosthetics overview. Impressive project. Control is the problem and they have come slightly further than mentioned on CBS.

Power Consumption of Some Electronic Devices

Updated: More thourough investigations into power consumption shows that it is perhaps not quite as bad as it seems below. The meter used below seems to have quite a large error when there is a large difference in phase between voltage and current… So the figures below should probably be seen as wort case using a cos(phi) close to one, which is not always the case.

A friend of mine let me borrow his power meter under the condition that I posted the results here. So here we go. The meter does not have absolute accuracy, but I’d guess the values below are within a watt or so.

• Brodband Router (with phone connection) – Inteno (Bredbandsbolaget standard)
  On: ~5W
• NAS – WD MyBook World II 1TB
  Power adapter alone: 4W
  Turned off: 3+4=7W
  Sleeping: 8+4=12W
  Streaming music, network sharing: 12+4=16W
• Printer – Epson Stylus Photo R200
  Turned off: ~0 W
  On, no print job: 4W
• USB Hub 4 Ports – Deltaco UH-410 with separate power supply
  On: ~0W
• Wlan router – Apple Airport Extreme
  On: 14W
• Homeplug — Netgear HD Ethernet Adapter HDX101
  On: 7W (each)
• External har drive – old 2.5″ laptop drive connected to Airport
  Sleep: ~0W (power from USB hub)
• Computer – Apple Power Book 15 G4
  Sleep: ~5W
  Idle: ~25W
• Router/Music streamer – Apple Airport Express (APX)
  On, not streaming: ~2W
• Radio – Denon TU-225
  Off: ~0W
• Amplifier – Nad C350
  Off: ~0W
  On, not playing any music: ~31W
• DVD player – Pioneer DV-410V
  Off: ~2W
• ”Power Saving” switching outlet from Clas Ohlson
  Always: 7W (Seems this is not quite true, cos(fi)=0.1 or so and the meter does not get that)
• Phone – Siemens Gigaset 3010 Micro
  Base station, not charging: ~4W

That’s it. That means that if I keep my home network and NAS up 24/7, the power consumption is at 40W in standby, not including the custom broadband router used for my internet connection and telephone. That’s probably another 10-15W. Counting on 50W and assuming a power cost of SEK1/kWh, it adds up to more than SEK1 each day. Yikes.