How much money do you save by unplugging unused appliances? Does electricity really flow through unused items?

Question

I just don't understand how or why electricity flows through unused chargers and plugs to unused appliances. Does anyone have any information on this? Also, how much electricity flows through?

Answer 1

This depends on the appliance. Something like a lamp with the switch turned off does not use power. TV's DVD's etc all have circuits that are powered when "turned off" These circuits power the infrared receiver that allows you to turn them on from the remote. The amount of power used varies between appliances but can amount to 10's of dollars each in power over the year.

Battery chargers are simply power supplies. All power supplies have some power usage even when nothing is put in the secondary side of them. This is usually transformer losses but many newer chargers have electronic circuits they will take power while they are plugged into the mains.

I personally put up with the power usage for TV's, DVD etc because of the inconvenience of turning off the mains. The manufacturers should make this "stand by" mode more efficient in my opinion.

Answer 2

Everything that can be turned on using a remote control is using a small amount of power to "watch" for the "turn on" command.

Everything that has a small light like a "stand by" or "ready" light uses a little power for that light. A power strip that has an "on" light uses power for that light even though nothing in plugged in or turned on.

Some items have a clock that runs all the time. Those items use a little power even if the clock display is turned off.

Wall plug power supplies (the ones that are heavier for their size) have transformers that use a little power when they are plugged in but have no load connected. You can feel that they are warm even when they are not powering anything. The lighter weight ones have no transfomer and use less power when they are not powering anything.

Most items that don't have anything like a clock display that you an see in the dark use less than one watt. That would be less than 9 killowatt hours per year counting the time that the item is actually being used. At the rates that most people pay, that would be less than 1 US dollar per year for each item. A clock with a big bright display might cost as much as 10 US dollars per year. Items with just a small pilot light clock display might cost 2 to 5 US dollars per year.

Compared to the days when there were no remote controls and you couldn't see a clock at night unless it had a radium dial, quite a lot of energy is wasted if you add up all of the little one watt remote controlled items in the world.

Answer 3

Phantom electricity use accounts for 5 billion kWh per year in the United States or the equivalent of one 500 MW power plant. Any appliance that has a digital clock, appliances with a standby light, cell phone chargers, laptop computer chargers or remote controls will use electricity even when they are shut off. The only way to stop the usage is to unplug the device. The easiest way to do this is to use power strips and plug multiple appliances into one strip. Once you shut the power off to the strip all of the appliances will also be completely off.

AVERAGE ANNUAL ENERGY USE IN STANDBY MODE for some household appliances are:

Computer 16 kWh

Computer Printer 70 kWh

Clock Radio 18 kWh

Garage Door Opener 24 kWh

Microwave Oven 26 kWh

Computer Router 16 kWh

Stereo/Surround Sound 128 kWh

VCR/DVD Players 59 kWh

Cable/Satellite Boxes 128 kWh

LCD TV 123 kWh

Plasma TV 145 kWh

Rear Projection TV 186 kWh

Multiply those numbers by the number of each you have in your home and then multiply that number by what you pay per kWh and you will have an idea of what it costs.