Phantom power!

‘Phantom power’ or ‘vampire power’ is the electricity used by consumer electronics and appliances while they are in standby mode. According to the Energy Saving Trust up to 10% of all electricity used in homes in the UK is for appliances on standby, roughly equivalent to the total output of two gas-fired power stations.

The number of LCD and plasma TVs, DAB radios, DVD recorders and players, set top boxes, PCs, laptops, printers, games machines, mobile phone chargers, battery chargers, microwave cookers, CD players etc we now have in our homes means it’s easy to lose track of just how many gadgets there are around the house running on standby power.

The average television set is left on standby for over 17 hours per day. Up to 85% of the energy used in the lifetime of a video recorder is consumed when it’s in standby mode. Games consoles use nearly as much energy when in standby as when being used.

Which tests found a wide variation in standby energy costs of electronic equipment. DVD players varied in their standby energy use between 0.10 and 6.10 watts, giving an annual standby cost ranging from £0.07 to £4.27. DVD recorders had a standby power consumption of 3.2 to 20.3 watts, costing £2.24-£14.23 per year, while Freeview set-top boxes used between 5.5 and 22.6 watts giving an annual standby cost of £3.85-£15.84.

According to the Carbon Trust a computer and monitor left on for 24 hours per day will cost about £60 per year to run. Turned off at night and weekends the cost will reduce to about £15 per year. Using the computer’s energy-saving settings can reduce this even further down to around £5 per year.

There’s one sure way to reduce the running costs of all these appliances – just switch them off at the plug when you’re not using them. It’s a simple, free and easy way to save some money and reduce your carbon footprint too.

If it’s awkward to reach the plug socket – or if you are just plain lazy – you can get a remote control kit to do it for you. The Bye Bye Standby kit comes with 3 plug adaptors which simply plug directly into the mains socket. Each will control an individual appliance or a group of appliances up to 1000W on a power strip .

While you can see this as a lot of unnecessary plastic and electronics simply to switch off a socket, it’s very simple to install and to use and could make all the difference in getting at least some of those standby-hungry appliances turned off.

There is also the Intellipanel Desktop, an energy saving mains controller which works with your PC and automatically powers up or turns off the printer, scanner etc when the PC is switched on or off. It’s recommended by the Energy Saving Trust and can pay for itself in less than a year of use. Also available in a Laptop version.

Both the Bye Bye Standby Kit and the Intellipanel, plus a range of other energy saving devices, are available online at mygreenerhome.co.uk.