Have you ever heard the word Phantom loads? No, it is not from the Phantom comics. This term is used to define any appliance or electronic that uses electricity or “standby power” even while switched off. These loads have several names such as vampire power, phantom load, ghost load, or leaking electricity.
Earlier standby power was no issue for users, electricity providers, manufacturers, and government regulators. In the first decade of the twenty-first century, consciousness of the issue increased, and it became an important consideration. Up to the middle of the decade, standby power was often several watts per appliance. The One-Watt Initiative was launched by the IEA to ensure through international cooperation to reduce the standby power-use by any appliance to not more than 1W in 2010, and 0.5 Watts in 2013.
Where are Phantom loads presents?
Modern houses are filled with appliances that consume power even when they are off. For examples:
- Phantom loads keep the television settings and allow the unit to power up quickly the “ON” button is pressed.
- They keep the clocks switched on for the DVD player, stove, and microwave.
- Wireless network running 24/7 to not interrupt the internet connection and keep running the wireless printer too to always ready to print
- May enable a device to switch on very quickly without delays that might otherwise occur (“instant-on”), avoiding a delay of many seconds in starting up.
- Can be used to operate a clock, power a display, without switching on the equipment to full power.
- Power a remote-control receiver, so that when infrared or radio-frequency signals are sent by a remote-control device, the equipment can respond, typically by changing from standby to full-on mode.
- Battery-powered equipment connected to mains electricity can be kept fully charged although switched on; for example, a mobile telephone can be ready to receive calls without depleting its battery charge.
Is it affect electricity consumption?
A 2015 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) projected nearly a quarter of all household electricity use in the United States is consumed by appliances and other equipment in standby mode. Altogether, standby power use is roughly responsible for 1% of global CO2 emissions. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory provides a helpful table of the power consumption in standby mode for a few products. Using the following table, one can get a sense of how much phantom loads cost every year.
https://standby.lbl.gov/data/summary-table/
Consider a home with the following appliances in standby operation: 2 TV sets (10W each), 3 mobile phone (2 W each), a computer with a UPS and external hard drive (24 W) and various other appliances such as microwave ovens, internet (20 W). The total standby power used by this household is 70 W. Over the year time, this amounts to more than 600 kWh.
It can be stated that the economic cost of standby mode, is worth the added convenience or the features provides in terms of shortened warm-up periods and well-charged batteries. But, when the standby power of 70 W per household is multiplied by millions in a nation and incorporated over a long time, the resultant energy consumption may have far-reaching environmental and economic concerns.
How to reduce the phantom loads?
Older devices frequently used ten watts or more; with the adoption of the One-Watt Initiative by many countries, standby energy use is much reduced. This would reduce CO2 emissions by 50 million tons in the OECD countries alone by 2010; equivalent to removing 18 million cars from the roads. Below are some points to reduce the phantom loads:
1. Identify your phantom loads
2. Identify clusters of phantom loads: computer stations, stereo, TV systems, kitchen appliances
3. Use the proper power strip: Must have an all ON-Off switch. Use this switch to cut the phantom loads. Smart strips are effective alternatives. It automatically cut the power to the devices that are turned off.
4. Timers can be used to turn off the standby power to devices that are unused on a regular schedule using sensors.
5. Home sensors, switches, and controllers can be used to handle more complex sensing and switching. This produces a net saving of power so long as the control devices themselves use less power than the controlled equipment in standby mode.
Reference:
1. Wikipedia
2. https://www.slideshare.net/gauravhtandon1/vampire-electricitystandby-power
3. Standby Power by Berkeley Lab https://standby.lbl.gov/
4. NRDC Issue Paper “Home idle load: Devices wasting huge amounts of electricity when not in Active Use”. May 2015.
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