Go Vampire Hunting in Your Home...

Vampires and vampire shows on TV and in the movies are still very popular; however, you should be aware that there are vampires in your home that you need to locate and kill. In the movies and on TV the vampires suck the blood of their victims by biting into the veins in their necks. In your home the vampires suck the power out of the circuits in your home. The power vampires in your home are the result of devices that never fully turn off. They are in stand-by mode, ready to come back completely on at the click of the remote. In fact it was the advent of the remote control that necessitated that the device always be partially on and ready to respond to the remote.
 

Both kinds of vampires are most often seen at night. The easiest way to go vampire hunting in your home, wait until dark and then turn out the lights and walk around. I think you’ll be surprised at the eerie little glows that you see in the night – those are your vampires. Those are the little standby lights on your TV or your printers or your computers or any number of other items in your house. As you walk from room to room in the dark, count the number of little glowing lights that you see. I’ll bet you’ll be surprised at all of the vampire activity that is going on. You can also just go around picking up all of those little power bricks that come with almost every new device and which you leave plugged in. If they are warm that is heat from the power that they are drawing, even if the device isn’t turned on.

Now some of you may be saying that the use of the term vampire is too dramatic for such a small amount of power waste by each device. So, maybe you’d prefer the term “ticks”. Each little tick draws just a little blood. But imagine instead of one little tick there are tens of them, all sucking at once. According to one study - The average US household has a total of 50 watts of standby power going all the time. That’s 440kWh per annum per house hold or about 5% of the total consumption for that household. Across the 100+ Million homes in the US that represents 5 GW of wasted power.

If you’ve never thought about all of the things in your home that might be sucking down power when you thought they were turned off, read this government report -  http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-table.html.  I’ll bet there are some surprises on this rather extensive list of home items that draw standby power.

It turns out that it is probably impossible to get rid of all of the standby vampires, since some of that energy is going to maintain internal clocks that need to be kept current or they would have to be reset every time that you wanted to use the appliance or gadget. Many of the little energy suckers can be completely turned off only by unplugging them or putting them on a power strip that can be turned off. Ironically, many of those same power strips have a glowing (energy consuming) little light in the on-off switch, so that you can see them in the dark. There are many things that you can do to rid your home of most of your vampires. Here is a good video by Kansas City Power and Light on some suggestions to reduce your power losses - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJCSjsrE8ZM

 

So, unless you are comfortable sharing your home with vampires (or ticks) wander through tonight and see how many of the little power-suckers you have in your house. Happy vampire hunting!

Does your house have vampires?

When I say "vampire," I don't mean the hypnotic power of some black-caped, white-fanged Transylvanian. I’m talking about the electricity your home electronics and appliances suck out of the power grid when you're not using them. Of course I realize that our TV’s have a vampire like affect on all of us and can turn us into zombies.

If you're a conscientious user of appliances and gadgets, you always turn them off when you're not using them. But many electronics don't actually go all the way off—they continue using "standby power." Some examples of features that require standby power are:

internal clocks and sensors;
external clock displays and panel display LEDs;
remote control sensors;
battery rechargers and power-conversion bricks;
communications between a base unit and a portable unit (as in a portable phone).

This post provides some statistics on how much vampire power is costing you and offers tips for reducing your vampire-power problem in the future.

POWER VAMPIRES TAKE A BITE OUT OF YOUR WALLET

The amount of standby power wasted varies among electronic equipment, but overall, the cost to consumers and businesses for all the electricity lost to vampire power in the US is estimated to be $4 billion annually. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates the global energy consumption due to standby power at between 200-400 terawatts per year.

Not all of this vampire power is truly wasted—after all, many of the features in modern electronics that require standby power are either critical for proper functioning of the unit or are associated with desirable features. Most wasted standby power is consumed by inefficient power supplies and components that are getting power unnecessarily. An Australian study of global standby power usage in electronic devices estimated that electronics manufacturers could reduce vampire power by 30% right off the bat just by using existing, better technologies—and with minimal additional cost to consumers.

WHERE DO THE VAMPIRES DWELL?

Exact figures on total losses to standby power are not available, but the most recent major survey on the subject estimated that in the United States, 5% of electricity usage is due to standby power. In Europe, the numbers run slightly higher: France at 7% and Germany and the Netherlands at 10% each. Australia comes in at 11%, Japan at 12%.

Depending on the efficiency of your unit's design, the standby power use can be minimal or substantial. And even though home electronics aren't typically the biggest electricity users in a house, vampire power can still cost you up to 10% of your electric bill.

To some extent, vampire power is only one factor in overall power use for electronic devices. Different units can vary in their "in-use efficiency" too. So really, what we want to look at is the overall energy efficiency of the unit, whether it's off or on, and get an estimate of the total power likely to be consumed by a typical consumer over an average year.

HUNT DOWN THOSE BLOODY POWER DRAINERS!

One of the easiest ways to “see” many of the little vampires in your house is to turn off all the lights at night and see what’s still aglow. All of those little red or green glowing lights on various power bricks or appliances are all taking in some power. If you feel a power brick that is unhooked it will still feel warm, because they are designed to run as long as they are plugged in. If it’s not powering the gadget that it came with the power that is being used is being run through a resistor inside the brick – that’s why it’s hot.

There's a cool little gadget available that can help you determine which of your plug-in items are the most inefficient power consumers. It's the Kill-A-Watt electricity usage monitor. You just plug it into the wall outlet and then plug your electrical device into the Kill-a-Watt monitor. It will allow you to assess how efficient the electrical device is. You can calculate the item's electrical cost by the day, week, month, or year to help you decide whether a more efficient model would save you money over time. Check out the Kill-A-Watt monitor at Amazon.com

DRIVE A STAKE THROUGH THE HEARTS OF THE VAMPIRES!

A great way to deal with all of the little power bricks that can surround a home computer is to use one of the new smart power strips available at the ChooseRenewables web site and likely at some stores. Of course, you could always just turn off your old power strips; but, that’s why somebody had to invent smart power strips, because we aren’t always smart enough to do it ourselves.

If you are buying new equipment or appliances, look for the Energy Star rating on them, which means that they are at least efficient when they are operating. Of course some of the stand-by features just can’t be switched off, like the remote sensors or the telephone base station to handset communications link. Turning them off would disable the device, so focus upon the things that you have constantly plugged in but don’t constantly need to use or have available for use. All the computer stuff, including printers that you aren’t using at the moment; the phone chargers; the battery pack chargers for power tools; the VCR or DVD player that is just sitting there waiting for the next time that you rent a movie (remember it’s remote control sensor).

Just think about the statistic of 5-10% of your electric bill being sucked up by these little vampires. Maybe that will spur you into action. I know it has me looking at ways to completely power down my computer set ups, which at last count sported 18 little power bricks just sucking power away even when the systems are off. Yikes, I’m overrun with Vampires!