Off Grid Home › Forums › Technical Discussion › Managing Electricity Use › Re: Managing Electricity Use
This is a subject that I have been researching for several Years. I started surveying “Phantom Loads” and how much energy we were wasting in 2004. To my amazement, in the early days, I reduced our electricity bill from £75 per month to only £25.
Our lounge has 4 wall lights. The annual consumption for these lights was around £74 per annum. By purchasing 4 compact fluorescent candle bulbs running at 9 watts (in place of 60) the annual consumption is now around £15 per annum. The savings are significant. Looking at Phantom Loads, if an appliance is plugged into the mains with the mains switch on, even though the appliance may be turned off, it still can be using a phantom load, a load that you will not see.
Example: Digital display washing machine. LED display uses 7 watts, turn the machine off on the button and you think that it is not using anything, WRONG, a simple energy meter plugged in will show that it will consum around 9 watts per hour (£11.82 per year, just thrown away (to the electricity supplier) this power is used to keep the capacitor charged.
Save money and unplug the appliance.
Other appliances that use phantom loads are:- any appliance that has a clock – radio alarm, cooker, microwave,
Mobile phone chargers left switched on, tv’s, sky box/digibox, videos, dvds etc,
washing machines, dehumidifiers, computers, printers, some kettles, answer phones,
the list goes on.