Vampire Electricity-Standby Power

Vampire Electricity
Vampire Power
Phantom Load
Standby Power
.
“Is a Phantom Stealing Your
Electricity?”

Introduction
• Standby power, also called vampire power,
vampire draw, phantom load, or leaking
electricity, refers to the way electric power consumed
by electronic and electrical appliances while they are
switched off or in a standby mode.

Introduction
• Standby power consumption is the amount
of such power that is used even though the
power drainage is not apparent. The terms
apply to appliances such as television sets,
computers, computer peripherals, and
various other devices, including those that
use battery chargers. Standby power is
expressed in watt s (W).

Introduction
• An increasing number and variety of consumer
devices incorporate standby features. Often a
device is in standby mode when the consumer thinks
it is completely powered-down.
• Placing the power switch in the OFF position does
not guarantee that a device consumes no power.
• The only way an everyday consumer can be sure a
device is not drawing power is to unplug it from the
utility outlet.

Introduction
• Standby power, over time, adds to the energy expense
incurred by a household or business.
• Consider a home with the following appliances in
standby operation: two television sets (10 W each); three
cordless telephones (2 W each); a computer with an
Uninterruptible Power Supply ( UPS ), a scanner ,
external hard drive, compact disc ( CD (24 W
combined); and various other appliances such as
microwave ovens, electric clocks, and hi-fi sets (20 W
combined).
• The total standby power used by this household is 70 W.
Over the course of a 365-day year, this amounts to more
than 600 kilowatt hours (kWh).

Introduction
• It can be argued that the economic cost of standby
mode, for the average consumer, is worth the added
convenience the feature provides in terms of shortened
warm-up periods and well-charged batteries.
• But when the standby power of 70 W per household
or business (often much more) is multiplied by
millions in a nation and integrated over a long
period of time, the resulting energy consumption
may have far-reaching environmental and economic
consequences.

Introduction
• In the past, standby power was largely a non-issue
for users, electricity providers, manufacturers, and
government regulators.
• In the first decade of the twenty-first century, awareness
of the issue grew and it became an important
consideration for all parties.
• Up to the middle of the decade, standby power was
often several watts or even tens of watts per
appliance. By 2010, regulations were in place in
most developed countries restricting standby power
of devices sold to one watt (and half that from 2013).

One Watt Initiative
The One Watt Initiative (or the proper One-Watt
Initiative) is an energy-saving initiative by the
International Energy Agency (IEA) to reduce
standby power-use by any appliance to not more
than one watt in 2010, and 0.5 watts in 2013, which
has given rise to regulations in many countries and
regions.
The One Watt Initiative was launched by the
IEA in 1999 to ensure through international
cooperation that by 2010 all new appliances
sold in the world use only one watt in standby
mode. This would reduce CO2 emissions by
50 million tons in the OECD countries alone
by 2010; the equivalent to removing 18
million cars from the roads.

Definition
• Standby power is electrical power used by
appliances and equipment while switched
off or not performing their primary
function, often waiting to be activated by a
remote controller.
• That power is consumed by internal or
external power supplies, remote control
receivers, text or light displays, circuits
energized when the device is plugged in even
when switched off, etc. Power can be saved
by disconnecting such devices, causing at
worst only inconvenience.

Definition
• While this definition is inadequate for technical purposes,
there is as yet no formal definition; an international standards
committee is developing a definition and test procedure.
• The term is often used more loosely for any device that
continuously must use a small amount of power even when
not active; for example a telephone answering machine must
be available at all times to receive calls, switching off to save
power is not an option. Timers, powered thermostats, and the
like are other examples. An uninterruptible power supply
could be considered to be wasting standby power only when
the computer it protects is off. Disconnecting standby power
proper is at worst inconvenient; powering down completely,
for example an answering machine not dealing with a call,
renders it useless.

Definition
• Most experts agree that standby power is electricity used by
appliances and equipment while they are switched off or not
performing their primary function. That power is
consumed by power supplies (the black cubes—
sometimes called "vampires"—converting AC into DC),
the circuits and sensors needed to receive a remote
signal, soft keypads and displays including
miscellaneous LED status lights. Standby power use is
also caused by circuits that continue to be energized
even when the device is "off".
• That definition is attractive to a lay person but
inadequate for technical purposes. An international
technical standards committee is developing a definition
and test procedure.

Who coined the term "energy vampire"?
• The vampire refers to the external power supply—
the little black cubes—which have two teeth (the
plugs) and "suck" electricity all night.
• The term "leaking electricity" was coined by a
Swedish engineer, Eje Sandberg, in 1993.

Magnitude
• Standby power makes up a portion of homes'
miscellaneous electric load, which also includes
small appliances, security systems, and other small
power draws.
• "Many appliances continue to draw a small amount
of power when they are switched off. These
"phantom" loads occur in most appliances that use
electricity, such as VCRs, televisions, stereos,
computers, and kitchen appliances. This can be
avoided by unplugging the appliance or using a power
strip and using the switch on the power strip to cut all
power to the appliance."

Magnitude
• Standby power used by older devices can be as
high as 10–15 W per device, while a modern HD
LCD television may use less than 1 W in standby
mode. Many countries adopting the One Watt
Initiative now require new devices to use no more
than 1 W starting in 2010, and 0.5 W in 2013.

Magnitude
• Although the power needed for functions such as
displays, indicators, and remote control functions is
relatively small, the large number of such devices and
their being continuously plugged in resulted in energy
usage before the One Watt regulations of 8 to 22
percent of all appliance consumption in different
countries, 32 to 87 W, and around 3–10 percent of
total residential consumption.
• In Britain in 2004 standby modes on electronic
devices accounted for 8% of all British residential
power consumption. A similar study in France in
2000 found that standby power accounted for 7% of
total residential consumption

Magnitude
• Devices such as security systems, fire
alarms, and digital video recorders require
continuous power to operate properly
(though in the case of electric timers used to
disconnect other devices on standby, they
actually reduce total energy usage). The
Reducing Consumption section below provides
information on reducing standby power.

Ranges of Standby Power
• The following chart shows minimum, average, and maximum standby
power use of residential appliances in the following categories:
• audio equipment (AUDIO),
• battery chargers and battery powered devices (BATTERY),
• home automation and security (HOME),
• small kitchen appliances (KITCHEN),
• home office equipment (OFFICE),
• set-top boxes (SET-TOP),
• telephone equipment (TELEPHONY),
• TVs and VCRs (TV-VCR), and
• white goods (WHITE).
• Note that the minimum value in our database is represented by the
leftmost portion of the bar, the maximum value by the rightmost
portion of the bar, and the average by the vertical line within the bar.

Fire Risks
• There is a risk of fire from devices in standby mode. There are
reports of televisions, in particular, catching fire in standby
mode.
• Before the development of modern semiconductor electronics it
was not uncommon for devices, typically television receivers, to
catch fire when plugged in but switched off, sometimes when
fully switched off rather than on standby.
• This is much less likely with modern equipment, but not impossible.
Older cathode-ray tube display equipment (television and computer
displays) had high voltages and currents, and were far more of a fire
risk than thin panel LCD and other displays.
• Contributing factors for electrical fires include:
• Damp environments
• Lightning strikes affecting building wiring
• Age of the appliance—older appliances are less well designed for
safety, and may have detrimental effect

Determining Standby Power
The following types of devices consume standby power.
• Transformers for voltage conversion.
• Wall power supplies powering devices that are switched off.
• Many devices with "instant-on" functions that respond
immediately to user action without warm-up delay.
• Electronic and electrical devices in standby mode that can be
woken by a remote control, e.g. some air conditioners, audio-
visual equipment such as a television receiver
• Electronic and electrical devices that can carry out some
functions even when switched off, e.g. with an electrically
powered timer.
• Most modern computers consume standby power, allowing them
to be woken remotely (by Wake on LAN, etc.) or at a specified
time. These functions are always enabled even if not needed; power
can be saved by disconnecting from mains (sometimes by a switch
on the back), but only if functionality is not needed.
• Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS)

Devices That Consume Standby Power

Determining Standby Power
• Other devices consume standby power which is required
for normal functioning that cannot be saved by
switching off when not in use. For these devices
electricity can only be saved by choosing units with
minimal permanent power consumption:
• Cordless telephones and answering machines
• Timers that operate devices
• Security systems and fire alarms
• Transformer-powered doorbells
• Programmable thermostats
• Motion sensors, light sensors, built-in timers and automatic
sprinklers

Devices That Consume Standby
Power

Estimating Standby Power
• Standby power consumption can be estimated
using tables of standby power used by typical
devices, although standby power used by
appliances of the same class vary extremely
widely.

Measuring Standby Power
• The power wasted in standby must go
somewhere; it is dissipated as heat.
• The temperature, or simply perceived warmth,
of a device on standby long enough to reach a
stable temperature gives some idea of power
wasted.
• For most home applications, wattmeter give
a good indication of energy used, and some
indication of standby consumption.

Reducing Standby Consumption
• Some equipment has a quick-start mode;
standby power is eliminated if this mode is not
used. Video game consoles often use power when
they are turned off, but the standby power can be
further reduced if the correct options are set.
• For example, a Wii console can go from 18
watts to 8 watts to 1 watt by turning off the
WiiConnect24 and Standby Connection
options.

• Devices that have rechargeable batteries and are
always plugged in use standby power even if the
battery is fully charged. Corded appliances such as
vacuum cleaners, electric razors, and simple
telephones do not need a standby mode and do not
consume the standby power that cordless
equivalents do.
• Older devices with power adapters that are large and
are warm to the touch use several watts of power.
Newer power adapters that are lightweight and are not
warm to the touch may use less than one watt.

• Standby power consumption can be reduced by
unplugging or totally switching off, if possible,
devices with a standby mode not currently in
use; if several devices are used together or only
when a room is occupied, they can be
connected to a single power strip that is
switched off when not needed.
• This may cause some electronic devices,
particularly older ones, to lose their configuration
settings.

• A switchable power strip or power bar
• Timers can be used to turn off standby power to
devices that are unused on a regular schedule.
Switches that turn the power off when the connected
device goes into standby, or that turn other outlets on or
off when a device is turned on or off are also available.
Switches can be activated by sensors.
• Home automation sensors, switches and controllers
can be used to handle more complex sensing and
switching. This produces a net saving of power so long
as the control devices themselves use less power than
the controlled equipment in standby mode.

• Standby power consumption of some computers can be
reduced by turning off components that use power in
standby mode. For instance, disabling Wake-on-LAN
(WoL), "wake on modem", "wake on keyboard" or
"wake on USB" may reduce power when in standby.
Unused features may be disabled in the computer's BIOS
setup to save power.
• Devices were introduced in 2010 that allow the remote
controller for equipment to be used to totally switch off
power to everything plugged into a power strip.
• It was claimed in the UK that this could save £30, more
than the price of the device, in one year

Equipment Efficiency
• As users of energy and government
authorities have become aware of the need
not to waste energy, more attention is being
paid to the electrical efficiency of devices
(fraction of power consumed that achieves
functionality, rather than waste heat); this
affects all aspects of equipment, including
standby power.

• Standby power use can be decreased both by
attention to circuit design and by improved
technology.
• Programs directed at consumer electronics have
stimulated manufacturers to cut standby power
use in many products.
• It is probably technically feasible to reduce
standby power by 75% overall; most savings
will be less than a watt, but other cases will be
as large as 10 watts.

Reducing Standby Power
Consumption

• For example, a commercially available
computer in Wake on LAN standby
typically consumed 2 to 8 watts of standby
power as of 2011, but it was possible to
design much more efficient circuitry: a
purpose-designed microcontroller can
reduce total system power to under 0.5W,
with the microcontroller itself contributing
42 mW.

Advantages
Advantages
• Standby power is often consumed for a
purpose, although in the past there was little
effort to minimize power used.
• It may enable a device to switch on very
quickly without delays that might otherwise
occur ("instant-on"). This was used, for
example, with CRT television receivers (now
largely supplanted by thin solid-state screens),
where a small current was passed through the tube
heater, avoiding a delay of many seconds in
starting up.

Advantages
• It may be used to power a remote control receiver, so
that when infrared or radio-frequency signals are sent
by a remote control device, the equipment is able to
respond, typically by changing from standby to fully on
mode.
• Standby power may be used to power a display, operate a
clock, etc., without switching on the equipment to full
power.
• Battery-powered equipment connected to mains
electricity can be kept fully charged although switched
on; for example, a mobile telephone can be ready to
receive calls without depleting its battery charge.

Disadvantages
Disadvantages
• The disadvantages of standby power mainly relate to the
energy used. As standby power is reduced, the
disadvantages become less.
• Older devices often used ten watts or more; with the
adoption of the One Watt Initiative by many countries,
standby energy use is much diminished.
• Devices on standby consume electricity which must be paid
for. The total energy consumed may be of the order of 10%
of the electrical energy used by a typical household. The
cost of standby energy is easily estimated—each watt of
continuous standby consumes about 9 kWh of electricity
per year, and the price per kWh is shown on electricity
bills.

Disadvantages
• Electricity is very often generated by
combustion of hydrocarbons (oil, coal, gas) or
other substances, which releases substantial
amounts of carbon dioxide, implicated in
global warming, and other pollutants such as
sulphur dioxide, which produces acid rain.
Standby power is a significant contributor to
electricity usage.
• As electricity consumption increases, more power
stations are needed, with associated capital and
running costs.

Disadvantages
• Standby devices mean that heat is generated, which
can mean extra cooling is needed, and in the wrong
circumstances can be a fire risk.
• Standby devices are not always completely silent.
• Standby means electric power is present in the
device, increasing electrical interference, and
making the risks associated with electricity a 24
hour issue.
• Standby devices can often be remotely controlled,
sometimes by unauthorised or irresponsible agents, or
by accident.

Need of Stand-by Power
• Sometimes. Certain appliance functions do require
small amounts of electricity include:
• Maintaining signal reception capability (for remote
control, telephone or network signal)
• Monitoring temperature or other conditions (such as
in a refrigerator)
• Powering an internal clock
• Battery charging
• Continuous display
• Good design can make the power requirements for
these functions very low (but not yet zero).

Stand-by Power
• Fortunately, there are ways to reduce your standby power
loads and save money,
• Use a Power Strip with Switches. You can use a power strip
with on/off switches to plug in your appliances. If you plug
all of your products into a power strip and flip off the power
strip when these items are not in use, they are truly off.

Stand-by Power
• Unplug Your Products. Another sure way to reduce
your standby power load is to just unplug your
products. Now, there are some products that you may
want to keep plugged, such as the digital alarm clock in
your bedroom or the refrigerator. But there are many
appliances that you may not need to have plugged
in, such as the microwave or toaster oven.
• Consider using ENERGY STAR® energy-efficiency
labelling products. Many ENERGY STAR products
are energy efficient and have lower standby power than
comparable non-ENERGY STAR products.

Domestic Efficient Lighting Programme
(DELP)- Case Study
• Unnat Jivan by Affordable LEDs and Appliances for
All (UJALA) was launched by Prime Minister of
India Narendra Modi on 1st May 2015
• Within 1 year of its launch, 9 crore LED bulbs were
sold in the country, reducing their electricity bills by
55 billion (US$850 million).
• The scheme was announced as "Domestic Efficient
Lighting Programme (DELP)" on 5 January 2015,
urging the people to use LED bulbs in place of
incandescent bulbs, tube lights and CFL bulbs as
they are more efficient, long lasting and economical in
their life cycle duration.

(DELP)

(DELP)
• The programme was launched in July and
reached the one-crore LED milestone on 9
August 2015.
• The total replacement has helped energy
saving of more than 1.4 crore units per day.
• It has also helped to avoid peak demand of
1,326 MW and 5.56 crore (US$860,000) in
cost savings per day, leading to substantial
reduction in carbon emissions.

(DELP)
• It has been adopted by over 2.3 crore people
across 11 states in the country. The number of
LED bulbs distributed increased to seven
crores by 1 March 2016.
• As of 5 December 2016, a total of 18 crore LED
Bulbs have been distributed under the scheme.
This led to a savings of 64.5 GWh per day in
energy and 25.8 crore (US$4.0 million) per day
in cost and a per day reduction of 52,278 t of
CO2.

(DELP)
• After LED Bulbs and Energy Efficient Fans, Now Get Ready
For LED Tubes. Launch likely by July
• After the success of LED bulbs and energy
efficient fans, the government is all set to
announce the launch of LED tube lights for
households across the country.
• The LED tube lights project is expected to be
launched by the ministery of state for power,
coal and Renewable Energy, sometimes in July
or beginning of August.

Energy Efficient Fans & LED Tubes.

(DELP)
• “In the first phase, about one crore LED tube
lights are likely to be procured and expect the
cost to be around Rs 300-350, this will
eventually come down as further bulk
procurement is done”
• The government, plans to target
distribution of around 5 crore LED tubes on
the remaining 8 months of the current
financial year.

A Quick Look At Savings and Advantages of
Energy Efficient Products

UJALA Yojana in Gujarat: People to Get
LED Tube Light and Fan at Affordable Rate
• Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani decided to reduce the price
of LED bulb following overwhelming response by people of Gujarat
under UJALA Yojana.
• As per his decision, the bulb will be sold with price of Rs. 65 per bulb for
cash and Rs. 70 per bulb for EMI along with keeping similar rate for both
residential and commercial consumers of the state.
• CM Shri Rupani has also decided to initiate selling of LED tube-light
and five-star rated energy-efficient fans under Domestic Efficient
Lighting Programme launched by the Union Government. As per his
decision, 20 watt LED tube-light will be given to consumers with a cost
of Rs. 210 by cash with a total reduction of Rs. 20 in its price assigned
by the Union Government.
• The Five-star rated energy efficient fan will be sold at Rs. 1,110 price
with a total reduction Rs. 40 in its price assigned by the Union
Government for the whole nation. The EMI cost of LED tube-light and
fan will be Rs. 230 and Rs. 1260 respectively.

UJALA Yojana in Gujarat
(Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Vijay Rupani)

UJALA Yojana: People to Get LED Tube
Light and Fan at Affordable Rate

NATIONAL UJALA DASHBOARD
(Energy Saving Per year/ by replacing normal bulb by LED
bulb)

NATIONAL PAVAN DASHBOARD
(Energy Saving Per day/ by replacing normal Fan by
Energy Efficient Fan )

NATIONAL TUBELIGHT DASHBOARD
(Energy Saving Per year/ by replacing normal Tubelight by
LED tube-light )

• Alongside, during the same time around
July, plans are a foot to make all
government ministries and departments
housed in heritage and other buildings as
BEE 5-star labelled buildings with energy
efficient gadgetries such as LED lights,
energy efficient fans and Air conditioners.

References
Is a 'Phantom' Stealing Your Electricity?
http://www.stretcher.com/stories/990913l.cfm
National Ujala Dashboard
http://www.ujala.gov.in/
One Watt Initiative : a Global Effort to Reduce Leaking Electricity
http://www.eceee.org/library/conference_proceedings/eceee_Summer_Studies/1999/Panel_2/p2_2/paper
Phantom loads
http://www.takecontrolandsave.coop/documents/PhantomLoad.pdf
Standby power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power
Standby power
http://standby.lbl.gov/
Vampire power: What It Is and How To Stop It
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home/vampire-power/
Vampire Loads Waste Energy
http://www.sdcl.org/reusable_components/images/dgs/Documents/Energy_Vampire_Loads.pdf

Vampire Electricity-Standby Power

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