By: Amanda Persico

How much power are you paying for, without knowing it?

Vampire or phantom power is power used by electronics when in standby mode.

Vampire power is pure and utter waste, Newmarket Environmental Advisory committee member Scott Vokey told residents eager to learn what is driving up their power meter, as part of Newmarket’s Green Series.

“It’s totally avoidable,” Mr. Vokey said. “If all residents in Ontario eliminate their vampire power, we could avoid the building of a whole nuclear reactor.”

But some power sucking is unavoidable, such as that by alarm clocks.

“It’s simple. Unplug it. Use a power bar,” Mr. Vokey said. “It’s a financial and climate change issue. And every little bit helps.”

The bulk of Ontario’s power still comes from burning fossil fuels, which pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, he said.

Standby modes save fractions of seconds from startup time. A TV uses standby power to remember the channel and volume setting before it was turned off. One way to tell if a devise is using standby power is to see if the device is warm to the touch when it’s off. For example, a cellphone charger sucks power even when the cellphone isn’t plugged in.

Large Internet server companies, such as Google, are finding other ways to maintain servers, such as wind power and deep-lake cooling,  instead of drawing electricity, Mr. Vokey said.

Wasted power adds up with the use of TVs, DVD players, cordless phones, baby monitors, answering machines, battery chargers and stereo equipment. About 10 per cent of an average home’s consumption can be traced to vampire power, Mr. Vokey said, adding a great way to check how much power is being wasted is through a power monitor.

“We turned everything off,” he said. “But the numbers kept ticking and adding up because of standby power.”

By the numbers

• About 10 per cent of power from an average home can be traced to vampire power
• About 200 to 400 terawatts of global energy is consumed by standby power, according to the International Energy Agency
• The average amount of vampire load per house is about 1,019 kwh, at a cost of $0.10 per kilowatt hour. That amounts to $101.90 a year on wasted power. That’s almost $2.5 million for homes in Newmarket.

Prevent power loss

• Turn electronics off when not is use.
  
• Plug electronic items into a power bar with a switch that is easy to flip on or off.
• Connect electronics to a timer, that automatically shuts off at a certain hour.
• Purchase a power monitor that translates your household watt usage into how much money it’s costing you.
  
• For more information, visit www.everykilowattcounts.com

Frequent offenders

• The most common power draining devices include: cable or Internet terminals, modems, chargers for cellphones and electric lawnmowers, cordless phones, TVs, DVD players and microwaves.
  
• An average of 10 watts are wasted by a compact audio system with a CD player, radio tuner and detachable speakers
• An average of 7 watts are wasted by a plug-in lawnmower
• An average of 11 watts are wasted by cable and Internet terminals
• An average of 7 watts are wasted by a TV/VCR
• An average of 6 watts are wasted by a laptop computer and almost 7 watts by a monitor