I would be interested to know how much one of those power strips uses with nothing connected to it? Hopefully less than 1W! The smart power strips do look smart, but I’m looking forward to when they are not needed, when most devices have minimal standby power requirements, and if not one of those old fashioned mechanical OFF switches on the FRONT!

Another place that sells those smart power strips is SmartHomeUSA.com

If it is an energy star rated it will have a standby load of less than 1 watt (exact requirements will be at energystar.gov). According to energystar.gov this series of monitors uses about 0.37 W in standby/off, and 0.50W in sleep mode.

My Samsung 2493HM uses only 0.0W according to my kill-a-watt when in standby/off and would use even less if I reached around the back since it has a physical off switch (a selling point for me). The in-use power is a bit more though at 32W (with brightness down) – energystar.gov claims 49w but the Sansung 2493HM has a higher upper brightness level, enough to get a tan, or maybe view in sunlight. But I keep the brightness down low (thus 32W).

Lesson: Don’t buy a monitor without looking up specs at energystar.gov, if it is not energystar rated you are right it will probably use 3 to 5 watts in standby.

Also keep in mind that many of these monitors have a phantom load of about 3-5 watts while they are “off”. So using a smart power strip may make almost any monitor a lot greener.

http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-LCG3-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B0006PUDQK

BTW – what is the phantom load of this monitor?

Pity that the price is a little high. The L2440p is actually $391.50 from Amazon.com (free shipping) or $314.50 (+ $33.22 shipping) via Amazon, but actually sold by ANTOnline.

In comparison, you can get a 22″ V7 monitor from Staples these days for around $140 with free shipping if you go through sites like DealNews (http://dealnews.com/V7-22-Widescreen-LCD-Display-for-140-free-shipping/276865.html).

Of course, no word on the V7’s energy efficiency or lack thereof…

For point of comparison, when I tested the Kill-a-Watt with my off-brand 17-inch LCD monitor, I found that the monitor drew 32 watts of power. The monitor was not on lowest brightness, so I presume I could reduce the power consumption even further if I turned the brightness levels way down.

Anyway, it’s nice to know that I could get a much bigger screen and not increase my power consumption too much.

I wonder whether even 25″ screens will seem some small someday soon. Will we all be writing Word docs and surfing the web on 60″ OLED computer monitors in 5 years?

- Aaron Dalton, Editor, 1GreenProduct.com

The Thinkvision L2440p monitor is available from Amazon for $316.

Before I got a Kill-A-Watt I used a current clamp and wires plus a plug and socket and a logging multi-meter to look at the energy used by my refrigerator. I saw about 10% difference when I redid the measurement with Kill-A-Watt. I was not able to measure voltage variation by doing this.

I would guess that the Kill-A-Watt is within about 5% or better. But that’s a guess.

The important thing for most people (doing a home audit) is the relative accuracy rather than absolute accuracy. i.e. to be able to use it to find which devices use most, and I’m sure it is very good at that.

Yes, the LG Monitor is one of the greener out there, I wrote about it here:
http://www.metaefficient.com/computer-equipment/the-greenest-monitors-of-2008.htm

But LG makes no claims about the monitor beyond energy efficiency — Lenovo monitors have all the green certifications.