Meadow Musings

It's Halloween!  Let's talk about phantom loads!!

Phantom loads are secret energy-sucking vampires in your house.  There are two main types of phantom loads:  1) devices you're not using but are still using power, and 2) devices that look like they're off, but they're really not.

Things in category one may include: the battery recharger for your cordless drill,  your modem/router (at night), your printer, etc.  You probably only use your printer once or twice a day, and if it's a home model, it probably doesn't take very long to warm up.  And recharging batteries only take a few hours, but the charger is using power as long as it's plugged in. 

In category two we have items like:  your TV and DVD player, stereo, and pretty much any piece of computer equipment.  These things all have "off" buttons, but when you turn them off they're still really on.  If you can turn your TV on with your remote, it's sucking up a ton of power just waiting for you to press that button.  Computer equipment pretty much always takes power, even if it's in "sleep" mode.

In our house, these two categories would add up to about 200 watts, all day long! That is crazy-talk, people.  For most people, that doesn't amount to much money -- a few dollars a month, maybe -- but that's not really the point, is it?

So what to do?  It's pretty easy: use powerstrips.  You're probably using them anyway (who has enough plugs in their house?), so when you're done with something for the day, cut power to the whole shebang by turning off its powerstrip.   

For example:  when we're done with our computers for the day, we turn off the powerstrip that feeds the computers, monitors, modem, and router.  There's no point in powering any of those things at night.  Similarly, the printer and some other peripherals are on their own power strip, and we don't turn them on unless we actually need them.  

(If you want to go extra-bonus fancy-pants, you can use plug-timers as well.  You know these things; people use them around the holidays to tell their decorative lights to turn on at 7pm (then off at 10pm).   If you have something rechargable, like a toothbrush, razor, or drill battery, plug it into a timer and set the timer to turn on for only a few hours each day.  That's plenty of time to recharge, without the extra waste.)

So have a great Halloween, and go kill yourself some power vampires!   (Also, don't forget to eat way too much candy and get a tummy ache.  Good times, good times.)