How could a toaster be using up energy when it's plugged in if it's not being used?

Question

I don't get it.

Answer 1

is it an old toaster?

or is it a new one with a clock and a sensor an all done alarm?

the former doesn't.

the new one, frequently does.

Answer 2

Because amny toasters today have digital brains (chips) which draw energy even when the toaster isn;t on.

Answer 3

If you have a fancy toaster with a clock or any other kind of digital readout, it will have a very small energy consumption when not actually making toast.  So small that you can ignore it.  Smaller than the energy consumed by a cell phone sitting at idle waiting for the next call!!

Answer 4

A toaster will probably not do that. But any device that can be turned on by remote control is using some power to keep a receiver listening for the command from the remote to turn on. And any device that tells you the time has a clock running in it, even if it is off. How else could it keep track of the time while it was off, right? And various other kinds of low power standby functions may be going on. But I never saw a toaster that had any of those features. You find these standby power users in computers and TVs and stereos and so on. The amount of power is extremely small though. I really think people are being penny wise and pound foolish to bother about them.

Answer 5

I don´t think a toaster has a stand by consumption.

Nevertheless, stand by power represents 5% of the world power consumption while it has really very little economic contribution.

Answer 6

It doesn't, so you do get it.  Until you push down the handle, the circuit board does not get any power.  For more info see:

http://www.100share.com/Toasters-Work.ht...

Digital electronics run on DC power, and require a transformer to convert AC wall voltage and current to DC current at a specified voltage.  That big black heavy thing you plug into the wall, is the transformer.  Your cell phone charger uses a lighter transformer.

Anytime the transformer is plugged in, it draws a small amount of current, even if the device is "off".  And if you look around your home, these transformers tend to be everywhere.

A toaster is a very low tech device that people don't want to pay a lot of money for.  The electronics are very simple, and it does contain a transformer, but until you push the handle down, no power is going to the circuit board.

Answer 7

I was always told never to leave a toaster plugged in do too the risk of fire. So I never leave it plugged in and never will