You surely know that keeping lights and electronics on unnecessarily is an effective way to reduce your electricity usage and save your money as a result. But do you have any idea about the impact on your bill of leaving your phone on the charger overnight or leaving your devices plugged in while they’re turned off? Whether it is worth unplugging these devices when not in use poses an important question mark.
Many home electronics and devices continue to consume power when turned off or in standby, sleep mode. Any energy used when a device is not performing its main function is known as standby power, and resources consumed in this way are sometimes called “energy vampires”.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California measured standby power consumption of a long list of home appliances when on, idle, and off (but still plugged in) and found that the results ranged widely. For example, your laptop can draw as little as 0.82 W or as high as 54.8 W when asleep and much more when fully powered on and charging or even fully charged.
The US Department of Energy estimates that the cost of standby power is large enough to save the average household $100 each year, while data from the Natural Resources Defense Council show the annual cost to be around $165.
It’s hard to say exactly how much energy vampires hurt your pocket, as power consumption depends on the number of devices you plug in, how energy-hungry these devices are in different modes, and your usage habits. In addition, electricity costs also have variable values. However, Berkeley Lab recommends the following simple calculation to help you estimate a range: If a device draws 1 watt continuously for a year, it will use a total of approximately 9 kWh ($1 recommended for this amount) during that time. In other words, if your microwave oven draws an average of 3 watts when it is not working, it causes you to spend 27 kWh (ie 3 dollars) per year.
This amount doesn’t seem like much, but if you factor in all your devices that are plugged in when not in use, this small amount can reach a significant level. Consumer electronics such as computers, game consoles and TVs account for more than half of always-on power consumption.
A study from England…
Another study conducted in England claims that one-fifth of the electricity bill is due to devices left in stand-by mode. The devices that contribute the most to the annual electricity expenditure are satellite boxes, routers, TVs, microwave ovens and game consoles. In addition, computers, dishwashers, printers and phone chargers seem to be wasting money even when they are not in use (such as dishwashers that do not turn off when the wash cycle is finished, or chargers that are left plugged in but not connected for charging).
Of course, you don’t have to go around your house and unplug all devices one by one every day before you go to work or go to sleep every night.
The first thing to do is to unplug unused or fully charged electronics and devices. Remember that you should not unplug and replug devices you use frequently (daily or multiple times a day). Not only is this a tedious task to do, over time it can damage plugs, cables, and outlets. However, if you have counter-top kitchen appliances that you don’t need often, or a guest bedroom TV or a printer that is rarely used, it might be helpful to unplug them…
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