# Why did my Chinese television set have two power buttons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 5, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701 "2011-10-05T17:10:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/41 "2011-10-10T07:56:54Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Actually, the realtor has all sorts of silly, Chinese suggestions, like turning off the power strip to the washing machine, opening the circuit breaker to the garage door opener, and other such “advice.” Electricity is intended to make our lives convenient, and her suggestions are not that. Yes, how “silly” to want to preserve energy, when everybody knows it’s your god-given American right to waste as much as possible, right? :rolleyes: I thought you would give some Chinese superstitions, but her suggestions make sense: are you using the washing machine 24/7, or once every two days? If the latter, turning off the power in between saves power. How does that disturb your convenience? And whoever told you that electricity is intended to make your live convenient? First use of electricity is for life-necessary things, and convenience comes later. Wasting energy because you’re too lazy to turn a switch leads to a waste of energy and harmful consequences for the rest of the earth. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/42 "2011-10-10T08:21:51Z")
Every washing machine I’ve seen is turned on with mechanically operated switches in the form of toggle buttons and dials, so the unit isn’t always on. If your machine is like this, then unplugging it or turning off the power bar probably isn’t going to save any electricity. A garage door opener, on the other hand, will be probably using electricity, especially if it’s got a remote sensor. [According to the California Energy Commission](http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/myths/appliances.html), they consume between 1.4 and 4.0 W when not in operation. That site also lists power consumption of other appliances when off or in standby mode, and also links to [further data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory](http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-chart.html). ---
**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/43 "2011-10-10T09:03:14Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > My wife and I were talking about this tonight. Basically, you could not turn the TV on without a remote, since the power button on the TV didn’t actually activate the TV; it just made it activate-able by the remote. > > If the battery died in the remote or you lost it, you could not turn on the TV at all. This is not always true. My TV in China has both buttons and I frequently turn it on/off with the standby button on the TV (for the times when the TV is closer than the remote). However, my DVD player only has one button for off/on. The remote is the only way to put it into standby. If it is in standby and I lose the remote, I can’t turn it back on without pushing the button to shut it all the way down and then back on. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/44 "2011-10-10T14:00:21Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Yes, how “silly” to want to preserve energy, when everybody knows it’s your god-given American right to waste as much as possible, right? :rolleyes: I thought you would give some Chinese superstitions, but her suggestions make sense: are you using the washing machine 24/7, or once every two days? If the latter, turning off the power in between saves power. How does that disturb your convenience? Dude, the machine is off. Really off. No television-like sleeping. It’s a physical power switch. Besides which, it’s not like electricity is free. If I choose to pay for it, then it’s not being wasted. It’s a consumer purchase. Choosing to do what I want to do with my money is none of your concern. Suppose I said that your Weihnachtsmarkts were a stupid waste of resources? After all, people could go to already established stores, restaurants, bars, dance halls, and other businesses to accomplish the same thing. Why waste resources on something people like and are willing to pay for? > [@](#): > > And whoever told you that electricity is intended to make your live convenient? First use of electricity is for life-necessary things, and convenience comes later. Wasting energy because you’re too lazy to turn a switch leads to a waste of energy and harmful consequences for the rest of the earth. First use of electricity was primarily for electric lights. We already has gas lights. That’s convenience. :rolleyes: No one needed to tell me anything. We’re both from rich countries, and we both exist in a world of surplus. Surplus _is_ rich. China is a poor country, but getting rich, but with a big memory of being poor. Some of their ideas are antiquated. They don’t know how to be rich. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/45 "2011-10-10T14:17:20Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > PCs often have this as well. It is a small toggle switch at the back of the computer, labeled " | O " (International for “flowing” and “stopped”, I suppose), located very close to where the power cord is connected. And more than once I’ve been confounded by a “dead” pc, only to find that switch in the off position. Interestingly, I have a desktop machine at home that did not have this. I installed a new power supply over the weekend and that new power supply _does_ have an on off switch on it, so now the computer can be completely disconnected from the power by this hard switch so that the power button on the front will not turn it on. I guess it makes sense to turn off this switch if the computer will be off for a while because otherwise it does draw a small amount of power as evidenced by a green led on the motherboard. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/46 "2011-10-10T14:55:11Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Besides which, it’s not like electricity is free. If I choose to pay for it, then it’s not being wasted. You have an interesting definition of “waste”. For most of the rest of us, it’s whether something is being _used_, not merely paid for, which determines whether something is wasted. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/47 "2011-10-10T15:23:56Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > Dude Don’t call me a dude, mate. > [@](#): > > Besides which, it’s not like electricity is free. If I choose to pay for it, then it’s not being wasted. It’s a consumer purchase. Choosing to do what I want to do with my money is none of your concern. It’s the concern of everybody on the planet if your choices affect the rest of us. In this case, wasting energy contributes to global warming; increases the death of chinese miners\*; contributes to the flooding and displacement of entire villages\*\* - all because you can squander your money by buying electricity cheap and then waste it. - Yes, partly that’s the fault of the chinese govt. for having such lax safety standards - but as long as the west is greedily buying their coal because it’s cheaper due to the cut corners, part of the blame belongs there, too. \*\* See the issue with the Three-Gorges-Dam > [@](#): > > Suppose I said that your Weihnachtsmarkts were a stupid waste of resources? After all, people could go to already established stores, restaurants, bars, dance halls, and other businesses to accomplish the same thing. Why waste resources on something people like and are willing to pay for? Keeping an appliance running when you’re not using it is waste. Running something that is used, like lights during a festival, is different. And for the record, there are regular discussions on whether it’s justified to waste power for things like the Wiesn, and therefore regular efforts are made to cut down on power use. For example, the communal power company of my city has embarked on an ambitious plan to provide all electricity to residents and companies from renewable sources. The Wiesn is for several years hooked up to water and gas installations to reduce waste and provide clean gas. And so on. > [@](#): > > First use of electricity was primarily for electric lights. We already has gas lights. That’s convenience. :rolleyes: Actually, electricity is not “intended” for anything. It’s something that’s produced, and how we produce it and how we use it should be done sensible, with an eye to necessity and consequences. Not in a “After me, the flood!” or “Screw the rules, I have money” way, dooming your great-great-children and the poor nations of Earth to multiple problems. > [@](#): > > No one needed to tell me anything. We’re both from rich countries, and we both exist in a world of surplus. Surplus _is_ rich. We exist in a country of surplus because these countries exploit other countries. It’s disengious to pretend that we can squander resources because we are rich, because the consequences apply to everybody, and because we got where are on the backs of other countries and other people. As rich countries we are rather obliged to use our resources carefully and to help the poor countries with the best technology get to our level without repeating our history of pollution, because otherwise, we are fucked through climate change. > [@](#): > > China is a poor country, but getting rich, but with a big memory of being poor. Some of their ideas are antiquated. They don’t know how to be rich. So being rich means being wasteful and short-sighted? The exact opposite of how people become rich in the first place? Instead of husbanding finite resources?:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/48 "2011-10-10T15:36:07Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > As a computer systems developer I have certain text editors open all the time, mostly for computer code I’m actively editing with multiple related files open in the same session. Or database workbenches with similarly multiple sessions open at the same time. And lots of emails related to these things, I’d say at least 5-10 are open on my desktop (two 21" monitors) as well. And two separate Firefox windows each with 8-10 tabs, some for personal stuff (like the SDMB or Gmail) but mostly work related intranet files and web pages. > > Of course I do save all the important stuff to disk and at some point the code is actually “checked in” (published) to an official repository, but I multitask 10 different things all day every day and it would be a big pain to open everything up again the way it was if I logged out and powered down every night. I just lock my screen. > > In this way my virtual desktop is similar to my physical desk: covered in paper and open manuals with like topics generally clustered together. Imagine if I had to put away everything to leave a bare desk every day, I couldn’t possibly work like that. My Windows machine has a hibernate function. It saves the current state to disk then completely turns off. Then the next time I boot, it “resumes” and I end up back exactly where I was. Whatever apps, notepads, etc. were open are still open and in the state I left them. Note that this is not the same as sleep mode, which still consumes some power. With hibernate mode, I could unplug the computer, plug it back in a week later, boot it, and have everything where I left it. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/49 "2011-10-10T16:26:40Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > My NEC TV from the mid 80’s had this feature too. I would shut the main off when I went on **vacation** , as a courtesy to my landlord who paid the electric bills. You hit the nail on the head. This was called the _vacation switch_ when I worked on PTVs. European models and Chinese models had them, but not the American models. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/50 "2011-10-10T16:28:15Z")
> [@Spatial\_Rift\_47](#): > > AC power corrupts 60 times per second. 60 times a second? That just Hertz to think about it… ---
**Author:** ![ModernPrimate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@ModernPrimate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ModernPrimate)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/51 "2011-10-11T03:09:49Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > Keeping the whole computer running, not even in hibernation, to achieve that end, is terribly wasteful. When a computer is in hibernation it’s turned off completely and is taking no power, the whole contents of RAM is saved to the hard drive. I believe you are thinking of standby. You might argue Hibernation is a bit of a misnomer, since an animal in hibernation is still using a small bit of power. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/52 "2011-10-11T03:33:01Z")
> [@ModernPrimate](#): > > When a computer is in hibernation it’s turned off completely and is taking no power, the whole contents of RAM is saved to the hard drive. I believe you are thinking of standby. You might argue Hibernation is a bit of a misnomer, since an animal in hibernation is still using a small bit of power. I dunno…take the battery off a laptop and see what happens. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AaronX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7bcc69/32.png) [@AaronX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AaronX)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/53 "2011-10-11T03:42:41Z")
All the CRT TVs I’ve seen have 2 power “buttons”. I always thought it was because they weren’t advanced enough to have both power buttons do the same thing (i.e. you can turn on the TV with either one), so they wired them in series and you need both to be on. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/54 "2011-10-11T05:45:58Z")
> [@ModernPrimate](#): > > When a computer is in hibernation it’s turned off completely and is taking no power, the whole contents of RAM is saved to the hard drive. I believe you are thinking of standby. You might argue Hibernation is a bit of a misnomer, since an animal in hibernation is still using a small bit of power. No, he’s right. Most computers these days have the capability called [wake on LAN](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_on_LAN), which means that the network card continues to listen for network traffic, and if it receives a particular signal, will cause the computer to resume from sleep or hibernation. Naturally monitoring the network traffic consumes power. On many PCs it is disabled by default in the BIOS, but on Apple machines it’s enabled by default. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/55 "2011-10-11T06:54:58Z")
> [@ModernPrimate](#): > > When a computer is in hibernation it’s turned off completely and is taking no power, the whole contents of RAM is saved to the hard drive. I believe you are thinking of standby. You might argue Hibernation is a bit of a misnomer, since an animal in hibernation is still using a small bit of power. What I meant in the quoted part was: the least the other Doper could do - if he doesn’t want to close 20 windows in the evening and open them again next morning - is to put the PC on hibernate mode, instead of just switching off the monitor while leaving the PC full running. The much better solution is to configure the OS or add a special software tool that saves all open windows before shutdown and opens them exactly the same when starting up again, thus eliminating the need for hibernation. (Of course, some PCs with server functions need to be at least in active hibernation, or if your IT dept. wants to install upgrades during the night, you leave it switched on. But that’s another scenario.) ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/56 "2011-10-11T07:21:07Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > The much better solution is to configure the OS or add a special software tool that saves all open windows before shutdown and opens them exactly the same when starting up again, thus eliminating the need for hibernation. This feature is not currently available on most operating systems, though it is something many usability experts have considered to be a sort of holy grail for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/57 "2012-04-11T08:25:30Z")
**BUMP/UPDATE/RESURRECTION** Well, I’m in Korea right now and my television is the same, so I thought I’d update it with a video showing my point. If there was any confusion about what I was talking about, this should clear it up quite nicely. [Two Power Buttons on the TV.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OCvgIxqiPn8) Just thought I’d bump this with that video of explanation. Wish I’d had it in the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/58 "2012-04-11T08:30:15Z")
I can’t tell you the ultimate “why”, but every LG television set I’ve seen had two power buttons, and those are Korean. At a guess it’s a regulation, perhaps it’s considered a safety feature, but my crystal ball doesn’t speak either Korean or Mandarin, so it can’t come up with more details. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/59 "2012-04-11T13:44:15Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I have two 1080p LCD televisions provided by the house owner here in China. I’m not sure of the brands – not what I’d think of as western brands, anyway. Neither of them have a power off switch. I’d forgotten about this thread and saw it pop up today. And looking at what I posted (quoted above), I’m struck by how wrong I was. Just last week, my owner-provided living room TV wouldn’t turn on. I’d meant to call the realtor to complain, but decided to probe all of the surfaces for fuses (consumer electronics seem not to depend on them these days). Instead of a fuse, I found a physical power-on/off switch! :smack: Also, “dude” used the way I did above is an interjection and not an address. I excuse the complainer because he’s not a native speaker. ---
**Author:** ![Michael63129](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@Michael63129](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael63129)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701/60 "2012-04-11T21:08:23Z")
I have never seen, or at least don’t recall ever seeing, a TV with more than one on/off switch (or nowadays, a button); the closest was some old tube-type (I mean actual vacuum tubes, not just CRTs) TVs with a “instant on” switch to keep the tube heaters on at reduced power for fast warm-up (and I have seen far more than my share of TVs, since I pick them up at the curb for parts). Maybe it is just a foreign thing, but most TVs in the U.S. are made outside the U.S. Also, it is worth noting that even when a computer is “off” or in hibernation (like most electronics nowadays), it still uses some power - or you could not turn it on by pressing the power button, which connects to the motherboard, not power supply, which is actually two power supplies, a small one for standby power (including when the computer is “off”) and a big one that is turned on and off electronically via a signal from the motherboard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-my-chinese-television-set-have-two-power-buttons/598701.md?page=2)