Phantom Loads - Conserving Electricity at Home That You Thought You Weren't Using

You may have heard a lot of energy saving tips before. But did you know that there are ways in which you are wasting electricity and you're not even aware of them?

The most common crime committed against power-saving is by accumulating phantom loads. But what is phantom load? Phantom load is the energy that electric devices and appliances are using when they are switched off or in standby mode. It is also known as standby power and leaking electricity.

The phantom load consumed per device is usually very small. But if there are a number of appliances in your house that are using electricity even if you're not using them, the amount of wasted energy becomes significant. And over a period of a month, this wasted electricity will be added to the electric bill that you need to pay. In fact, this wasted power load can make up 10% of the total energy consumption in your household, which means that 10% of your electric bill is for electricity that you didn't use.

So how do you eliminate this leaking electricity? The first step is to identify the appliances that consumes them. Here are the most common offenders. TV. Did you noticed that red light when you switched off the TV? Even if you thought that the TV is off, as long as that red light is up, it means it's still using electricity. Other possible phantom load consumers are computer, monitor, printer, audio system, DVD and other multimedia players, battery charger, air conditioner, microwave oven, washing machine and water heater.

It is easy to spot which appliance will usually consume phantom load. Any device that has a standby mode or has a quick power-on system than can easily be switch on by a remote control eat phantom load. Also, appliances with a small light indicators that stays lit up even after you're switched them off are using standby power. They are never turned off unless you unplug their cords from the socket. If not unplugged, they will still consume power that you would otherwise save.

So make it a habit to unplug appliances that you are not using. You'll only exert a small effort by removing their cord off their sockets compare to the amount of energy you'll conserve, and not the mention the amount of money you'll save off your monthly electric bills.