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Find which appliances draw phantom loads with a Kill a Watt power monitor.
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Vampire Loads or Phantom Loads. How Much Do They Cost Us?
Vampire electrical loads or phantom loads waste energy. These silent thieves also known as standby power or phantom loads are things that are plugged into your outlets Laboratory showed that vampire loads or phantom loads account for approximately 5% of the electricity used in the U.S. or Sixty four million megawatt hours, costing over three billion dollars. Why do we have phantom electrical loads? The reason many appliances draw power is that we have grown accustomed to our televisions starting up immediately or responding to a push of a remote control button. For this to happen circuitry in the appliance must be "listening" all the time for a remote control signal. Other appliances such as kitchen appliances may have small bulbs beneath the power button which are illuminated which draw power. This quote is from the U.S. Department of Energy... From the US department of Energy:
Wow! Seventy five percent of the power used by our home electronics is used when they are off. How To Identify Phantom Loads Around The Home The first step in getting rid of phantom electrical loads is to determine which appliances are drawing power when they are off. One way to find vampire or phantom loads is to use a device that reads the amount of wattage an appliance is drawing. The Kill A Watt is one brand. The Kill A Watt measures voltage, hertz, amps drawn, watts used and kilowatt hours used. You plug the suspect appliance into the Kill A Watt and leave it connected for about a minute. When you press "watts" you will see how many watts it is drawing. The "kilowatt hours" button will tell you how many kilowatt hours the device is using. Multiply the kilowatt hours displayed by your hourly rate (mine is 12 cents) and you will know how much the device is costing per hour to leave plugged in. The longer you leave the device plugged in the more accurate the kilowatt hours reading may take a couple of minutes for low wattage devices such as cell phone chargers to register on the Kill A Watt.
The Kill A Watt Power Monitor. Click On The Photo For More Info
(link to Amazon.com page) .
If you see that an appliance is using more than a watt or two you should do something about it. How To Eliminate Phantom Loads Forever and Save Electricity The best way to get rid of these loads, save energy, and still have the appliance ready for use is to put it on a power strip with a switch. Power strips can be purchased for less than $10 at your local discount or hardware store, and that money will quickly be repaid on the larger loads such as satellite TV receivers and cable boxes. You will save as much as $400 per year on your electricity bill according to the Department of Energy.
Smart strips are another great way to stop phantom loads in your home office. A smart strip senses when the computer or TV is on or off. It shuts off things like DVD players, printers, which can draw up to thirty watts when off. You have plugs that remain always on, for things like modems and ones that turn off when you power off your TV or computer. In addition, smart strips provide all the surge protection that a regular surge suppressor does, up to 2875 joules for devices like fax machines and modems. Smart strips cost from $30 to $40
and can pay for themselves in less than a year, depending on the number of
computer peripherals, etc, you have. Here is an example of a smart power strip:A Smart
Strip Power Strip.
Works On entertainment centers, computer peripherals. Click On The Photo For
More Info (Link to Amazon.com page)
Another method that is less effective but still saves energy is to put certain phantom or vampire loads on a timer. You can put a timer on your entertainment center that shuts all of it, TV, VCR, Cable Box, etc., off during certain hours, such as midnight to five in the morning. Digital timers with internal battery backup to keep the clock straight, cost around $20. Most have an override button you can push if for some reason you are up and want to watch TV. Timers like these work great to save electricity on other loads such as garden fountains that don't need to be on during the wee hours of the morning or when you are at work. (Most pool pumps can be put on a timer to work less with the same cleaning results.)
Other Phantom Loads You Just Have To Live With There are some phantom loads that you can get rid of, others you just have to live with. You can easily unplug phone and other chargers when not in use and save a few bucks per year on your electricity bill. Chargers typically draw from one to ten watts of electric power and it is therefore worth unplugging them. Other phantoms that you may be unaware of include wired smoke detectors, thermostats, alarm systems, stove clocks, washers and dryers and motion lights. These you just have to ignore for safety's sake but they are the reason your meter still slowly spins when you have everything else in the house unplugged. Saving energy makes sense for the planet and for your wallet in these tough economic times so hunt down those vampire loads and kill them one at a time! |
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Green Links and Resources: Renewable Energy Incentives Green Building Council www.treehugger.com Peak Oil News List Of Legitimate Ways To Make Money Online At Home
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