StandBy Power: Your Home’s Cost When Doing Nothing (Part 1)
This is first of a three part series explaining what standby power is and why people should first look at standby power (and idle load) as the easiest way to lower their electric bills.
Your home may not be haunted, but it’s full of vampires and phantoms. I’m talking about the electricity that the devices in your home is sucking up even when no one is using anything. This is the electricity a device is still drawing when it’s “off” (but plugged in)!
Think it’s a pain to lower your electricity bill? Sacrifices? Actually, no. Not with cutting off standby power.
There are still many home devices that draw power even when they are just standing by. This unnecessary waste leeching off your wallet is often called “standby” power. Because it nearly always does nothing, people have come up with creative names for this, like “vampire power”, “phantom load”, “plugin load” or “idle load.”
When our experts go out and help families reduce their monthly bills, standby power is one of the first things we look at.
Why? Because finding these “vampire devices” are easy wins. Fixes are simple. Most people don’t even notice any change when the vampire load is gone. Oftentimes, people are both shocked and pleasantly surprised how a few devices–providing very little value or are hardly ever used–can make a difference. Unplugging these vampires or just adding a $20 timer can reduce monthly utility bills anywhere from 5 to 20 percent. We’ve even encountered one family who reduced their monthly electricity bill by over 50% without any change to their lifestyle.
In part two, we explain some of the common offenders in homes that are easily mitigated. In part three, we will talk more about how you can spot standby power in your home and introduce a slightly bigger concept called idle load.
So, if standby power is so “stupid easy” to fix, why does it still happen?
Short answer is that people just don’t know–especially how bad it can get.
Though electronic devices have improved in the past two decades, some older devices just suck up a lot of electricity even when they are off but plugged in. An example is a big television made before 1995. Back in the day, people didn’t care so much about electricity use. It was cheap. There were no rolling brownouts. And most of us had no idea we are all causing climate change. Even today, a lot of these older devices are still plugged in, not used and forgotten in people’s second bedrooms, garages, etc.
Another reason is the cost of unnecessary convenience. Some devices just keep on drawing power even though it’s doing nothing, so that when you want something fast, it’s a few seconds faster. Sure, we all like convenience, but most of us don’t mind waiting 5 seconds. It all adds up, and before you know it, just waiting a few moments here and there can save you $40 per month. Even better is that in most situations, a timer or a smart power strip, would do the trick without any waiting.
Yet another one we see is that something just keeps on running even when it doesn’t have to. (Technically, this is called idle load, not standby power. Explanation here.) One time, we saw a house with a heated floor running throughout the entire year. Yes! Even in the summer! It was costing the homeowner $800 per year for something they don’t want.
There are too many reasons to cover here. A last one to mention is the recent fascination with “smart devices.” Guess what? Those buttons and “smarts” draw electricity. A “dumb” coffeemaker might not, but a super-AI one might, even when it’s doing nothing for 23 and a half hours of the day.
Pretty much, many families just don’t know. People don’t know that they can easily cut chunks off their utility bills without sacrificing much at all.
Other articles in this series:
Part 2: Common Offenders in Your Home
Part 3: Idle Load And How To Figure It Out
