Phantom Power Loads

Some electric powered devices continue to draw power even when they are turned off. VCRs, TVs, stereos, DVD players, cassette players, game consoles, computers, battery chargers, microwave ovens, electric razors, and basically anything with a memory, a big plug, a remote, a clock, or a light that is always on are sucking power at all times. Power adapters, the big plugs, burn power as heat even when not connected to a device. You can feel it if you put your hand next to one that is plugged in.

There are 3 ways to deal with these power thieves:

• Unplug the devices when they aren't in use.
• Hook the devices to an outlet with a wall switch that can turn the outlet off.
• Connect these devices to power strips, then turn off the power strip when they are not in use.

Power strips are fairly cheap, and several of the power transformer type plugs can be plugged into one at once. This doesn't save a huge amount of power per device. When added up across the entire country, however, the output of a nuclear power plant is being used just for the phantom load of TVs. Most households can save a few hundred to a few thousand kwh per year this way.

The only drawback is that some devices using the electricity for memory or instant on will need longer to get started once the power strip is turned on.