Page 26 - Advanced Technology for Energy and Water Saving

Hunting the

Phantom-Energy

Vampires

Despite improvements in almost every electrical device

in the modern home, power consumption has mostly stayed flat,

or risen slightly. The reason? Phantom power.

HANTOM POWER REFERS to the small amount
of power used when a device is “asleep”
or in standby mode. “Instant on” TVs, for
example, typically have this feature, as do
set-top boxes, cable modems, Wi-Fi hubs,
smart outlet controllers, power strips and
thousands of other gadgets.
The best way, initially, to get a handle on
P how much phantom power your home uses
is to buy or borrow something called a Kill-a Watt power
meter.Often, you can rent it from your local library. Just
plug the device into the Kill-a Watt and find out how much
energy you’re wasting. Make no assumptions. You may
think, for example, that your laptop in sleep mode isn’t
wasting power. You may be spending up to $15 annually
in power waste for this luxury. And don’t forget about a
dehumidifier in the basement. A conventional model can
use $20 or $30 worth of electricity per month. Power check. Wifi devices such as plugs from Belkin Wemo allow for
close monitoring of actual energy use.
WI-FI POWER MONITORING
New technology makes it even easier to smoke out power
wasters. Some of the new “smart” Wi-Fi-enabled outlet con-
trols, for instance, have energy monitoring built in. While

26ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY AND WATER CONSERVATION