This is part 2 of a three-part series about standby power.

When consultants go out to help families reduce monthly electricity bills, one of the first things they check are devices that suck up standby power.  They look for idle load or standby power because it’s an easy way to cut costs without sacrificing much.  Pretty much, why not look for the leeches first?

People get blown away every time they realize where unnecessary waste going.  It’s kinda like reading nutrition labels and realizing some crap you didn’t like that much to begin with is adding 400 calories to your waist.

Here are some of the common offenders that suck up standby power or idle load:

 

Old baseboard heaters.  So long as older homes exist, so will baseboard heaters.  It can suck up about $100/month.  For those who need clarification or details, here’s a good article about baseboard heaters.  They take a long time to heat up and are notoriously inefficient.

 

Instant water dispensers.  They may seem harmless, but what if we told you that it costs $30/month just to make it instant?  After you know the price of such a convenience, you can decide if it’s worth the cost and unnecessary waste of electricity.

 

 

 

 

Continuous hot water recirculation pump.  You might not notice this one unless you go to your garage or some other nook in your home.  Well, it’s likely leeching off $50/month.  Why?  Because unbeknownst to you, it’s constantly making sure the water in your pipes are ready with hot water 24/7.  Once they realize this, many people put this on a timer for the morning and evenings or just decide to unplug it.

 

 

Audio / entertainment system.  There’s nothing wrong with a nice entertainment system.  What’s wrong is that many of these devices are constantly sucking up $15-30/month being on standby.  The fix is easy.  Many people just replace a regular power strip with a $30 smart strip.  A smart strip cuts off electricity to all devices unless a “master device” is on or it’s signaled to do turn everything on.  This keeps devices completely off and get rid of any standby mode.

 

 

Older television sets.  What’s this old beast?  You rarely turn it on, or you just love it?  No problem with using it as far as standby power is concerned.  What stinks is that it could be sucking up $10 to $30 per month for no good reason.  Older televisions took a while to warm up, so some keep on drawing substantial electricity even when it’s “off.”  Again, there are easy ways to enjoy your older television without wasting electricity.  Or buy a new one, or just unplug it if you never use it anyway.

 

Musical instruments and apparatus.  We at Dr. Power love music.  Some of us play music.  Nothing wrong with that.  Musical instruments, amplifiers, mixers, etc. are made for sound quality, not to worry about standby power.  Some homes can be wasting more than $50 per month leaving it always plugged in.  Again, fixes are easy and require no sacrificing jam sessions.

 

 

 

This list goes on.  We just wanted to point out some common offenders that may be in your home.  The point is that many devices will suck up electricity when they are not in use.  One super painless way to reduce utility bills is just to know what they are.  Then, choose.  Figure out which ones you’d like to do something about.  Most of the time, the fix is quite simple and doesn’t crimp anyone’s lifestyle.  It was just unnecessary waste to begin with.

Just pick the leeches off.

Next, we will talk about idle load and what’s the difference. Idle load is a slightly bigger concept than standby power, but very much related and just as easy to save money with.