Which Electronics Should You Leave Unplgged?

We've all heard of vampire power (and how to put a stake in it), and we all know there's a price to pay to power all our electronics and gadgets. But what is that price in real dollars? How much does it really cost you to run that home office? Or that home theater?

We put a watt meter behind all our devices and tell you.

We recently got a watt meter on loan from our utility company as part of a program to identify and manage devices with high amounts of phantom load (or vampire power).

We were curious about putting it to the test, and putting a dollars and cents number behind what it really costs to run all our gadgets (both on and in standby mode).

Yearly Standby Power Costs
Let's first look at the yearly cost to run a lot of our common electronics when they are off, or in standby mode. All costs are assuming the cost of power is 9.5 cents / kWh (kilowatt hour).

* indicates devices that are always on

This exercise generally taught us that small electronics that don't feature clocks or lights use an insignificant amount of vampire power. Not surprisingly, the heavy hitters were the devices that are always on. For instance, the DVR gives a good amount of hurt to our wallets. We suspect this is due to the limited standby mode it uses in order to record our shows, get updates over satellite, etc. Our internet connection devices such as routers and cable modems are always on and working as well. Unfortunately, there's not much we can do to cut down on power to these items without major inconvenience.

The other devices, for the most part, were surprisingly good and used limited power when asleep. We were happy to see our new Plasma didn't seem to be plagued with vampire power usage at all. Our small desktop effectively slept without consuming much power either.

Yearly Powered On Costs

So, what about when all these devices are on? What's that costing me then?

Well, here's a look at the most power-hungry devices of the bunch when we are using them at full force.

This list is dominated by our Home Office electronics because they are used for the better part of the day in our workflow. Keep in mind this list is assuming you left the devices on all the time. 24/7. 365 days a year.

We were actually quite surprised to see that the total cost wasn't all that bad. Especially when considering that the devices are probably actually on for only about 30% of that 24/7 total.

It was also no big surprise that the biggest power hitters in this view were our displays. They're big, bright, and work quite intensively.

Summary
Overall, it looks like most our modern day electronics do a decent job of managing power when in standby mode. Keep in mind, that a lot of the electronics we tested were new models, so manufacturer's probably focused on cutting down the power bite when designing these devices. Results may vary considerably for older electronics.

Our DVR's and Displays are the most power hungry of the bunch, but unfortunately those are the items we have the least control to manage by unplugging or turning off. Let's just be sure we are turning those devices off when they're not in use, because the cost can add quickly with them.

Comments (14)

Comcast's STBs lose the guide data if they've been unplugged, and take a little while to re-download it. Similarly, DirecTV boxes take 10-15 minutes just to reboot if they lose power.

I have had my comcast box takes up to 2 days to get the guide back. which is when i stopped unplugging it for trips. I should click the power switch off on the router though. I have it and the cable modem on a power strip so it would be easy.

I saw a similar experiment done a little while ago and it was the different in video game systems, ps3, 360, and the wii. it was pretty amazing to see those numbers.

However on your findings. I think OFF and Standby would come up with fairly different numbers since standby is still active and waiting for you and usually OFF will draw significantly less power. It might still vampire but not as bad.

Interesting break-down of all those items, thanks for posting this.

It's as I suspected: the standby power usage is annoying, but ultimately not a ton of money in terms of my household's greater scheme. (This annual total is only enough to pay for two days of daycare... and we have a very reasonably priced daycare at that!) No DVR in our house apparently helps us a lot here.

There are few things here that are inconsistent with my measurements in my home. My Plasma HDTV uses almost 20 watts when turned off. My toaster uses 0 watts when not being used. I also don't see how one LCD monitor can use 0$ while the other one uses 0.84$ in standby mode. Otherwise it is an informative article and I encourage everyone to measure their own electric usage.

Glad to see the Laptop charger is 0. The glowing green light on the transformer always made me feel anxious.

Thanks Andsetinn. Devices vary a lot, so you're right about suggesting others to check into renting a watt meter if they are really curious about their specific energy situation.

The LCD monitor that registered 0 for us, curiously enough has an energy star logo stamped on the front. While the other doesn't. So perhaps that explains a couple things.

The Plasma TV tested was the VT30, which also has quite a bit of green features for energy usage. I was surprised to see 0's come up for that one in particular.

Heather C, our laptop charger only lights up when the laptop is plugged in. When charging, it told us usage was just 1 cent a day.

If your charges always has a light on, regardless of charging, I'd guess you're using less than 84 cents a year for it in standby (not charging) mode. Coming from what we say from other devices that just have status lights on when in idle.

Refrigerator not inlcuded? I bet that's a mammoth expense.

As an electrician I could write a long article on how to save electric energy (and why CF bulbs are marketing hoax) but the old advices from our parents are the best. "If you leave the room, turn off the light", "If you're not watching the TV, turn it off". :) I have found that manufacturers energy usage claims are often very optimistic. But on the other hand, equipment can be very different between manufacturers and age of equipment. My 42" Panasonic Viera Plasma HDTV uses 110 watts when I'm watching a movie. Far cry from the 3oo watts that Plasma TVs are rumored to use, and often did use few years ago.
Power meters like "Kill A Watt" or similar are cheap. They only cost about 20 Euros (equivalent to around 30 dollars) here in The Netherlands,,, so I bought two. :)
PS. I see that Kill A Watt starts at under 20$ at Amazon.com so there is no excuse not to buy one and start measuring. It will pay for itself in less than a year.

e53, I suspect a fridge not being on there is because that's just not an appliance you can uplug when you go off. Having one necessitates is being constantly plugged in. Was most surprised by the lcd computer monitors. That's a lot of juice, but I suppose plugged in, they're essentially on (even if the computer isn't to show off something on screen)

For certain things - we've made the commitment to keep them plugged in and on clean power (via voltage regulating backup). Network gear and home theater qualify.

I was surprised about computer monitors also. I wonder what could be fixed to make an electric bill lower? It would be nice to have it all on a system, that when you are out, all the devices 'power down.' :)

http://munchtalk.blogspot.com/

How are Compact fluorescent lights a marketing hoax? A CFL bulb that puts out the same lumens (amount of light) at 14 watts that an incandescent bulb puts out using 60 watts, saves money. Less electricity for the same task equals less money spent. That isn't a hoax. CFLs last several years, where incandescent bulbs need yearly replacement. We see return over cost at 1 year or less for bulbs used 24 hours a day.

Seems like someone could invent something so we could turn off everything that has a clock, or the digital tv box, and not have to reset the time or the guide every time you turn it back on. Utility companies could give them away for free under DSM programs.