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The New Independent Home
by Michael Potts
from chapter 2 :
What Part of OFF don't you Understand? |
Phantom loads are small but constant energy drains -- clocks, transformers, and other miscellaneous energy guzzlers. Felicia Cowden calls these phantom loads the energy criminals of the small appliance world. (You will find Felicia and Charlie Cowden's story in chapter 4.) If you have office or entertainment equipment plugged directly into your wall plugs, you may be wasting quite a lot of power even when the equipment is not in use. Instant-on televisions and other gear with remote controls are always on, even when they appear to be powered off, because they are always poised for the call of the remote control unit. The little power cubes that power calculators, clocks, rechargers, and all manner of other small appliances are also horribly wasteful. If your goal is energy independence, you will not buy this kind of device; if you must, you will plug them into plug strips or switched outlets so that they may be completely turned off when not in use. (This strategy does not work well with clocks. Rechargeable battery-powered clocks are recommended.)
Small electronic devices that require transformers are themselves often quite efficient, especially because they use low-voltage current. The real thief is the little power cube, the transformer: This cheaply made inductive energy-hog wastes as much as 80% of the energy you feed it. "Aw, but they're cute little piglets and don't eat much," you might say, but you would be surprised. People who serve as their own power companies tell me that without vigilance, as much as a quarter of the energy in a well-equipped home with a home office can go to power thieves like these.
Phantom loads are plug-load non grata in any energy self-sufficient house, but we benefit by considering them just as offensive on-the-grid, since the only difference is that the offense has its impact in somebody else's backyard. Beyond the big three of potential energy savings discussed above (space conditioning, water heating, and refrigeration) and lighting (covered in depth in chapter 4), eliminating unneeded phantom loads, reducing plug-loads, and buying small appliances that are designed for efficiency can save the most domestic energy.
To get a useful grip on what your phantom loads add up to, try the Unplug Your House Challenge. Choose a comfortable, bright, quiet day. Go around and unplug or throw the breakers on your major appliances and loads but be sure to leave all your outlets and lighting circuits "hot." (Children, warn your parents first.) Turn off all obvious loads like lights, heaters, fans. Leave microwave ovens, vcrs, and other things that are theoretically "off" plugged into live circuits, along with plug-in alarm clocks, clock radios, and anything else that loses its grip on time if unplugged. Now, go to the meter and record your starting point. (Your electric company should be happy to teach you how to read your meter.) Run silent for an hour, again note the reading, and calculate the difference: the kilowatt-hours consumed, electricity stolen from you every hour of every day by your household energy criminals. Think of it as a voluntary tax you pay to support convenience over efficiency. It will undoubtedly make you feel good to know that one trophy home on Northshore Kauai holds the phantom load record of 1.5 kilowatt-hours per hour.
Off-the-grid purchasers of large appliances must always be aware of hidden energy thieves, but anyone seeking to live an energy-aware life can learn from their choices.
Obviously, an electric stove is out of the question -- heating anything with electricity is out of bounds for all but those with a year-round excess of hydro-power. Yet you might think that a propane stove with an electric clock would be fine. Not necessarily: Make sure that the stove of your dreams will start its burners or ovens with some means other than glowplugs, which are exceedingly wasteful. A typical oven glowplug consumes 30 watts all the time the oven is in use. In some jurisdictions, it is illegal to sell a stove without glowplugs, purportedly for safety reasons. Piezo-electric ignitors, which require house current, consume a tiny amount of electricity.
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