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?
Just unplug them? Most appliances still draw some electricity (i.e. phantom load) when turned off.
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.
The off light reminds me to unplug the device when I don’t need to use it.
get a Samsung appliance – they like to use ultra-bright BLINKING blue LEDs for sleep mode
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.
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.
I cover lights like this with black electrical tape so they don’t sear my eyes at night.
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.
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.
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.
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.