Phantom Loads: They are Everywhere
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06.14.07
Larry Magid of the New York Times thought he was good about energy conservation until he took a Kill-a-watt meter to his home electronics, and was shocked. His PC drew 134 watts all night long, his DVD player 26 watts, and his stereo system 47 watts, all on idle or sleep mode. He notes that the Department of Energy estimates that in the average home, 40 percent of all electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. Add that all up, and it equals the annual output of 17 power plants, the government says.
His recommendations: install CO2 Saver software on the computer, unplug external power supplies, or if you are getting a new computer, get 1) a notebook; 2) a new low voltage processor or 3) an iMac; a 17" version draws only 45 watts. ::New York Times
Another good way to reduce phantom loads is to put your devices on power strips and turn the power strips off at night. This makes it easy to turn everything in the house off.
My Imac intel core 2 duo 17" draws only 4 watts when it is asleep. You can set it so it turns off the display but keeps the rest of the computer awake (for doing things like downloading files overnight, or rendering 3d files) and that draws much less than 45 watts since the display is almost half the energy drain.
Another plus is that in the 2 months that I have had this computer, working on it for 8+ hrs a day, I have heard the fan come on once. It is very quiet.
BTW even though the 17" draws a little less power I would recommend getting the 20" or 24" because the displays are so gorgeous and you can use them to watch videos from further away.
But you just plug the thing in the wall, and it works, right? If we have to start counting the kilowatts.....that will destroy the beautiful modern feeling of abundance.
The important part was buying the Kill-A-Watt meter. I tested my home entertainment system (TV, stereo, VCR, DVD) and then put them on a power strip. My PC was already on a power strip. It was enlightening to know how much power I was wasting, and satisfying to know when I'd done something positive about it!
Another option is to put the item on a 24-hour timer that shuts it off during times when it's not in use. You can get a daily timer like that for about $5, and a weekly timer for a few dollars more. If you use it to turn a 9-watt transformer off for 8 hours a day (say 11 PM to 7 AM), and electricity costs 10 cents / kWh, it'll pay for itself in less than two years.
It is absolutely criminal in continuing to permit manufacturing of common electrical equipment that does not protect against phantom loads. Phantom loads burden our power system and have no functional use.
Conservation of electrical resources is equivalent to the production of energy.All of us can become electrical produces by conservation measures but it is the responsibiity of our government to pass laws requiring that TV's, computers and other devices do not drain away power during the hours they are not being used.
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I hate turning things off, the standby mode was developed for a reason. Mainly for your convenience so you don't have to wait for things to charge up and secondly because powering up a device is the most stressful task for an electrical application and the standby mode reduces this stress. TV's are the worst for this, if you keep turning off and on a television it will reduce its lifespan. All my electrical devices I regularly use, tv, stereo, computer, etc are left on standby when not in use. Has an expensive stereo system blow this way and got told that these kind of electrics are not designed to be turned off and on repetitively and should therefore be kept on standby.
If your worried about phantom loads then purchase devices which have highly efficient components. I just upgraded my server and my pc which are on 24/7 365 days a year to new 95% efficient power supplies which have already saved me money in electric bills and most devices in the house are the most efficient on the market.
Also a nice way of being able to make your cake and eat it, as in have everything on standby without worrying about phantom loads is to purchase a wind turbine and some solar panels to cover the excess energy used, they will more than cover the phantom load, possibly run your houses lighting (useful during power cuts as you will be the only smug bastard in the neighbourhood with lighting) and help reduce your reliance upon fossil fuels.
Oh and just remembered, mobile chargers and transformers for things that aren't big electrical units such as printers, pc speakers they should be turned off when not in use as they are a phantom load you can do with out, with out putting the electrical devices creating them at risk.
We have just about all our electronics on a power strip, at night all the strips are switched OFF. Then we only turn on the strips as needed.
Even our microwave is hooked up to a strip, I did this after finding that it constatly draws 6 watts at idle (according to my killowatt meter).
Our electric bill has dropped a lot after doing this too... saving $$ every month is nice!
My cable box loses all it's memory everytime, and takes up to an hour to show the guide. They need to redesign this stuff, it says right on it that it takes 100 watts on standby, and up to 500 when it's on, seems excessive. I turn it off anyways. So I guess places that have frequent power outages, their electronics don't last as long? since they're designed to be on standby.
Simon, you don't seem to understand how it all works. First of all, electronics are not "stressed" when they are unplugged and then plugged in again. The capacitors in the power supply will slowly discharge and then quickly recharge when you plug it back in, but that's exactly what they are designed to do - discharge and recharge quickly, for millions of cycles. Those same capacitors also prevent damaging spikes of current from frying the rest of the device.
As for just adding some solar panels, I'm guessing you haven't priced such systems or looked into the operating characteristics of them, either. A 2Kw grid-tie system will cost you over $10,000, installed. More if its off-grid with lead acid batteries. That puts out about 9600 watts of power per day to the grid (or batteries), on average in a given year. Since the average home wastes about 10,000 watts per day for phantom loads, you still run a Kw deficit and have spent $10,000 to fix a problem you could have fixed with a half-dozen power strips. Total cost: $30.
Don't get me wrong, I love solar and plan on installing a 4Kw system in the future, but it IS NOT the solution to "eliminate" phantom loads. The first step is always to reduce your loads, then you install a solar system. You don't jump right to step 2.
Yes I agree, there is too much wasted money on phantom loads. I think the manufacturers of electrical devices just do not care about the money that their products are going to cost after someone purchased them.
Thank you for sharing this story with me !