A phantom load is a device or appliance that uses power even when switched off. The average home is full of them. Off grid homes must have this under control to even consider running the home with solar or wind power.
Every home in the US has a TV and VCR sitting there quietly draining power away from the grid. The total phantom load from this stuff of mine added up to 39 watts. At the push of a button it becomes zero. Just imagine every home in the US doing just this simple fix.
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It may be hard for You to believe, but the TV set in the guest bedroom that hasn't been on in months is most likely using much more than your coffee pot or water pump. It is sitting there quietly burning maybe 10 watts, all day, every day, all year.
phantom load total for the unused TV set, if 10 watts an hour is 240 watts a day...Dont believe it? Go room to room and turn everything off. No water running, no ceiling fans.. nothing. Now, go out and look at the electric meter- Wow! still moving.. How can that be?!
compare the unused TV set with the coffee pot, it uses maybe 1500 watts for 5 minutes once a day, or about 125 watts a day.
VCR, Mine measured 6 watts. About 150 watts a day.
Microwave with clock/timer.. 5 watts. 115 watts a day. Get one with a manual timer when the old one wears out. It doesn't use any power while sitting there. Mine sits plugged in all the time.
Here's a big one, the very popular DSS satellite dish. even when off it uses the same 25 watts. 25 x 24 is 600 watts per day. Thats about 90 minutes worth of production from my array... to have something OFF! A simple computer power bar or even nicer, a switched outlet that costs just $4 installed nearby can switch it off. i wonder how many DSS dishes there are in the US sipping that 25 watts apiece? If switched off Would it replace one nuclear reactor or strip mine?
Another sad fact is that many people use these receivers for listening to music.. using their 200 watt TV just to use that 99 cent speaker in there! What a waste. More power used and more heat generated. The DSS receiver has RCA plugs coming out. A quick trip to radio shack and you can buy a small, efficient amplifier that will run your speakers and put out much more powerful sound. This is an upgrade over the TV speaker by far and eliminates about 120 watts per hour by not having the blank TV powered up.
Any electronic device has a certain lifespan built into it. Running the TV when not needed is wearing it out. Preserving the television longer more than makes up for the $19 amplifier.
The DSS receiver could easily be rebuilt with a 10 watt per channel audio amplifier in it. That and a real power switch would make a tremendous difference in the load on the grid. See, it isn't that hard, its just understanding the problem. Government sollution... build more power plants...Run more power lines... Make dumb people happy. you get what you deserve. Learn. get involved. Tell others.
Of course, there are so many opertunities to save energy that are not phantom loads. I work as a service technician so I have been in thousands of offices and I see a common theme-
Computers 'have to be left on', well, if it is tied into some crucial network operation, maybe, but rebooting a computer takes just a minute, so check. Also, Why is the screen saver so popular when there is a power switch right there that would truly extend the life of the monitor and save power as well. The monitor can be off and the computer can continue to operate. Very often I see a empty room with several unattended PC's idling along.
An old fashioned tube style monitor burns about 100-170 watts per hour. This creates heat in the office as well that has to be cooled by using even more energy. If buying a new PC, get a LCD screen. Even with it's 'wall wart' power supply that is real junk, it still uses just 20 watts. I run mine directly with My 12 volt supply that converts 28 volts into 12 so i can run a car radio and some other things. I read 15 watts drain that way. Conservatively, The old CRT tubes use 125 watts more apiece than the new LCD monitor.
Here in the mountains that figures out to about 1 1/4 cents an hour less cost for electicity per unit. Eight hours per day use, thats 10 cents a day, 50 cents a week, 25 bucks a year. Figure the monitor will be there for 3 yrs, thats $75 saved. Of course the monitor cost a bit more to begin with, however I didnt figure in the 125 watts of HEAT added to the building that the AC unit has to battle. Works out pretty close and besides these things are cool. I hung mine on the wall.
All electronic devices have a lifespan engineered into them. Buy high quality gear and use it wisely. If left on needlessly there is no doubt it will fail sooner.
I see ladies sitting at desks with 1500 watt space heaters blowing on their legs because the air conditioning is set to 60 degrees and the controls are set in spring and unbolted in the fall. Why is this going on? Crazy.
Often I see a hot coffee pot with about an once of burned up coffee in it. That coffee pot, if left that way for the afternoon will use about half as much as my house does in 24 hours.
Most office machines, copiers and printers to be precise, use huge amounts of power. The reason is that the xerographic process uses heat to melt plastic ink onto paper. This works better than any other printing process so will most likely be around a bit longer.
For the last 5 yrs or so, those devices have been built with energy saving timers that are fully adjustable from 5 minutes to 4 hrs, one timer runs out first, switching the heaters off or to a reduced level. This also makes cooling fans run slower, pulling in less dust as a bonus. The second timer will switch the unit off completely.
How much time goes by between copies in Your office? Make an estimation and add 10 minutes and thats the 'go to sleep timer' setting. Add 30 minutes to the first number and enter that for the second timer. Enter a higher number to the second setting to take into account lunch breaks or whatever. It isn't carved in stone, so play with it until the hollering and griping subsides.
I have been told that 'it takes more power to restart'-- Hmm. really? Well, lets go over that theory. Lets use the PC as an example. Lets say it runs just 5 hrs when not in use. It's probably all weekend but lets go with just 5 hrs. That's about 750 watt hours. Now, lets imagine that it could possibly use that much in the 3 minutes it takes to boot back up.
3 minutes is 1/20 of an hour so, that would require a 15,000 watt load for that 3 minutes to equal the 5 hrs idle time. Even if it took 1500, it would possibly trip a circuit breaker and most certainly you would see the lights dim. There are just too many falsehoods out there. Power leaks are like water leaks, only you can't see them. That is why there are so many of them.
How much does it use..? good question. Most appliances have a tag quoting some number on it. I have found that it is rarely accurate and fortunately, usually a bit less than what is quoted. I have a meter called a Kill-A-Watt. It was $30 on sale at radio shack. It plugs into the wall and then the device plugs in and the measuring begins. Leave it plugged into the fridge for 24 hrs and prepare to see a huge number.
There You have it. There is no big mystery to going off grid, it's just knowing where it all goes and fixing it. Living with a high electric bill while on the grid is optional, not a requirement. My system produces about 4000 watts per day. I use an average of 3000 watt hrs per day. I built things to be very easy to live with. In the summer, i cut a lot of firewood, with electric power.. sometimes i use more than i collect, the next day makes up for it. If I used 5000 watts per day for an extended amount of time, I would slowly drain the batteries and be in trouble after a week.
When you are off grid You KNOW what you use because you know what you have. Being plugged into an endless supply makes it too easy to get careless and lazy. Why do you think the government wastes all that money, because you just ain't paying attention, thats why.
Many people give the 'I dont use all that much' line when i ask about their habits. Well, to that i ask, how much do you use exactly? If they don't know, there is a problem. Ask someone how much they owe on their car loan or visa account.. I bet they will be pretty close. Why is it any different? It's invisible that's why.
Copyright, www.greenmountainsolar.com
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