jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

You probably realize that even when it's turned off, you computer is using a small amount of electricity. My new one has blue lights inside, and I have a couple of USB docks connected to it. They also have blue lights. When I come into the dark room in the morning, I'm greeted with lots of blue lights. I used a Kill a Watt to measure the amount of electricity it was using when turned off. I think it Watts .3 Watts. If my math is correct, it would have to stay plugged in for 3,333 hours before it used kWh of electricity, about $0.17. Over the cost of a year, it would cost about $0.44, not much to worry about.

There are probably a couple of dozen other LEDs for the router, modems, power strips, and TiVo in the room. It's quite a light show.

leftj Loc: Texas

Yeah it has been shown that all those pretty little lights are the cause of G.A.S.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Or maybe the result of G.A.S.

For my connection to the outside world, I have a router, a modem for TV and computer, a modem for the phone, the TiVo, a cable card, and another adapter box connected to the TiVo. Except for the cable card, they all have lights.

I remember reading an article about the huge early computers with lots of lights. It said that the lights didn't serve a function, other than to look impressive and show that the machine was doing something. :)

David in Dallas Loc: Dallas, Texas, USA

The AN/FSQ-7 SAGE computer was a lightwork extravaganza. Each machine had 50,000 vacuum tubes, and many of those were part of circuits called "flip-flops", which were used in counters, switches, and gating circuits throughout the machine. Flip-flops must be balanced to work properly, so putting a neon lamp on one side requires there also be one on the other side. One of those lamps was arrayed on the big Maintenance Console (you've seen in it movies and TV) but most of the others were just woven into the cables out on the big electronic frames. The console itself was a dream to watch (most people thought it WAS the computer, but the actual machine was a bunch of big metal frames out in a basketball-court sized room); turning the lights out in the frame room and watching the flickers within the cables was also an interesting sight. And yes, those lamps on the Maintenance Console were used to indicate that the computer was running, and to give an idea of what it was doing. (And if it stopped running--which did happen--the lamps were an indication of the state of the machine when it crashed, a great help in troubleshooting.) Sadly, modern computers are much smaller and don't have the panoply of flashing lights. Here is a partial picture of the Maintenance Console:
http://www.starringthecomputer.com/snapshots/sleeper_sage_2.jpg

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Is that a metal-headed android rushing to the control panel? :)

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

It looks like Woodie Allen in "Sleepers."

banjonut Loc: Southern Michigan

I'm slowly replacing all my LED lights with incadecent bulbs to supply heat in the winter. 💡💡💡💡💡

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

How about 150W flood lights? A couple of years ago, I saw a DIY to make a little heater using a candle. I tried it, and it actually did put out quite a bit of heat. When I used up all the candles I had lying around, I put it into storage.

I couldn't remember what it looked like till I Googled it. That's not mine below, just one of the Google samples.
https://www.google.com/search?q=diy+heater+candles&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS716US717&espv=2&biw=1920&bih=901&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDzY6m0-LRAhXFOCYKHbjSAMgQsAQIKQ

David in Dallas Loc: Dallas, Texas, USA

I don't know--I grabbed the best photo of the console I could find on the web. I guess it was from a movie. (I mentioned that it was featured in movies and TV after SAGE was decommissioned.)

whitewolfowner

Gas is good; everything comes from gas; but G.A.S. is not! LOL