Tackle Energy Vampires and Stop Phantom Power

Halloween, a time of ghouls and ghosts, is an ideal occasion to stop energy vampires from stealing your electricity and money.

This October we decided to tackle the energy vampires around our home. The actions we completed were easy and low or no cost. Although appliances like refrigerators, microwaves, and garage door openers use standby power we did not include these items in our project.

A previous post, Energy Vampires and Phantom Loads – Standby Power, covered energy vampires (devices that suck electricity even when turned off), purposes of standby power and its environmental impact. This post chronicles our energy vampire project. Readers will learn how to identify energy vampires, decide which devices to deal with, and get ideas for possible solutions.

Identifying Possible Energy Vampires

We walked through our home and made a list. We checked it against the Energy Vampires and Phantom Loads – Standby Power post for items we might have missed, like our power tools in the garage.

Kill-A-Watt Meter with Extension Cord I wanted to measure the standby power of our equipment and electronics so we could figure out how much electricity we would save after completing our endeavor. Fortunately, my lighting designer spouse had a Kill-A-Watt meter.

We walked around the house and garage with the Kill-A-Watt meter attached to an extension cord. We’d plug the extension cord into a wall outlet, set the meter to measure watts, then unplug a piece of equipment from the wall and plug it into the meter. I recorded how many standby watts each item drew if any when it was turned off.

Deciding Which Energy Vampires to Tackle

The next and possibly most difficult step is to figure out which items on the list to tackle. The low hanging fruit is devices with high standby power usage, unnecessary equipment, and things that are not used all the time. The balance between saving energy and convenience can be tricky. Since the full-time occupants of our household are my spouse and me, we only had to consult ourselves.

We decided to deal with our home office equipment, entertainment center, and determine if we had any items that could be unplugged either temporarily or for good.

Solutions for Getting Rid of Energy Vampires

This is what we did.

Home Office Computer Area

We both work out of our home so perhaps have more equipment that some people. Our home is in an area with not infrequent power outages so we both have UPS (uninterrupted power supply) units under our desks. In the event of a power outage, they keep our equipment on long enough to save files and power down safely.

Smart Power Strip with Remote Switch - Computer Area The UPS units are our top standby power users but we decided we need to keep them on. I purchased a smart power strip to plug my equipment into which is then plugged into the UPS. The UPS protects the equipment when it is on and the power strip eliminates standby power when equipment is turned off. Our Ethernet switches are plugged into the always-on outlets. I didn’t particularly want to crawl under my desk twice a day to turn the power strip on or off, or have it and all its cables on top of my desk. So I paid a few bucks extra for a smart power strip with a remote switch I put on top of my desk. Cool.

Home Office Printer Area

We have several pieces of equipment for printing, copying, and scanning we use less often than a few years ago. We decided the equipment did not need to be on standby all the time. A 5-prong power squid enabled us to plug in external power supplies of various shapes and sizes. It is plugged into a switched wall outlet which means the equipment can be turned on or off with the flip of a wall switch. Easy.

Entertainment Center

Double Plug with Switch - Entertainment Center I am the TV watcher in our household. We have a TV, cable box, DVD player, and speakers. The cable box and speakers are the standby power hogs so I plugged them into a double outlet with a cord that has a switch on the end (this came from our junk drawer). It only takes about 2 to 2 ½ minutes for the cable box to warm up. I can wait.

Unplug

We don’t leave our cell phone chargers plugged in so didn’t need to worry about them. My cordless weed whacker is only used in the summer so I decided to leave the two chargers unplugged the other 9 months of the year. We eliminated a cordless phone and three alarm clocks. Simple.

Standby Power Reduction Results

Before – our standby power (for the items on our list) was 1,075 kWh, about 10% of the annual energy use of the typical American household (11,280 kWh ¹). Electricity in our area is expensive. At $0.22 per kWh, our standby power cost was $236.50, more than double the average of $100 estimated by the U.S. DOE ².

After – we’ve reduced our standby power by almost 48% to about 512 kWh which will save $123.86 year after year.

We purchased two smart power strips for a total of $78.43 which makes our ROI (return on investment) less than one year. Even if we had purchased a Kill-A-Watt meter for $21.54, our ROI would still be less than a year.

It All Adds Up

If every household in the United States took action to reduce standby power (estimated at 100 billion kWh annually ³), and we reduced it by say 25%, we would save 25,000,000,000 kWh (yes that’s billions) of electricity while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. Unplugging chargers and a $5 power strip could go a long way.

Small actions can really add up.

Now you are armed with information about how to identify energy vampires and possible solutions, so it’s your turn. Share how you tackled your energy vampires in the comments section below. Good luck.

References

Resources

Author: Linda Poppenheimer

Linda researches and writes about environmental topics to share information and to spark conversation. Her mission is to live more lightly on Earth and to persuade everyone else to do the same. View all posts by Linda Poppenheimer