Standby Energy

At 4CORE our first path to improving our efficiency is through reduction of the resources that we use. Sometimes it can be water or gas.  But one of the most effective ways to reduce our carbon footprint is to reduce our use of standby power, or vampire watts. Many are not aware of the amount of energy that is lost just through charging our cellular phone and other devices that help us with our regular routine. Examples include coffee makers, fridge/freezers, CD  andDVD  players, and game consoles. These can equate to about 10% of your average electric bill. About 1% of the U.S. ‘s CO2 emissions were from stand-by power. That’s about 16000 pounds a year.

Wattage chart by Responsible Energy

The allotted items listed by Responsible Energy you can save an annual $65-100 and over 1,000 pounds of CO2 emissions per year. In the United Kingdom the average power bill  is $136 and a reduction of 10% sounds pretty good right? By utilizing current methods of standby energy containment we can reduce those bills! Some say that it takes an hour a day to make sure all standby items in the house are turned off but a lot of people don’t have an hour to dedicate to un-plugging all of our appliances- and most of us wouldn’t know how to tell if a product like a TV even consumes energy while idle. There are many solutions to this issue such as smart outlets, which will cut the power supply to product if it is fully charged, or just not being used (check out this review for smart outlet options). Also by using ENERGY STAR rated products you can pick the product that has the lowest standby consumptions.

Electric hot water heaters can be the largest culprit of standby energy due to the need to keep water warm. It is possible to reduce the number of times a day the heater kicks on. A timer that shuts off the water for the time you are not in the house is good way to save on gas or electric water heaters.

Many governments have implemented some voluntary and mandatory guidelines to reduce electronics that require standby power to one watt power consumption in stand-by mode. California was the first to establish a mandatory law for electronics with a standby mode to be a low wattage. An example is the creation of a law- selling of TV’s with a standby wattage of more than 3 watts is illegal. This significantly reduces CO2 emissions. In the U.S. we have an ENERGY STAR designation from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which a surprising amount of people haven’t heard of. These items were designed by all you’re favorite companies like Sony and Samsung, but they are rated energy savers, and will be a better investment in the long run through energy saved on your bills. Find more ways to save at Energy.gov.

Follow this EPA link to find more tips and tricks on reducing standby energy use.

At 4CORE we have all our computers on power strips, and we turn off lights, printers, and copiers at night.
What do you do to reduce your plug load?

About the Author

Brian Catanese was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He has studied at Kent state University and Fort Lewis college and will receive a degree in environmental studies at the end this upcoming year. He is an avid mountain biker, skier, fisherman, and hiker. He chose this internship because 4CORE is improving our way of life through energy efficient practices.