Before going to bed, most people shut down the house for the night.
The TV is turned off, the computers are powered down and the light over the front door goes dark.
But despite your best efforts, power and money could be escaping through your outlets while you’re sleeping.
Standby power, which is also called phantom or vampire power, is consumed when an electronic device is on standby mode or has been turned off but is still plugged in. This phantom power can account for 10 per cent of an average B.C. household’s annual electricity consumption, according to figures from B.C. Hydro.
“In our minds, when you turn something off, it’s off,” says B.C. Hydro Power Smart s Patrick Mathot. “In reality, a lot of things are almost off.”
It used to be that when you turned something off, it stopped drawing power. However, as electronics have advanced, they ve acquired more functions that suck power, such as internal clocks, timers, remote controls and network access.
Some items perform necessary functions in standby mode, while others, including toasters or unused charging cords, draw power while doing nothing. Those are the ones that should be unplugged.
“There’s an intersection between what’s practical and realistic and what’s wasteful,” Mathot says.
We also have devices, such as PVRs, that didn’t exist 15 years ago. Now, 65 per cent of B.C. Hydro customers have a PVR or DVR, up from 53 per cent four years ago. Many of these recorders use almost as much power in off or standby mode — an average of 90 kilowatt hours per year — as when they’re used with the television on. That amounts to almost $20 annually.
“They’re actually one of the worst offenders in terms of when you turn them off, they continue to draw power, “ Mathot says — although he acknowledges that unplugging the PVR when you’re not using it doesn’t really make sense because it stays connected to a network to perform its primary function.
The average North American home has 25 or more products that use standby power. Individually, these items use a relatively small amount of energy, but together they can cost a family a significant amount of money.
“Those little things can add up. We re talking dozens of dollars over the course of a year, dozens of dollars we didn t used to spend,” Mathot says.
When you add that up across the customer base, it’s significant.
REGULATING PHANTOM POWER
Household electricity consumption from electronics is expected to climb by as much as 20 per cent in B.C. this year, up five per cent from last year. Numbers like that are prompting utilities, including B.C. Hydro, and governments to focus on reducing the amount of standby power we re consuming.
The federal and B.C. governments have some regulations in place to limit the amount of standby power that an appliance or device can consume.
In 2011, Canada’s Energy Efficiency Regulations were amended to establish minimum energy performance standards for certain products that use standby power: compact audio products, televisions and video playing and recording products.
The changes applied to “off” and “standby” modes and set different limits for products depending on when they were manufactured.
Products manufactured after May 2011 have the off-mode limit of one watt and the standby-mode limit of three or four watts. For items made since January 2013, the limit is 0.5 watts for off mode (except clock radios, which can consume one watt) and the standby limit is 0.5 to two watts, depending on whether they have a display.
John Cockburn, equipment program director in the Office of Energy Efficiency, says that because technology is always evolving, so are the regulations. He sees Canada moving toward a standard adopted in the U.S. that includes standby consumption in a product s total allowable energy consumption.
There is also a voluntary agreement between U.S. cable providers and set-top box manufacturers to bring in targeted improvements for energy consumption, and Cockburn says his office is trying to bring in a similar agreement between Canadian cable and satellite providers and set-top box manufacturers.
Another focus is reducing the energy consumption of devices, such as video-game consoles and PVRs, that also operate at a level between standby mode and fully powered up.
“We’re now looking at ways to minimize that power mode and continue with that responsiveness,” Cockburn says. “It’s a difficult thing to put regulations in for.”
In B.C., the Energy Efficiency Standards Regulation regulates standby power for televisions, compact audio products and video products. It requires that standby power usage for these devices be 0.5 watts or less.
B.C. is a signatory of the 2013 Pacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, and is currently working with the governments of Washington, Oregon and California to identify areas for joint action. For example, the Ministry of Energy and Mines recently completed consultations on a proposed energy efficiency standard for battery chargers that would also limit standby power usage.
However, Cockburn says: “Things are changing so rapidly that standards may not be the best way to deal with it. Not to say that regulations are not important. It sends a really good message to people that it’s an issue, that it s important to Canadians.”
HOW TO REDUCE YOUR CONSUMPTION
Sometimes taking matters into your own hands works best, and there are a number of ways people can reduce the amount of standby power they consume.
The simplest is to unplug products you aren t using that extra TV in the basement or the phone charger that s not charging anything. You can also plug several devices into a power bar and turn the bar off when you re not using the items. Advanced and smart power bars can be put on timers to cut power at a set time or turn off certain devices and leave others on.
“If you’re looking for ways to save electricity in your home, a relatively easy way is to look for things that are plugged in and understand that they may be drawing electricity. It ll make a small difference,” Mathot says.
Mathot suggests that B.C. Hydro customers with smart meters sign up for MyHydro so they can look at their energy consumption. If they notice, for example, that they re consuming power when they re asleep, they should check what they have plugged in.
“That can be an indicator of what kind of standby power you have going on,” Mathot says.
Cockburn says consumers should look for the Energy Star symbol when they buy electronics.
“That’s the best choice the consumers can make in the market,” he says.
Ian Bruce, science and policy manager for the David Suzuki Foundation, says saving energy and money is on British Columbians’ minds right now, with the recent B.C. Hydro rate hike and Earth Day on April 22.
Bruce said that identifying sources of vampire power and eliminating as many as possible is good for the environment and your pocketbook.
“It adds up and yet it doesn t really contribute to your quality of life at all. It’s just sort of wasted energy,” Bruce said. Reducing standby power is a win-win situation, he added.
CASE STUDIES: WHAT PHANTOM POWER COSTS TWO LOCAL FAMILIES
To get an idea of how much standby power an average family consumes over a year, we gave a list of common household items to Province entertainment listings coordinator Julia Piper, who lives in a townhouse in East Vancouver with her husband Jeff and daughters Katie, 19, and Haley, 17.
Julia was surprised at how many of the items she has in her home.
The Pipers have:
4 televisions
2 PVRs
2 laptops
1 computer
1 printer
4 stereos
3 phone chargers
(left plugged in until
Julia pulls them out)
1 gaming console
1 microwave
1 dishwasher
1 stove
1 toaster
2 DVD players
The family also has a washer and dryer, but they are older models that don t consume standby power.
The total average standby energy consumption over a year for these items is 1,054 kilowatt hours. That s $108.55 per year.
We gave the same list of items to Surrey’s Diana Fournier, who lives in a duplex with her 25-year-old son and his 24-year-old friend.
Fournier s home has:
4 televisions
4 set-top boxes
2 laptops
3 computers
3 printers
3 tablets
3 stereos
4 cellphone chargers
5 gaming consoles
1 microwave
1 dishwasher
1 washer and dryer
1 cooktop and oven
1 toaster
The total average standby energy consumption over a year for these items is 2,521 kilowatt hours. Thats $260.83 per year.
phantom power
