Definition

Phantom loads sometimes referred to as standby power or leaking electricity, are a truly scary animal, they are the power sucked (aka consumed) by supposedly switched off devices.

Many of the appliances in homes today consume power when they are turned off. These include microwaves, stereos, VCRs and television sets. The phantom load can be caused by inefficiencies in converting AC into DC electricity, by indicator lights like clocks on VCRs, or by standby power use such as that used for electronic memory or a remote.

For any single appliance the phantom load is never that large (the most inefficient designs draw 15-20 watts [1]), however when factored over all of the appliances in a country like the U.S. the load can come to billions of watts.

Examples

Pictures to come. Template:Image needed

Anything with a wall warts

A wall wart is an AC/DC transformers, commonly used for:

  • Chargers
  • Phones
  • Miscellaneous electronic toys
A CRT TV and a wall wart plugged into power strip

Anything with a clock

Do you really need to know that it is 12:00, over and over again (it is only right twice a day)?

TV

Back in the 80's people had to wait 5, 10 sometimes even 30 seconds for their TV image to fully appear. That might have been okay back in those slow days, but life is quicker now. In order for a W image to appear immediately the CRT voltage (and sometimes heat) is often kept high and waiting, and in the process often consumes 15 W. That means that some households pay more to have their TV off, then on.

Desktop

Laptop

Costs

Financial

Phantom loads are 24 hours per day. So a 15W phantom load plugged into a grid connected house in California paying $0.12 per kWh [2], would pay:

15 watt * 24 hours/day * 365 days/year = 131,400 watt-hours/year
131,400  watt-hours/year * 1 kW/(1000 watts) = 131.4 kWh/year
131.4 kWh/year * $0.12 per kWh = $15.77 per year

Environmental

Extra CO2 emission and extra energy (coal, nuclear, etc.) production are the most obvious. In addition all of these phantom loads add up to necessitating extra power plants.

How to measure

Use a kill-a-watt meter.

Alternately, unplug everything, except the suspect appliance, from your house that is on the same circuit as the suspect appliance. Turn off the breakers to all the other circuits. Then go read your meter. This will take a very long time, as the meter will be moving very slowly, and it will include any GFCI plugs on that circuit. This is a joke.

Find your appliance on a list of Phantom loads. (anybody know of any?)

What to do about it

  • Power strip
  • Timer
  • Switched plug
  • Kill your TV
  • Unplugging/replugging (tedious)
  • Consider standby power as part of your purchasing decisions
    • Look for EnergyStar labels (www.energystar.gov)
    • Look for small, light, switch-mode power supplies instead of heavy "wall warts"

See also

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