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Beware, power vampires inflate bills
Vampires: Unused phone chargers suck up our electricity and increase our utility bills
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Vampires: Unused phone chargers suck up our electricity and increase our utility bills. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)
Remember the times when you put your TV in standby mode, or when you leave your phone charger plugged into a wall outlet overnight? These unused gadgets and appliances suck up the electricity in your home silently and jack up your utility bills.
These devices are called “power vampires” or “phantom loads”.
They are also commonly found in offices as well. Many office workers have a habit of switching their desktop computers to sleep mode before they go home. This habit wastes a lot of electricity.
“Devices we leave in a standby mode consume a lot more electricity than those we turn off,” says Pamela Simamora, a research coordinator at energy policy think tank the Institute of Essential Services Reform.
Standby power allows devices to stay alert to receive a remote signal and quickly respond to remote control commands at any time. Appliances and equipment in idle mode can leech up to 75 percent of the energy used in active mode.
One effective way to slay the power vampires and slash your electricity bill is by pulling the plug out of the outlet. Forgetful people must try harder to build a habit of unplugging once they finish using a phone charger or hairdryer.
Many people might already be aware of energy vampires and know how to avoid them. However, fewer people have the commitment to cut down their energy wastage. “It’s rather inconvenient to unplug every device that we have,” Pamela says.
If unplugging every appliance after use appears too time-consuming and impractical, a power strip with an on-and-off switch can help people control multiple items at one time.
Essentially, any electronic devices with a cord plugged into an outlet still draws energy, but for many appliances, the amount is very little compared with standby mode. “Switching off our appliances is enough to cut down our electricity consumption,” says Pamela.
Some devices, such as inkjet fax machines, consume relatively the same amount of electricity whether they are in on or off modes. For a more accurate calculation, you can buy a power meter to measure how much power a device consumes. This can help you decide whether you should remove or reconfigure these devices.
Larger appliances, such as power-draining refrigerators, require constant electricity and are incompatible with being turned off too many times. However, you still can tame the energy hogs in your home by replacing old appliances with newer models, especially those with green labels that identify appliances meeting the national energy efficiency qualifications. They are said to be more energy-efficient compared with their counterparts or older models.
The replacement might require more of an investment up-front, but it can reduce the operational cost in the long run.
You can also adopt other greener habits in using your fridge and other appliances to prevent energy loss. “Try not to open the door of a refrigerator for too long or too often because it can make the refrigerator warm up,” says Pamela. Hence the fridge must work harder and use more energy to cool down again.
Becoming more efficient with your energy use can help you save both electricity and the environment because in Indonesia, electricity mostly comes from fossil fuel power plants, which release carbon dioxide emissions.
