Getting Mom a “sleeping giant” for Mother’s Day?

Posted May 7, 2008 at 03:29 PM by Maffie Rafferty

Section: Gadgets / Other, Green, Household, Miscellaneous, Imaging, Accessories

Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and maybe you’d like to give your mom a digital picture frame.  But here’s something to think about, in the U.S. News & World Report issue for the week ending May 5, 2008, Marianne Lavelle writes,

“Look at just one of the new energy guzzlers: the digital photo frame.  This always-on gadget burns a barely noticeable $9 extra a year into the average household electric bill, says the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute.  But the impact could be staggering.  EPRI estimates that if every household in America owned one, it would take five medium-sized power plants just to keep those family photo slide shows rolling in the nation’s living rooms.  ‘I call these electronics the sleeping giants in our homes,’ says Thomas Reddoch, EPRI’s director of energy utilization.”

So what to do?  Well, how about printing out the photos?  Many photo processing services offer gift ideas such as photo books, scrapbook pages, collages, and so on.  Or you can go totally old-school and order prints to keep in a physical photo album. Today’s photo albums are made of archival materials that won’t damage your photos. But if you’d prefer to stay in the 21st century, watch the below video to see how it’s possible for Mom to enjoy the convenience of the digital picture frame while still conserving energy. I guess Mom just has to unplug the frame at night or when she’s not at home.