Last fall I took an introductory solar installation course north of Toronto and remember one of the instructors talking about the importance of energy conservation with respect to buying and installing a home solar PV system. His point was that the more you can conserve electricity the smaller the system you need, meaning less money spent on panels and storage. It’s one of those common sense things that I’m sure many people don’t think about.

He alerted me to “phantom loads” — anything in the household that, even though it’s turned off, still continues to draw small amounts of electricity to keep things like internal clocks and LED lights and other device “intelligence” humming in the background. This would include TV sets, stereo systems, computers, charging devices and the lot. As long as these devices are plugged into the wall, they continue to draw electricity when you’re not using them, and when you’re not home. A small amount here and a small amount there add up every 24 hours, 7 days a week. If you could tackle phantom loads in every household the energy conservation could be dramatic.

That’s why I was happy to see this article last week on CNET’s News.com about our increasing use of energy-sucking electronics products. Among its findings:

* Consumer electronics currently account for 15 per cent to 20 per cent of household electricity use in the United States, up from 5 per cent in 1980, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. There’s no reason Canadian figures would be any different.

* TVs are the biggest energy suckers in the electronic gadget world, accounting for an estimated 4 per cent of U.S. residential electricity consumption. This figure can jump to 10 per cent if you factor in TV-related devices such as DVD players, game boxes, personal video recorders and set-top boxes.

* The article calls plasma TVs the home equivalent of gas-guzzling SUVs. They apparently use up to three times more energy than smaller TVs and, according to the U.S. Natural Resources Defense Council, can be as energy-intensive as a refrigerator. Considering the rising popularity of plasma and other large-screen TVs, the NRDC predicts that TV-related energy use will jump by more than 50 per cent by the end of the decade.

* The average U.S. home has five external power adapters for use with laptops, cell phones, digital cameras, digital music players and other portable gadgets. These adapters are inefficient, using 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the electricity they process. Once a device is charged, these adapters also continue to consume electricity that isn’t needed — a huge waste of energy just because somebody forgot to unplug a cord.

* A Tivo-like personal video recorder can alone consume up to 350 kilowatt hours of year — half as much as a standard fridge.

* If every power adapter were 90 per cent efficient, which is apparently possible, it would save more than 5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year in the United States, preventing more than 4 million tons of greenhouse gas from escaping into the atmosphere from power plants.

The EPA is trying to update Energy Star standards so they will apply to power adapters, TVs and computer monitors. The goal is to get these standards in place fast, particularly before plasma-screen TV sales begin to take off.

The article is a must-read for anyone interested in energy conservation, because it highlights the often overlooked energy problems associated with our increasing use and fascination with electronic gadgets. The article also comes with a little side-box explaining steps people can take to battle the phantom menace.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2005 at 1:11 pm and is filed under Main Page. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.