4. Switch Off Unused Appliances and TVs
Challenge: Stop Energy Drains from Unused or “Off” Appliances
With some exceptions, most transformers (or “wall-warts”) appliances with an internal power supply, clock, ready light, LED, or timer used with a remote control, draw electricity from the wall outlet even when they are “off.” The biggest offenders are DVD players, stereos, TVs and VCRs, most computers and AC adapters (”wall cubes”) used with many small appliances. Even cell phone or iPod chargers draw small amounts of energy that add up over the course of a year. For this reason, the energy drains they cause are called “phantom” or “vampire” loads.
What You Should Know
- Home Powermagazine found the average American household supports 1.45 kilowatt hours of phantom loads per day.
- The US department of Energy states that “75% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off. This can be avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power strip.”
- Nationally, phantom loads make up about six per cent of our entire residential electricity consumption.*
- The wasted energy from phantom loads in the U.S. is enough electricity to run all the homes in Australia and then some.
- The only way to truly turn appliances “off” is to physically or electrically unplug them from its outlet. They can be plugged into a switched outlet or a power strip, which is turned off when not in use.
Easy Things You Can Do
- Borrow a kill-a-watt meter from the lending library to help you decide which components to unplug, then unplug them. You may be surprised by what a little investigating will reveal about the phantom loads in your home.
- Put rarely used appliances on a power strip that can be switched off at the end of the day or when not in use.
*Source: Positive Energy Solar