Research+Information

Joseph Kaluzny's Research Information: Phase 2 - Project Research **Introduction to Phantom Load** Over the course of this project I have been investigating and studying __phantom load__. Phantom load is the power used by something while turned off. An example of this is the __electrical energy__ used while a DVD player is plugged in, but not on. Electrical energy is the __energy__ created by moving __electrons__. The electricity in my house is originally from a power plant where large generators turn magnets inside loops of wires which creates this energy. Reducing phantom load can save not only money but save the energy created at these power plants. Devices that have phantom load are sometimes referred to as “vampires”. I focused in and tested two things: a lamp and a DVD player. I used a __watt meter__ to calculate the energy that was lost from these two items. This wattmeter measured the money each device used, the __watt hours__, the __watts__, and many other things. You might not be familiar with some of these terms. A watt is a unit to measure power and is equal to one joule per second. The current (in __amperes__) multiplied by the voltage (in __volts__) equals the watts. (An ampere is a unit used to measure electrical current and a volt is a unit used to measure the __potential difference__ and electromotive force). A watt hour is also a unit of energy and is equal to 3600 joules or one watt working for one hour. The main difference between watts and watt hours for this research is that the number of watts equals the power being used at that specific time whereas the number of watt hours equals the total power used so far. A __joule__ is a unit of energy that is equal to the force of one __Newton__ through a distance of one meter. (A Newton is the unit used to measure force). You might be wondering, what is the phantom load used for and why does it exist? Devices with phantom load usually have lights on them that use up the energy. Some others like remote controls need to be ready to be used at all times so they use some energy to do so and other things such as televisions use phantom load to be able to turn on quickly. The following contains my results and other information that I found on phantom load.

**Awareness** Most people have never heard of phantom load and much less know the magnitude of it. Over the course of this phase of this project I’ve found out many interesting and intriguing statistics. Did you know that the phantom load wasted in America could power Greece, Peru, and Vietnam? Phantom load makes up approximately 6% of the US’s entire electricity consumption. There are some devices that I didn’t test for phantom load, but I found their phantom load amounts online. First, there is a garage door opener which uses $1.60 in phantom load every month. Coffee pots use as much as $0.40 every month. An Xbox 360 uses $0.13 every month. Monthly, an LCD television uses $0.20 compared to the $0.40 that a Plasma television uses. Older devices tend to have higher phantom load than newer more energy efficient devices. The term __energy efficiency__ is the amount of useful energy available after a conversion occurs. In other words, it is how much of the energy is being used to do what it is suppose to do. For example, a car uses only a small fraction of the power (in the form of gas) is used to make the car go. An __energy conversion__ is changing energy from one form to another. It is estimated that 75% of the power a device uses is used while it is turned off.

**Results** As mentioned before, I calculated the phantom load for a lamp and a DVD player. I used a Watts Up? Pro watt meter which measured many things including watts, watt hours, and money. How the watt meter works is pretty simple. The device you are measuring plugged into the watt meter and the watt meter plugged into the wall. A cord also connected the watt meter to a computer. The Logger Pro program on the computer recorded the watts, money, etc. 240 times every hour. It also put all of this information into multiple graphs which can be found attached to this research. The equation the watt meter used to calculate the cost was .113 $/kWh. First I measured the lamp. This lamp was an average lamp with an average __incandescent light bulb__ that was 100 watts. I did this over a twelve hour period having the lamp on for six hours and off for six hours. At the six hour mark, the watts dropped from 100 to 0, the watt hours leveled out, and the cost leveled out. This means that that particular lamp had no phantom load or at least none that the watt meter was able to read. This makes some sense considering that the lamp had no standby lights on it that devices with phantom load typically have. The second item I tested was a DVD player. I tested it for twelve hours in the same way as the lamp. During the six hours that it was on, I didn’t have anything playing I just had it turned on. At the six hour mark for this one, the watts dropped from 9 watts to 3 watts. This means that the DVD player does in fact have phantom load. Most of this extra power went towards keeping the player’s display lit up. Although 3 watts isn’t a lot, it is still something and is quite a bit considering that it is 33% of the power used while it is turned on.

**Prevention** There are many ways to prevent or reduce phantom load. One way is simple – just unplug things when they are not in use. Although this would save //loads// of money, many times it is not very practical. An alternative is to get power strips and turn them off while the items plugged into it are not in use. Just by doing this before you go to bed you could save a lot of money and energy. Another way to reduce phantom load and electric consumption is to buy energy efficient items. Although they may cost more, they could be worth it in the end. One easy way to tell if something wastes a small amount of energy is if it has an Energy Star label on it. These devices use 20-50% less energy than regular ones. Devices that are cordless such as telephones have quite a bit more phantom load than those that are plugged in. Just by switching your phones can save you money in the long run. LCD televisions only have half of the phantom load that plasma televisions use. Again switching can save you money. Replacing older devices is yet another way that you can reduce your phantom load. All of these ways can not only save you money on your electricity bill, but can also preserve energy for other purposes.

**Conclusion** Upon completion of my research and testing I have learned a lot about phantom load. Since it makes up 6% of our electricity it is also 6% of the money that we spend on electricity bills. The average Americans electricity bill costs $95.66. This means that the average American household wastes $5.7396 per month or $68.8752 per year through phantom load. This research has helped me realize that phantom load is a problem and should be stopped. I now know that phantom load isn’t as big as I thought it was but is still very significant.

Visuals & the rest are in the document above.

Dale Steinmetz's Research Visuals: Information: (I don't know why it is centered or why is is not double-spaced, or why it is not showing the highlights, or why the link to the phantom load final is not opening (you have to drag it to the desk top and open it from there), however other than that every thing is working just dandy!) Phantom Load Introduction to Phantom Load Phantom load is what people call energy that is being used by an appliance when turned ‘off’. There are many different names that you can call this waste of energy but I am just going to refer to it a phantom load or standby power. Not very many Americans are aware of phantom loads that are taking place in their own home. There are many ways that phantom loads scam you out of your energy and money, most times with out you even knowing that little by little your money is going through the cords of almost all of your appliances that have a clock, screen, standby mode, or other things that I will tell you about latter on. In this research I will also explain some very simple, easy, and efficient ways to prevent your sneaky appliances from conning you out of your electricity and money.

Prevention A great way to prevent energy from being used when something is not on is to just unplug it. If you don’t want to bother with unplugging all your household items individually you can plug multiple into one power strip and then just switch that ‘off’ that way you don’t have to unplug each item individually. Most ENERGY STAR brand appliances use only 40% of the energy as standard models. When battery chargers are not being used or the batteries are fully charged unplug them. Did you know that for every 7 cents you spend on electricity bills 4 of those cents are from standby power usage? The U.S. spends more than 3 billion dollars in just standby energy each year, if we could prevent all of that think of how much better and cleaner our earth could be. Standby power is an easy thing to prevent, you just unplug your items and then you don’t have to pay for power your not using.

Results When I was testing, and looking on the Internet I was able to identify some things about how a phantom load strikes. There are certain traits that all phantom load-embracing appliances have. If you can identify those traits then that will help you stop the right appliances. Any appliance or item has a remote will use phantom load power because the electronic device (receiver) that is always looking for your remotes signal. If the item has a standby mode it will use power because there is usually a little light that tells you that it is in standby mode and because it is always waiting, holding that electrical charge in the cord waiting for you to flip the switch or push the button to turn it on. When an appliance has a display screen that is on when you are not using it that display screen will use your energy if it is telling you what time it is, or like my stereo it tells me what brand it is and that it is in demo mode so the lights are always flashing, and the iPod dock is glowing, and it has a stand by mode, but sense I’ve been doing this research I’ve moved the plugin for the stereo and then when I flip a switch it goes in to a ‘hard off’ so that all electricity going to it is shut off. If any of your appliances have these traits they have a phantom load; therefor they are using your money to run something that you thought was off. For example your TV’s are wasting your money because the little box that you point your remote at is always searching for a signal from the remote to come in. Things with a clock like stereos, microwaves, cable boxes, and anything else with a clock use your energy as well because they are always on and keeping your time up to date. Any thing that has any of those traits is always using your energy.

Awareness Very few people know about the phantom loads are occurring in there own home. For the some that do know what is happening in their electrical cords, that their energy is being used even when the appliance isn’t most think nothing of it, and that is what is wasting our money. Over all about 6% of all the energy used in America is phantom load energy. All the phantom load energy could be used to power a lot of other things; America’s phantom load alone could power small countries. Our phantom load money as billions of dollars that is being used by our country to go towards absolutely nothing, other than giving the electrical companies more of our money that they don’t need.

Conclusion Preventing, or at least being more aware of the phantom loads through out your house and your life will benefit not only you but also the world to because by using less energy they have to burn the fossil fuels, which is definitely not the best for our environment. In the end I think that if you follow some of the easy steps to save you money and energy; use power cords, try to use brands of items that you use often that don’t use as much energy, and remember if your not sure if it has a phantom load or not just unplug the item, even if you just do it at night before you go to bed or before you leave for a vacation, if every one did that it could cut our unnecessary spending in half and help the environment. Seth Hinson's Research Information &Visuals: **Introduction to** __**//Phantom Load//**__ Have you touched or been too close to an old television set and then been electrocuted, or shocked, that's Phantom load. Phantom Load is a term that is used to describe or replace the actual term, Standby power. Standby Power is the amount of power used when a device used during standby (off). The reason this happens because __**//electricity//**__ is still flowing through the device and then "leaked." It is leaked due to contact to other objects/air (the shock you felt). This could cause you to pay extra money at the end of the month!

**Awareness** Most of the time that we have had electrical devices we have been aware of phantom load. But, until early twentieth century it was not a major issue. In 1933, Eje Sandberg coined the phrase "leaking electricity." In 1998 a study showed that 10-15 percent of all energy usage was used in Phantom load. In 2010 a program called __**//The One Watt Initiative//**__ ( __http://www .0stLgov__ __/bridge/ servlets/pu r1/795944-XFu5mJ /native/795944. pdf__) was started to restrict, or weaken, the power used in standby mode to 1 watt. A watt is a measuring term to describe the power something uses or has. In 2013 they plan to go down to .5 watts! Around 10% (according to a study in 1998) of energy used is standby energy. So if you pay $300 a month, about $30 is used while you are not using the devices! We pay around $275 so we pay $27.50 in standby power, which is more than I have in my wallet! So in a year we pay $330! This is why The One Watt Initiative was started in 2010. In the mid-1900's appliances like TV's and microwaves had about 10-20 watts/hour and about 15-20 percent of energy was standby energy.

**Testing** I tested on my 2007 Emerson TV set. While I tested this TV used about 100 watts when on. But, when in standby it uses about .8-.9 watts of standby power. For 3 hours of constant usage the cost is about 3.3656 cents. For 3 hours of constant standby the cost was .0274 cents. Costs of standby for my TV: __**//3h=.0274 cents; 6h=.0548 cent; 12h=.1096 cent; 1D=.2192 cent; lW=1.5344 cents;//**__ __**//1M=6.5759 cents; 1 Y=78.9108 cents//**__. About 79 cents a year for power for a TV that isn't even on! They got it in 2007 so that means that we have paid $3.95 for a TV being on standby. __**//Prevention//**__ Ways To Prevent Phantom Load: One way to prevent, or stop, Phantom load is un-plug devices that use standby as an "off" alternative. Another way is to make sure all appliances are all the way off and not in standby mode. More ways to prevent Phantom load are, buy newer appliances and get rid of the older ones,turn sleep, a   mode in which a device is in a low-power mode but is easy to access quickly, and standby modes off if able , use standby appliances less often to reduce the factor, possibility or variable, of you forgetting to un-plug before bed/work/errands, and lastly, turn off all power at night

**Conclusion** One thing I found out is for you to always unplug standby-using

appliances. Phantom load may not cost a lot now, but it adds up to a lot

and can always be a factor in high costing bills. One of my main

conclusions is that awareness is the key to saving money (watch what

you buy!!). Never think that Phantom Load does not affect an appliance,

because it probably does standby is a mode for your “convenience.”

Don’t buy old items such as: old TVs, speaker, microwaves, printers, chargers, computers, etc; all of these

items have a very high phantom load. I now use the prevention steps to save money and when I buy an

appliance when I’m older I will be careful and energy continence, or aware of the energy amount of energy

I will use, how about you?