Thursday, February 19, 2009
Vampire Power experiment
For those that don't know, vampire power is the electricity used when something is turned off. An example is the TV. When you turn it off it continues to draw electricity, some models draw up to 75% of the power they use when they are on. There is a lot of confusion about vampire power. Some people say that your cell phone charger even draws power when you are not charging your phone.
So I bought a "Kill-a-Watt". A device that measures the amount of electricity an appliance uses. I put it on our TV, VCR, DVD, Cable receiver, game system and got a base reading. Then I wired my entertainment center with a switch that shuts off electricity completely to everything when not in use. Now we save 35 kilowatt hours per month by turning off the switch when not watching TV. Now this does not sound like a lot. At 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour(kwh) (average for my house based on the tiered rates of the utility) that's only $2.38 per month. But based on the number of TV sets in the US in 1997 (219 million, I'm sure there are more now) and let's say that just half of them have cable reciever and a DVD, and VCR hooked up to them, the US could save 385 million kwh of electricity just by unplugging these items when not in use. This CO2 emmision savings would be like taking 2.8 million cars off the road for ever.
Which brings me back to the cell phone charger. When charging a cell phone it obviously uses electricity. I have read conflicting articles about when the chargers are plugged in and NOT charging the cell phone. Some articles said that the little transformer is still working (transforming 110 volts into 3.6 volts to charge the cell phone). Well it doesn't. At least not on the 2 cell phones in my house. It seems that a transformer has to have a place to put the 3.6 volts. With the cell phone not there, current is not moving.
Now I have it attached to the rechargable battery charger. I let the batteries get fully charged and then reset the Kill-a-Watt to zero. After 1 week, the Kill-a-Watt still says zero kwh. Even with the little green LEDs that say charging is complete.
Just plugged it into the microwave to see just how much electricity that pesky little clock is using. After just an hour the yearly cost is $0.00. Will update tomorrow at 24 hours.
24 hours later still at $0.00. Could it be that the clock is running on watch batteries???
So I bought a "Kill-a-Watt". A device that measures the amount of electricity an appliance uses. I put it on our TV, VCR, DVD, Cable receiver, game system and got a base reading. Then I wired my entertainment center with a switch that shuts off electricity completely to everything when not in use. Now we save 35 kilowatt hours per month by turning off the switch when not watching TV. Now this does not sound like a lot. At 6.8 cents per kilowatt hour(kwh) (average for my house based on the tiered rates of the utility) that's only $2.38 per month. But based on the number of TV sets in the US in 1997 (219 million, I'm sure there are more now) and let's say that just half of them have cable reciever and a DVD, and VCR hooked up to them, the US could save 385 million kwh of electricity just by unplugging these items when not in use. This CO2 emmision savings would be like taking 2.8 million cars off the road for ever.
Which brings me back to the cell phone charger. When charging a cell phone it obviously uses electricity. I have read conflicting articles about when the chargers are plugged in and NOT charging the cell phone. Some articles said that the little transformer is still working (transforming 110 volts into 3.6 volts to charge the cell phone). Well it doesn't. At least not on the 2 cell phones in my house. It seems that a transformer has to have a place to put the 3.6 volts. With the cell phone not there, current is not moving.
Now I have it attached to the rechargable battery charger. I let the batteries get fully charged and then reset the Kill-a-Watt to zero. After 1 week, the Kill-a-Watt still says zero kwh. Even with the little green LEDs that say charging is complete.
Just plugged it into the microwave to see just how much electricity that pesky little clock is using. After just an hour the yearly cost is $0.00. Will update tomorrow at 24 hours.
24 hours later still at $0.00. Could it be that the clock is running on watch batteries???
Labels: kill-a-watt, vampire power
