The next time when you have no immediate use of your all-in-one printer, don't just switch it off or put it on standby.
Unplug the device from the power supply altogether.
This advice from the Consumer Council followed a test on 13 models of these multi-function printers that provide printing, scanning, photo-copying functions. Four also provide fax function.
Little did users know that some of the samples were found to be still consuming a notable level of electricity during standby or even switch-off mode.
Due to their design, the power switch of some of these samples is not able to shut off the operation of the whole printer completely, leaving some parts of the machine still running and using up energy.
The test found such energy consumption to be wasteful and environmentally unfriendly. The standby power consumption for the samples was measured between 4.4 to 17.7 Watts, while the switch-off mode power consumption between 0 to 11.5 Watts.
Based on a set of assumption of usage conditions (16 hours in switch-off mode and 7.5 hours in standby mode each day), the electricity cost due to such wastage is between $14 to $104 per year depending on the printer model.
Consumers are, therefore, advised to disconnect the power supply when the printer is not expected to be in use for some lengthy period of time to save energy in the interests of the environment.
Consumers should also take need of the ink cost for the printing (all samples adopt ink-jet printing technology).
The test revealed substantial variations among the samples in respect of the ink cost. It ranged from 15 cents to 95 cents for printing a letter page in black, 80 cents to $2.8 for a colour graphic page, and $6.3 to $21.5 for a full photo page.
For heavy users who need to print a lot of documents, the ink cost is decidedly one factor that must be taken into serious consideration.
Consumers are advised to consult the results of the test in CHOICE.
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