Submitted 11 months ago by snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
In the last few years I have purchased a pressure cooker and an air fryer. They both waste electricity by having an off light. Furthermore they act like red nightlights and my kitchen has an eerie red glow at night. What is the actual purpose for off lights besides to waste electricity?
The off light reminds me to unplug the device when I don’t need to use it.
Just unplug them? Most appliances still draw some electricity (i.e. phantom load) when turned off.
Because there’s no reason not to. The power consumption is negligible, literally.
The ultra tiny amount of electricity is… Well you probably would never notice it on your bill.
But yeah it can be annoying having it there. I guess the purpose is to tell you that it has power available if you need it
Yes those small LED indicator lights use around 10-20mA of current at like 3V which is only 0.06W of power.
For soundbars at least, the off light is there because there shouldn’t be any lights on while it’s being used so as not to distract the person watching tv. So the only way to know if the device is off is to have a light on.
Maybe just have it exclaim “I’m off!” every five minutes, no need for an extra LED then.
You joke, but one time I got woken up by what sounded like a Chinese lady complaining about batteries, and it turned out to be the low power alert on the cheapo import soundbar.
My soundbar has a tiny blue light in the bottom corner that’s on when the power is on and off when it’s off. I’ve never been distracted by the tiny little blue LED while watching TV.
get a Samsung appliance – they like to use ultra-bright BLINKING blue LEDs for sleep mode
I have a monitor that does that (but in white). It’s in my bedroom. I had to use electrical tape like another commenter here mentioned - I left a tiny hole in the tape so I can see a faint light up close, but it’s not making the room blink at night now.
I’m never buying another Samsung monitor.
I can literally hear it blinking on and off at night, so I need to manually turn it off.
Damn my perfect hearing.
I cover lights like this with black electrical tape so they don’t sear my eyes at night.
Just to see the blue light creep out elsewhere in the cheap plastic box…
It should be fucking illegal to have lights on when the whatever if off.
Especially BLUE lights can go right to hell.
You need to get worse eyes. I don’t have this problem at all.
Just to see the blue light creep out elsewhere in the cheap plastic box…
It should be fucking illegal to have lights on when the whatever if off.
Because corporations benefit from keeping the working class from getting good sleep.
Knew it was corporations conspiring to keep us from a good night’s sleep
I visited my parents last weekend. They have s printer which has a wave light signal in standby - gradually switching from off to strong light and back. What my parents probably never noticed was the high pitch loud screech which followed the light. I guess the pitch was too high for my parents to hear, but not for me. So whoever designed that can go fuck themselves.
I figured the purpose was to warn us that these devices have been left plugged in while not in use, which is not advisable because they can become a fire hazard.
captainjaneway@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Off lights let you know if it’s broken. If it’s on, it’s obviously working. If it’s off and the light is on, it’s getting power. If it’s off and plugged in, but not displaying the light - that indicates it’s broken or not getting power.
Dirk_Darkly@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
You could also just try turning it on to see if it has power. I don’t see how the light is actually useful for this.
dustyData@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The power draw from a single LED is nearly negligible. If it’s a heating appliance, for example, it’s several magnitudes more wasteful to turn it on, just to see if it heats properly. Even with other electronics the LED quickly tests functionality with almost zero power without having to power up the entire system which would use a ton of energy, since it assumes it is about to be used for its purpose.
grayaytrox@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That makes no sense to me. Why not have an on light instead? If the light is on, and the device is operating as expected, that’s good. If it’s off then it has no power or it’s broken. If it’s on and nothing is happening, it’s broken.
If the light is going to be annoying when the device is on, then turn it off after a few seconds.
Iamdanno@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
Seems like a solution in search of a problem.
CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 11 months ago
Seems reasonable on something dangerous like a toaster oven or pressure cooker that you obviously wouldn’t want to leave on an unattended. These lights use almost no power at all.