Contact: NOVEC Public Relations, 1-888-335-0500, customerservice@novec.com
NORTHERN VIRGINIA – Electricity courses through wires in homes, schools, and businesses just as blood courses through living creatures’ veins. While fictitious vampires materialize on Halloween and in Twilight movies, energy vampires are real. They can suck enough electricity to account for about 10 percent of a consumer’s electric bill.* The Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative says consumers don’t need garlic or wooden stakes to stop energy vampires – they need power strips.
Energy Vampires at home and at work
According to EnergizeEfficiently, the average American household has 40 devices and appliances that constantly draw power while in “standby mode.” These energy vampires include televisions, DVD and DVR players, video game boxes, computers, tablets, monitors, printers, “wall wart” chargers, AC adaptors, microwave ovens, and digital picture frames.
Bob James, NOVEC energy services representative, says, “Modern digital electronics have amazing capabilities, but they increase electric bills surreptitiously when no one is using them, and when people are away from the office or home, or asleep. Anything that has a digital display or clock is an energy vampire. That annoying flashing 12:00 on a VCR or DVD player reminds you that the machine is siphoning phantom power.”
How much phantom power electronics sneak depends on what the gadgets and appliances do. EnergizeEfficiently reports that a coffee maker uses only about one watt while a digital cable television box with DVR consumes a whopping 44.6 watts when the DVR is not recording and the TV is off. Consumers can see power consumption for different electrical devices on the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Standby Power Summary Table.
“Learning which appliances and electronic devices use the most electricity when turned off will allow customers to make better choices about what to unplug at the wall or via a power strip,” James says.
Energy vampires first appeared in the 1960s when TV manufacturers included new “instant-on” technology. Before then, a TV watcher had to wait a minute or two for a TV tube to warm-up enough to display a picture. With the new technology, manufacturers included instant-on capabilities in other electronics.
Fend off energy vampires
To save electricity and money, James says consumers should plug devices into a power strip, turn the devices off properly, and then turn off the strip. He says a “smart” power strip is even better. Like a Halloween ghost, a smart power strip senses when devices are not in use and cuts off their power supply automatically. Certain smart strips stop current to a battery once it’s charged. Consumers can program some smart strips to turn off devices at set times.
When not using a power strip, James says to unplug cellphone and tablet AC adaptors after they have charged batteries. Adaptors typically connect to a device at one end and a wall socket on the other. They change electrical current and voltage sufficiently to charge batteries.
“A lot of people don’t know that AC adaptors and wall warts draw electricity constantly once a phone, tablet, or digital camera battery is fully charged -- even when nothing is plugged into them,” James explains. “Look for a light or power bar on your device to see if the battery is fully charged. If so, unplug the AC adaptor or wall wart.”
Look for ENERGY STAR labels and power-management systems
Manufacturers are continually designing improvements to increase efficiency and reduce standby losses. The United States Department of Energy says devices, appliances, and office electronics with the ENERGY STAR label use about half the electricity that standard equipment uses – including when they are on standby. Despite using less power, DOE recommends turning off the power supply: “Many people believe that equipment lasts longer if it is never turned off. This incorrect perception carries over from the days of older mainframe computers.”
DOE recommends putting desktop computers or laptops on sleep mode, or disconnecting them from the power supply with a power strip. (DOE notes that laptops use much less energy than desktop computers.)
Electronic users should enable power-management systems on computers, monitors, printers, and copiers to either put inactive devices in a low-power state or turn them off completely. Besides saving energy, power management prolongs battery life for devices that use them, and reduces cooling requirements and noise.
Plug-in kilowatt meters measure lost phantom power
To measure lost phantom power, James suggests purchasing small kilowatt meters: “After plugging the meter into a wall outlet, plug your equipment into the meter. It’ll tell you how much electricity your equipment is using when it’s off.”
Trick or Treat
James says, “Vampires and phantoms can be fun once a year on Halloween, but energy vampires and phantoms that sneak electricity year round are all trick and no treat. Beware!”
Consumers can learn more about wise energy use at www.novec.com/useitwisely12 and www.energizeefficiently.coop.
*Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory
