Your tips and resources to scare the phantoms away
The scoop
When you’re away, the phantoms will play–and wreak havoc with your energy bills.
A phantom load is any device that consumes electricity when when shut off–like your TV, entertainment system, and many more!
When you turn off your TV, it’s not really off. It’s sitting there waiting for you to turn it back on. And waiting uses energy. The whole time.
Let’s make sure you’re a good Energy Hero and make sure there aren’t too many phantoms lurking around your house.
How to do it
1. There are lots of clues to find appliances that are sucking energy. Often, they fit one of these profiles:
- Have a remote control
- Have an external power supply
- Have a digital display or digital clock
- Contains a battery charger
- Have a soft-touch key-pad
2. The next step is to unplug these appliances when not in use. The trouble is that this can be hard to remember, in some cases inconvenient, and some need to stay in stand by in order to work properly. So where does that leave us now?
3. Assess which are necessary to have plugged in all the time.
4. Use power strips where possible to easily shut off multiple appliances all at once. Modern power strips give you the option to leave certain appliances on, while turning others off. Some will even shut down based on motion detection.
5. Power down idle devices. Save that game and power down mid-game instead of pausing for prolonged periods. Put your computer to sleep instead of leaving it on while you’re at work or over night.
Pro tips
Make smart upgrades.
New ENERGY STAR appliances not only use less energy when in use, they also use less energy when in stand by.