There are two mottos that go hand in hand. The first is, a dollar saved is two dollars earned. The other is, the cheapest watt of energy is the watt not used. Of course, we need to spend money and use watts of energy to enjoy life; but it’s often the case that we end up unknowingly waste energy that we never get to use for our benefit, and spend money to buy that wasted energy. One such source of waste is something called Phantom load.
Phantom load is the power modern electronic devices use while plugged in and powered off. Not every device uses phantom load; for example, a common table lamp consumes no power when it’s switched off. Phantom load comes from devices such as modern televisions, DVD players, and power transformers. For example, the power transformer in my battery charger draws 3 watts of power continuously, even when it’s not charging batteries.
To illustrate the full impact of Phantom load, consider the following setup I have in my basement:
A modest, somewhat dated entertainment system
This rather modest system consists of a standard picture tube TV, DVD player with an amplifier and surround sound speaker system, a VCR, and a videogame console. There is also a videotape rewinder and a signal converter between the DVD player and the TV. This sort of setup can probably be found in many homes across Canada, either as a primary entertainment system, or as a secondary system in the basement for the kids.
Power meter
To start, I connected everything to a power bar, and connected that to a watt meter. First order of business was to take some readings while the system was in use.
The amount of power fluctuated depending on what I was doing. If I was just watching TV at a reasonable volume level, the power would typically fluctuate between 70-80 watts. If I was watching a DVD movie with the surround sound turned up to a reasonable level, it would fluctuate between 120-130 watts. It would be safe to assume that using this entertainment system would cost 100 watts of electricity to run.
Meter reading phantom power
Next, I turned everything off and checked the power meter reading. Even with everything powered down, it still read 20 watts of power was being consumed.
What does this mean? It means that having everything turned off in standby mode consumes as much power in 4-5 hours as I would just watching the TV for one hour. In a 24 hour period, it would be as though it was on for approximately 5 hours even if left off. Over a week, it’s similar to approximately 35 hours of use, even if it’s never been turned on once!
What does this mean, in terms of cost? Let’s suppose this entertainment system does nothing but gather dust for an entire month consisting of 30 days. That’s 20 watts * 24 hours * 30 = 14,400 kilowatt hours. At 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour, that works out to approximately $1.35. There’s your dollar, plus change, saved.
This is just one example. Phantom load exists all over my home. A more modern flat screen TV with a Blu-ray player, amplifier, DVD recorder, all consume 30 watts in standby. That’s $2.03 added to my bill. Add in a modern desktop computer, which is still sipping 4 watts even when powered completely off, the powered off but still plugged in computer speakers drawing 3 watts, a battery charger which is also drawing 4 watts while not charging anything, the TV in the bedroom drawing another 8…it all adds up. Before you know it, you could easily be looking at $6-$7 a month, or $72 to $84 a year. If we consider a dollar saved is two dollars earned, that’s potentially $168 a year.
This is only half the story. The rates will not stay at 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour for much longer. In New York State, the rate is around 20 cents per kilowatt hour; in England, it’s 50 cents. The reason why electricity in my area is so cheap is because it’s subsidized. It won’t be that way forever. So, consider that same modest setup, burning 20 watts all day, every day while powered off. The true monthly cost would be anywhere between $2.88 and $7.20. Add in the rest of the parasitic power, and we’ll be looking at anywhere between $175 to $438 a year (or $350 to $876 of actual earned dollars). That’s when things are going to really matter.
The trick is to get into good habits now. I have everything connected to an inexpensive power bar, which means when that’s turned off, everything really is off. I don’t leave battery chargers plugged in, and I look for alternatives to phantom power devices whenever I can. That way, I’ll be saving smaller dollars today, and will be ready to save bigger dollars when the rates start to climb.