DocAndersen
Did you know that there are vampires in your house? Not the Nosferatu of legend, waiting until you are asleep too, well drain you of blood. Oh no, these vampires are far worse than that. First off they have shadows. Second off they are all day, all night, on the weekends, and if you are not careful while you are away from home on vacation. They are called Power Vampires.` What is a powerful vampire? It is any product that plugged into an electrical outlet continues to draw power when it is off. The reality of why do we have power vampires is the reality of the instant-on world we live in. If not instant on then the ever-expanding world of always-on things.
There are some things in your home that allows need to be on, or need to be running the majority of the time. Your home heating and cooling system, Your refrigerator and freezer need to be running. (when I was a kid we used to call people as a prank call and ask “Is your refrigerator running?” when they answer “yes” we would say “well you better catch it.”) But there are things that run that you may not want to be running. Also things that run that you probably don’t know they are running. I am going to list some home appliances that are always drawing power and a couple of things you can quickly due to determine if you have other appliances that are “always-on.”
- Refrigerator
- Television
- Timed coffee pot (any coffee pot designed to quote turn on at a specific time)
- Smart speakers
- Laptops computers (have to change that battery)
- Some wireless power chargers for devices
- Share more in the comments.
The amount of power drawn by these devices every single day can be staggering. I have a series of small sensors I can plugin that allows me to see how much power some devices are drawing. I also have a device from my solar panels that tell me what the average flow y hour and day. In part because my Solar System generates between 18kW and 25kW per day pending cloud cover and angle of the sun (the sun is lower on the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere in fall and winter, and higher on the horizon in the Southern Hemisphere in their spring and summer). I will leave you with the following very simple process for removing Vampires from your home.
If you aren’t using it, unplug it!
-
Question of
Did you know if you see an LED on, the device is pulling power?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
Did you know it is ok to unplug a laptop?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
Lithium Ion batteries have memories, they also have maximum charge numbers did you know that?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
The larger the TV the greater the power draw right?
-
Yes
-
No
-
The power-saving tips are great regardless there is actually a climate change or not because, hey, that means money saved that can be spent in other things. And climate change is being put in the forefront not because certain people are concerned about Mother Earth but because there is money in it ?. Just saying. And Greta? Just like Malala, the Nobel Prize awardee, there are powerful force behind. The hand that rocks the cradle….
in the end I wish I could you were wrong. I wish I could say no, no that isn’t true. But wishes don’t always come true and they didn’t come true this time.
You are right.
I would concede, though, that we have huge pollution problem. At least that one is quite true ??
Gaea is mad if we aren’t careful she is going to ask us to move out!
I leave power outlets on that have to be on, fridge, freezer, and the TV is on with red light but not on. My MacBook Pro left on power mostly because it loses the battery charge quickly often leave the cell phone unplugged..
well you are well begun knowing what has to be plugged in. i wish someone could invent a smart battery!
You are right about that, Doc. I always unplug some equipment but can’t all the equipment (like you said) like the refrigerator, air conditioner, water pump, etc. I always unplug the cable from the laptop if the battery icon shows 100%, unfortunately, the laptop battery is generally drained quickly too, and tends to be short-lived.
But going forward, equipment that must continue to be connected to electricity will likely continue to grow considering they are or will be connected to the internet too.
That is very true my friend. It is the reality of that connected device that creates a new problem.
A friend of mine has a toaster that puts the live temperature (what it is outside) on the toast as it cooks. Connected toasters, connected refrigerators, smart TV’s and even now the concept of a smart bed (watch how you sleep and help you sleep better) are all impacting the world around us!
So there will be more vampires around us…
yes more and more all the time.
Then what is your suggestion? While in the mass media I also still see suggestions (mostly the government) to save energy by unplugging…
really comes down to unplugging for now. The reality is that the power systems of these devices aren’t able to juggle both being connected and shutting off.
Yeah, that’s the problem…
it really is, hopefully only for a short time.
Q: Did you know if you see an LED on, the device is pulling power?
Yes (6 votes) – 75%
No (2 votes) – 25%
Q: Did you know it is ok to unplug a laptop?
Yes (7 votes) – 78%
No (2 votes) – 22%
Q: Lithium Ion batteries have memories, they also have maximum charge numbers did you know that?
Yes (2 votes) – 25%
No (6 votes) – 75%
Q: The larger the TV the greater the power draw right?
Yes (6 votes) – 67%
No (3 votes) – 33%
Interesting fact, the larger the TV does not mean that it draws more power. Many newer TV’s actually go into a power saver mode.
if you keep your TV plugged into a surge protector (which you should) just turn the surge protector off. TV can’t draw current then…
that is a good solution, the issue, of course, is that the surge protector draws power all the time as well.
true, but isn’t it a negligible amount?
sure 1 is.
1000 not so much.
100 houses with 3 to 4 in each house that represents 400 in a neighborhood that is a lot.
Freaking can’t be hard to create a smart device, no power draw no power draw! as if device is off, shut everything down except the circuit breaker, which doesn’t need power to be active.
wasn’t thinking in aggregates. yeah, why don’t they shut off when they’re not in use? do APCs do that once they’re charged?
in theory, the only smart batteries are the overcharge features of cell phones, but as we know from cell phones bursting into flames that don’t always work.
APCs, in theory, do not, but the newer ones are smarter they may now.
nothing new about my APC
we have a 12 second what is called conditioner at the house. It is basically a battery.
when the power company stops, the generator kicks in but takes 3 to 7 seconds to fire up. The conditioner prevents electronics but being forced off.
runs the whole house? inefficient…
actually, it is pretty efficient overall. it costs about the dollar an hour for a generator to power the house. It is around 5 dollars an hour to use the power grid. Of course, if the outage is during the day the cost for the power is free (solar on the roof).
oh, alright… but if you have a house full of vampires you’d drain the battery faster
that is very true. I would like to say I fixed that problem but as you know i cannot right now.
I want smart devices that shut off.
energy efficiency or the so called green devices are still pretty new. we should hope these features are by design going forward…
The valley that lies in front of us appears to be huge. But it isn’t we could easily leap it even with packs on.
fear would seem to be the issue.
but it is not. It is greed. It costs to switch to smart green devices.
and the greed of those making their fortunes on petroleum, and are willing to kill everyone to keep their profit margins (including themselves)
there is only one flaw in the greed argument.
It only applies to some of the companies not all of them.
The largest producer of wind power in the US, BP.
the largest solar producer right now in the US, Exxonmobile…
they know petrol is on the way out. they aren’t going alternative to be nice or responsible…
I think like IBM they are evolving. The motivation is to keep money rolling in. But if the money is clean, I don’t care.
same here. can’t get oil spills from a windmill
Offshore wind farms are the new rage in Maryland/Delaware/Virginia. Ares with low fishing and commercial traffic have offshore wind farms.
why offshore? can’t imagine the real estate is prohibitively expensive
actually because the wind is more consistent over the ocean than the land!
are they using darius types?
Darius types?
ok other than knowing the legends from Greece of Darius, no clue what that is.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrieus_wind_turbine
it just seems to me that the standard type would be too top heavy for water deployment
they are actually built on a fairly solid base in a low tide change area. The BOEM (Bureau of Energy Management) is very careful about where they allow that.
balance and cables seem like the problems of this scenario
well as is often the case you have reached the end of my knowledge base
mine ran out before yours did…
Then it is time to drink!
na zdorovye, tovarisch
Well let’s see my PC is always plugged in of course, but it’s not in the room I sleep in, I have an LED clock that is by my bed and in the kitchen my fridge and hot plate and toaster oven with an LED clock. Oh yes, and the video player in the living area that is about it.
it doesn’t sound like you could really reduce, you are probably right about where a person should be overall.
I knew some things, but something new to me. Thanks for sharing the interesting info. I always unplug my computer and TV (they say I’m crazy). Some of the things I do not use (for example, Timed coffee)
You are not crazy, TV’s and Computers are vampires. Although I have found by actual sensors that the coffee pot (when we used to use the timed version of it) drew more power over the course of a day than the TV did.
Thanks!!!
It’s really hard to understand that these appliances are so “greedy”. Manufacturers should think a bit about making these appliances less “greedy”.
I think the reality of smart appliances is that people associate smart with connected.
We need devices that understand if I am off, ceasing drawing power!
Great reminder and the joke was funny, I like this kind of silly jokes too.
my kids call them dad jokes, and groan when I say them! Thanks for the kind words!
I was about to say they are dad jokes, but since you were kids I thought maybe I am wrong, haha.
my kids say I am dad joke personified. Not sure if that is a compliment.
Give them a few more years and they will start appreciating them more. Some day, the boys themselves will start saying dad jokes. 😀
perhaps that is true 🙂
thanks for the positive spin it helps!
Very informative and a beautiful picture,
thank you for the compliment and the comment
Great posting and interesting info, dear friend … many things I turn off my computer but never …. it’s always powered up … but still burns electricity if it doesn’t go on … Mrs. the washing machine switches off when not washing
yeah it is amazing when you consider how many things are actually on when they appear off.
When you think about it this way, there are really a lot of things to save
there really are many ways we can all save!
I’ll work on it too, dear friend
I figured you would! there is much to be said for doing the right things!
Yes you are absolutely correct. The big television we have is rarely turned on during the day, only a few hours at night. I unplug my laptop and use the battery often. And the thermostat is adjusted to conserve energy as well.
Thanks Carol, interesting, that LED/flat screen burns less energy than the TV’s we had just 15 years ago!!!
thanks for shearing this information
happy to do so, wanted to help people make a difference!
Good information here , thanks for sharing
sure thing – glad you found value!