Jaffa's Green Blog

I connected the Sonos ZP80 digital music player to my electricity meter and the first thing I saw was a ZERO watt measurement.
 
Surely something is wrong, there's no way this unit could have a power consumption of <1W when on standby?

I was right, something was wrong...the flashing white light on the unit confirmed the unit was still booting up and wasn't at full consumption just yet.



The Sonos ZP80 ZonePlayer is the baby brother of the Sonos ZP100 that I tested in a previous review here on Jaffa's Green Blog. Gone are the 50W amplifier, speaker bindings and large size, replaced by a tiny little case with just audio outputs to feed into powered speakers or your existing hifi. For those who prefer a higher quality link, both co-ax and optical digital outputs are supplied.

The ZP80 followed 2 years after the launch of the ZP100 ZonePlayer after numerous owners had requested a small form factor device with digital outputs for connecting to their existing hifi or home cinema systems.

In theory, with a smaller power supply, it's likely to save power too...although it still contains all the same SonosNet wireless mesh technology, ethernet switch and Linux based internal software.

So how did it compare to it's big brother in the power consumption tests? Read on...

Continue Reading "Test...is this thing on? Sonos ZP80 Review" »

Almost exactly three years ago, on my old blog, I wrote about a new drinks maker called Tassimo.

Three years later and the device is far from new but still well marketed. It's still one of the more popular 'pod' style drinks makers and I'm actually on my second device as the previous one died a horrible death sometime earlier this year. It still worked, but wouldn't stop boiling the water randomly. We declared it unsafe, threw it in the trash, took a good look at other alternatives and ended up buying the same again.



Interestingly, before I bought the first unit, I read a few reviews that said the Tassimo made good drinks but many reviewers, including myself, commented that the Hot Chocolate had an unusual chemical after taste. Over the period of ownership I'd forgotten about this and assumed I'd got used to it. When we purchased the replacement unit, sadly the original was out of warranty, I noticed a return of the after-taste. I can only assume this is a "new" taste which goes away with time as the solvents used to clean the device in the factory are rinsed away.

Pod style hot drinks makers have some real added convenience. As you only boil enough water for one cup, making a drink is quick and easy. The system heats a pre-defined amount of water in it's boiler and then pumps it at pressure through the Tassimo T-Disc which brews and dispenses coffee, tea, hot chocolate or even frothy milk.

Of course, from the perspective of the eco conscious, heating just enough hot water is a lot more energy efficient...or is it? What is the power consumption of the Tassimo coffee maker? This is why you read Jaffa's Green Blog.

Continue Reading "Tassimo - Fancy a Cuppa?" »

We've all read in the press and seen adverts on the TV about turning it down to thirty.

This refers to your washing machine and using programmes at lower temperatures. The days of the boil wash are pretty much gone and most people spend their time doing wash loads at 40 degrees Celcius. Modern detergents claim that they work just as well at 30 degrees and that by turning down to the lower temperature that the power saved would be enough to save the planet. If everybody in the UK turned down to thirty we'd save enough power to light all the homes in Belgium, or something like that.

But how true are these claims? Will turning down to 30 really save a significant amount of power, or will it just sell a load of compatible detergent?

Continue Reading "Does Turning Down to 30 work?" »

Over at treehugger.com, Alan Graham poses the question "How Green is your music?".

He exposes details of his own system which incorporates various components but what caught my eye was his use of the Sonos Digital Music System. I use this Sonos multi-room system myself in several areas of the house so it was on my list of gadgets to test but, as Alan doesn't have exist power consumption figures himself, I thought it was time to bump it up the list and get it tested.



I got some surprising results...

Continue Reading "Sonos ZP100" »

Do you have a modern mobile phone? Does it have 3G? If so, you could be wasting energy without even knowing it.

On a daily basis, I use a Nokia E90 Communicator. It's a powerful piece of kit, 2 large colour LCD screens, stereo sound...everything you need to really drain some power. It has a large high capacity battery to compensate, but battery power isn't free...it needs to be recharged. Obviously the longer you can make the battery last between recharges, the better.

Most people know that functions like Bluetooth drain the battery a little quicker, especially on older phones that adopted the technology in it's early days. Turning Bluetooth off can saves some battery life but, in reality, it's impractical to keep turning if off/on as needed. You don't want to be driving down the road, hear the phone ring and then realise that you're not connected to your car kit.

You can change the timeout settings on your phone display so the backlight turns out quicker, saving a bit more battery life. In theory it's sound, in practice it means you're going to be pushing buttons to wake the thing back up again before you've finished reading the long joke you received on a txt message. So another option that isn't really so practical.

So how can we really safe battery life? Apart from silly ideas like using it less, disabling vibration and turning it off when it's not in use.

Let's go back to 3G...

Continue Reading "Mobile Phones" »

So another week goes by since I washed the towels at 40 degrees Celsius. As you may remember, washing and drying the set of cotton towels in a 40 degree wash used 2.67kWh of electricity.

How will it compare if we raise the temperature to 50 degrees? Clearly we'll need to raise the water temperature by another 10 degrees so it's going to use more power, but how much?

Continue Reading "Zanussi Jetsystem Washer/Dryer - 50 degrees" »

The Zanussi Jetsystem 1600 XC6 is a domestic washer dryer unit, the specific model being tested is the wjd1667w. Amongst other things, this means it is white and the XC stands for eXtra Capacity...meaning it has a larger drum than a 'standard model' allowing you to wash more clothes in a single load.



We disconnected the unit from the mains supply and between the plug and the supply socket we inserted our electricity meter device. We then switched on the mains supply again making the unit live.

On the front of the display is a large yellow ON/OFF button. Pushing the button in turns the unit on, pushing again turns it off and all the lights go out. But is it really off? Our meter says it isn't.

Continue Reading "Zanussi Jetsystem 1600 XC6 Washer Dryer" »

Welcome to Jaffa's Green Blog.

Launching soon, Jaffa's Green Blog will be investigating some of the facts and myths surrounding domestic energy consumption.

A plug-in device might save you power when an appliance is left on standby, but do the benefits really outweigh the costs? In real terms how much energy does a mobile phone charger use when left connected to the mains supply? Should we really be turning everything off at the wall? Or are the savings negligible?

Jaffa's Green Blog will investigate the power consumption of everyday devices around the home and let you know where you could be saving electricity, cutting costs and reducing CO2 output and the carbon footprint of your own home.

Additionally, we'll review some of the power saving devices available on the market today and see how they can be used to cut power consumption around your home.