Wordinistas! Check out A Way With Words, public radio's call-in show about language.
Dictionary definition of “lopomo”

lopomo

n. lower power mode; a state in which an electric power supply uses less energy. Subjects: , ,
Citations: 2004 Christopher Payne, Alan Meier Information Bridge: DOE Scientific and Technical Information (July 21) “Many Small Consumers, One Growing Problem: Achieving Energy Savingsfor Electronic Equipment Operating in Low Power Modes”: An increasing amount of electricity is used by equipment that is neither fully “on” nor fully “off.” We call these equipment states low power modes, or “lopomos.” “Standby” and “sleep” are the most familiar lopomos, but some new products already have many modes. Lopomos are becoming common in household appliances, safety equipment, and miscellaneous products. 2007 Larry Magid New York Times (June 14) “Putting Energy Hogs in the Home on a Strict Low-Power Diet”: Products that idle in what the industry calls low-power mode, or lopomo, consumed about 10 percent of total electricity in California homes, according to a 2002 study prepared for the California Energy Commission by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. *2007 Alamedia Power & Telecom (California) (June 15) “Lopomos Lesson”: “Lopomos” is an acronym for “low-power modes.”… Lopomo energy is used to maintain digital clocks on microwave ovens and VCRs, save television channels in memory, and keep cell phones and rechargeable tools powered up for when you need them.…Lopomos account for an estimated 10 percent of the electricity used in California homes, at an average of 50 watts per household.
Reader comments:
electric power supplies—as the word suggests—supply energy and don’t use them. So it should rather be an electricity consumer, a load…
by willy 19 Jun 07, 0142 GMT

Electric power supplies do indeed use energy, whether or not they are currently supplying current (ha!) to an electrical or electronic device. That’s the whole point of the problem with them: even if they device they are attached to is turned off or on standby, they are unnecessarily consuming electricity.
by Grant Barrett 19 Jun 07, 0331 GMT

Leave a comment (must be approved by the moderator before it will appear).

Name (mandatory):

Email (mandatory):

Location (optional):

Your Web Site (optional):

Remember my personal information

Notify me, by email, of follow-up comments.

Recent Catchwords
hot money n. (7/4)
yes-and v. (7/3)
ten-tenths adj. (7/3)
harlotfest n. (7/3)
sporno n. (7/3)
Twaggot n. (7/3)
heinie n. (7/3)
momshell n. (7/3)
porn mode n. (7/3)
downwinder n. (7/3)
flame-o-gram n. (7/3)
Twinjury n. (7/2)
adulticiding n. (7/2)
Iran-geles n. (7/2)
brown town n. (7/2)
boner dyke n. (7/2)
one and done n. (7/2)
 More catchwords...
New Comments
Featherwood0973 commented on featherwood (6/30)
garyvh commented on rexing (6/28)
JR commented on jam track (6/21)
ElasticMind commented on innerpreneur (6/20)
GlennT commented on fourwall (5/31)
RevRayGreen commented on medible (5/25)
OKSoldiers commented on Mortarville (5/21)
Lew Hollerbach commented on eyebrow window (4/24)
Ollie commented on rexing (4/22)
BeCareful commented on mouth-breather (4/22)
BeCareful commented on mouth-breather (4/21)
Ollie commented on rexing (4/21)
Jwalton commented on gonch (4/20)
Debride commented on gonch (4/20)
Jwalton commented on gonch (4/19)
Subscribe to the RSS feed.Subscribe to the mailing list.Browse the archive.Add to Technorati Favorites. © 1999-2009 by Grant Barrett, Double-Tongued Dictionary, New York City.