List of common phantom loads and their power consumption
 

I found this list of common phantom loads and how much power those loads consume. The report seems a bit old (don't know many people with tape decks anymore). But, it does give you a good idea of where to start looking for phantom loads in your house. It also tells you how to calculate the monthly expense for leaving that stuff plugged in.

Phantom Electrical Loads

One that I never see listed is the furnace, mine draws around 16 watts all summer long, the guy that serviced it said it would flipping the breaker off in the summer should reduce stress on the electronic control board and will save that 16 watts, saving me $1.38 per month in the summer.

I think I tested mine with my killawatt and it didn't pull much. However, I still do this just to eliminate any small loads and extend the furnace circuitry life.

If you guys think it would be useful, we could make our own list of phantom loads.

I believe I even have a spreadsheet already for all the stuff plugged into my house... Yep, found it. It even has columns for inputting killawatt data to calculate the actual daily/monthly usage based upon what the killawatt logs. I've attached it if anyone wants to use it.

My actual base load is higher (per my TED), but these are the things I've been able to measure. Its also a bit out of date too it seems. I leave a bunch of stuff on the list unplugged now.

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1357573849

Refrigerator phantom load 2.4 watts
Toaster uses a few watts but I keep that unplugged now, not sure what it is doing in standby and came at a surprise to me when I metered it.
Used to have a coffee maker with a phantom load of a few watts, replaced it with a unit that didn't have a built in timer/clock.
Laptop power supply, cell phone chargers, shaver charger when units are off show zero watts.
Furnace 0 watts at standby and 0.1 amps(12 watts) with the burner going prior to the blower kicking on but that is the lowest resolution that my clamp-on will read and I think it is probably less because the difference with the blower going with the furnace off or on is the same when on the same speed tap, otherwise 324 watts at the furnace speed and 396 watts at air conditioning speed.
Air conditioner doesn't have a heating element on its compressor so that is zero but I still flip its breaker off for sanity.
Printer is energy star and when it is off shows no power use.
I have a set of cheap speakers that use a few watts(sorry don't have the numbers) but that is irrelevant since I switch off the power strip when not using the system.

Popular Mechanics had a phantom load detector that you build with an Arduino, it's of course in one of the issues that I no longer have, did anyone else see this? it's hand held and beeps when it gets close to something that it using electricity.

Is this it?

Build Your Own Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Detector - Popular Mechanics

A big one that I did not see listed is the cable TV set top box, especially with DVR. Can anyone put a kilawatt on theirs: I don't have a kilawatt. Digital TVs are probably all over the place, depending on size.

People still watch cable TV?
Cable boxes tend to be 20 to 35 watts 24/7

Vampire Hunting
 

It is really quite amazing how much electricity a home can waste doing nothing. Between devices on for remote control sensing, to powering built-in electronics, it is pretty easy to waste 50 - 200 watts 24/7. Every always on watt works out to be about 0.73 kwh a month.

I thought I had slayed all the vamps in my house years ago, but when I took a closer look last week with the help of an electrician we found more. These were the lurkers in my house:

1. The furnace -- now turned off until winter
2. The doorbell transformer -- now ripped out. People can knock ;)
3. Garage door openers -- unplugged, since we park outside
4. Microwave - 4 watts. Now on a switch


I reluctantly agree to put up with these mosquitoes:
5. iMac during sleep -- 1.7 watts
6. Light in the garage for our cats -- 3 watts
7. Wi-fi router and modem -- 6 watts. It can be much more
8. Fan with remote control -- left alone (for now) since summer is approaching. Perhaps 2 - 3 watts.
9. Stove LCD clock -- 3 watts

Here is a list of common vampires for people new to slaying.

Happy hunting! Let us know how things go

A few vampires that I have hunted down in our house:

• Driveway gate controller/motor - 32W (more during the few seconds per day when actually opening/closing the gate),
• Microwave oven lcd display - 5W,
• Stove lcd display - 3W,
• Stereo - 10W in standby, 11W with radio on,
• Kitchen radio - 6W when off, 6.5W when on,
• TV+DVD+SAT+Stereo - 20W (all "OFF" or in standby),
• Desktop+LCD monitor+printer - 15W (ditto),
• Doorbell transformer - 5W,
• Boiler - 2.5-3.2W in standby.

Many of these are on a switch/power strip or are simply unplugged, the gate controller's circuit breaker if flipped off when both cars are at home, the boiler is unplugged during the warmer months, the doorbell is on its own circuit breaker so I sometimes flip it off when nobody is home.

I wonder if it wouldn't be worth it to try to find a switching mode power supply for your door bell? Then you wouldn't have to worry about it at all.

Door bells could be full 120v and save the transformer vampire?

Are those for AC to DC only? Our doorbell's transformer is AC to AC (230->12). Anyhow it's more than just a doorbell, more like an intercom, thought that feature is never used. It wasn't my idea, go figure:rolleyes:

That could give new meaning to the phrase "you are invited over for dinner!"

I have to tell you all, finding and ripping out the doorbell transformer in my house last week was a perverse pleasure :)

My wife came home to find the transformer laying on the kitchen counter like a slain beast. She knew I was feeling mighty male and proud. The heart of the targ was on display.

Just do not try to eat the thing.

I like to think long term, at what point are you going to get lazy and stop turning off the power strip or unplugging the device or get tired of not having a working door bell.

So I wonder about matching your house's standby demand with grid tied PV and a micro inverter, even if you have an electric meter that can't run backwards a very small PV system that was designed to stall your electric meter would work great! you can get PV panels with an AC output from a built in micro inverter so the panel gets hard wired right in to your house, in theory you could even put a standard cord plug on it and plug it in to an outlet and have it back feed... not recommended at all but it really is that simple!

Personally I try not to buy stuff that has standby electrical use but I'm sure I still have 20 watts or more from GFI outlets, wireless internet router and motion sensor light switches.

Reasonable question. For me at least, it is a matter of habit. I don't think about turning stuff off
I do notice if something is running and not being used.
Around the time my visitors are unable to knock.

My wife and I are contrasts here, and she probably matches your description of someone who, absent my nagging, would quickly revert to wasteful habits. E.g., any space she enters into she pretty much automatically turns on a light. She has to think about turning the light off. I turn on a light if it is too dark LOL. I'm hopeful that her auto behaviour will change, but it has been ingrained for a long time.

I don't really have any desire to offset a kwh used for one purpose vs another purpose. Clean energy is good. Period.

My local circumstances pretty much dictate for now that any clean energy I generate will be off-site from my home. I avidly follow the emerging PV co-op movement in CA and now in CO, and you can bet I will be one of first to sign up when possible in my state. I also keep pretty close track of the investment scene for clean energy, and am always on the lookout for opportunities to develop clean energy that returns 4% over inflation. I will put a sizeable fraction of my retirement savings into that sort of venture. I like windmills as much or more than PV/thermal, but in the US co-op wind seems even less likely. Too bad, really.

None of the above dissuades me from energy conservation, which I view as synergistic with clean energy production. Let me put it this way: Whether a kWh is not used, or a kWh generated cleanly, that is one less kWh generated from coal -- hopefully. Certainly as clean energy is able to provide an ever increasing fraction of the demand, the support for coal will diminish. The day when coal is not needed is still far, far away. The day when clean energy is in EXCESS, and EVs become a vehicle for clean transport -- even further away.

I try to do my part to hasten the arrival of a fossil-fuel free society. So to answer your question, my flip switching behavior is unlikely to change.

To keep from plugging and unplugging you could have a switch in the cable or on the plug itself:
http://ecorenovator.org/forum/attach...1&d=1367053228

Cats have excellent night vision. No need for the light in the garage.

In general true, but the grandma cat of the house begs to differ. The proof is in the piddling -- or lack thereof.

I just had a home energy audit performed on my house and the phantom load that really surprised me was my desktop calculator. It drew 1 watt {per Kill-A-Watt meter} when turned off and 4 to 5 when in use, printer function on. I unplugged it right after I calculated 24 * 365 = 8760, or 8.76 kWh of power annually mostly wasted since I only use it to balance my checkbook once a month. Ok, I know that in my area, that works out to about $1.30/annually, but it's $1.30 that I get no value from. :)

It's amazing what you can find with one of those infrared "guns" the auditor carries around!

I am posting this in this thread as well as its own so its easier to find. Its really a great site that has power consumption data for different electronics. I stumbled across it while researching energy efficient wireless routers. You can also add entries for whatever you have too. Very cool idea! :thumbup:

The Power Consumption Database

I used to turn off/unplug devices. I can attest to the lazy part. It got old after a few months. A timer switch would be nice to have for something like this. Any ideas?

Here are a bunch of ideas. :)

http://ecorenovator.org/forum/conser...g-devices.html