Jun 24 2006
Phantom Load
We recently received several small brochures from the Department of Energy (DOE) giving out helpful energy saving tips. Some of the titles of the brochures are: Madalas na Katanungan sa RVAT ng Petrolyo, Tipid Tips sa Bahay, Cutting Your Electric Bills, Tipid Tips sa Pagluluto, Mga Paalaala sa mga Mamimili at Mangangalakal ng LPG, LPG Safety Tips, Tipid Tips sa Ref, Air Conditioner, How Electricity Gets into Your Homes, Tips sa Pagbili ng Petrolyo, Tips for Buying Gasoline, Reading the Electric Meter, Efficient Driving, Tipid Tips sa Sasakyan, and many more.
What caught my attention was the brochure about the Phantom Load. I was horrified to discover that every month, we spend at least US$70.56 on the phantom load. No wonder our electricity bill is always astronomical – sometimes more than $200 a month. And to think that we are only two people who live in a small apartment. We are out of the house most hours of the day and most days of the week. We are both ginawin and only use one air conditioner in economy mode for a few hours in the evenings. We don’t have a washing machine and our refrigerator is quite small.
What is the Phantom Load? According to the DOE brochure, “A phantom load (PL) is an electrical device that is operating 24 hours a day 365 days a year, even if you think the device is turned off. These are the glowing red lights you see at night, reminder lights that your appliances are using electricity even when you think that they are off. They have hidden energy cost that most people are never even aware of.”
The brochure goes on to give samples of common phantom loads. A microwave with clock consumes 15 watts an hour; an instant-on TV, 28 watts; a VCD/DVD player, 14 watts; a hi-fi stereo, 20 watts; a cordless phone, 4 watts, an answering machine, 4 watts, and a power adaptor and AVR, 8 watts.
In our apartment, we have the following appliances plugged in at all hours of the day: two instant-on televisions consuming 28 watts an hour (that’s 56 watts an hour then); a DVD player, 14 watts; a hi-fi stereo, 20 watts; and the phone charger, 8 watts. That’s 98 watts an hour multiplied by 24 hours in a day and 30 days in a month. The grand total is…70,560 watts or 70.56 KwH.
If I were in the Philippines, at P8.83 KwH, I’d be spending P623 a month on the phantom load or P7,476 a year!!! If you think that’s bad, it’s not… it’s worse! In fact, it’s more than five times worse…because I don’t live in the Philippines. I live in Cambodia where the electricity is a whole dollar (about P51-P52) for every KwH. So my 70.56 KwH phantom load translates into a cost of US$70.56 per month or US$846.72 a year!!!
The brochure gives some solutions on how to deal with this phantom load as follows:
- Unplug the appliance! However, constant plugging and unplugging is a pain and wears out the plug and socket quickly.
- Use quality extension cords with multiple female plugs that are switched on the plug strip. When the plug strip is switched off, all the appliances plugged into the strip are disconnected from the power source.
We’ve bought our extension cords and turn off the instant-on buttons of our TV sets when we leave in the morning. I also remove the charger of the laptop until I consume most of the battery (the charger consumes 8 watts an hour). We started these energy-saving measures at mid-month but I do still hope that our electricity bills would improve at the end of the month. Well, we’ll soon find out.
What about you? Do you think that you unknowingly spend a lot of money on the dreaded phantom load?
The DOE brochures can be downloaded from the DOE website.
Technorati tags: Phantom Load
Electricity
Energy Saving Tips
- Bali and Phuket for Our Wedding Anniversary?
- Realities of the Foreign Service (Introduction)
- Point of Order
- Of Being Home Alone Again and the Farewell French Birthday Dinner
- Between a Storm and an Earthquake
Print This Post
Thanks for the info Toe. This would come in handy especially now that our Meralco has continued to increase electric rates. Haay.
Oh no! Meralco would increase rates? Jane, I think all those brochures from DOE might really help. Their tipid-tips are very informative… what with rising gas prices, lpg, and electricity too.
Tonette, natuto ka rin mag tipid ano!!!!! Matipid ka rin ba sa toilet paper?
hahaha. natawa ako sa mommy mo
but when i was reading your post, i thought you returned here in manila. hehe. but thanks for the very useful information. now i know why we have high electric bill
Mom, people think you’re funny. Maybe you should have your own blog.
Mahal nga ang toilet paper dito… $1.20 for 6 rolls!
Tin-Tin, sana nga I returned na to Manila.
Hope this will help in lowering your electric bill.
Actually, the real culprit behind our skyrocketing electricity rates are those mysterious rates that Meralco has been inserting in our monthly bill. Notice that half of your monthly bill goes to these charges alone. The worse being the loss or power theft charge. I mean, why the hell should we as paying customers be charged for Meralco’s loss? We are already paying one of the highest power rates in SE Asia. Even my relatives in HK and M’sia aren’t even paying as much in their electric bill.
This is the problem when utilities such as power and water are controlled by a single company. Just imagine, if we didn’t have Bayantel, Globe, Digitel and Eastern Telecom. Our phone bill would probably have gone through the roof.
Same with cellular services…
hahaha! akala ko naligaw ako ng binabasa, bakit kako napunta sa toilet paper yung phantom load, kakaaliw si mommy.
very informative post, di nga natin yan napapansin minsan.
I always leave on my desktop computer. Hehe now wonder my monthly bills are always 10thousand or more a month.(with 2 aircons ussage)
Sngl, buti na lang I’ve never received a Meralco bill… baka uminit din ulo ko.
But our electricity bill here is also infuriating… can you just imagine $1 per KwH? When we used to live in a house, the garbage collection was also included in our electric bill (go figure!) and it was $20… and they don’t even collect regularly! Cambodia has a high electricity rate because we have to import it pa. Only the major cities have electricity. If you drive just a few kilometers away from Phnom Penh at night, everything is already pitch black.
Our phone bill isn’t so bad though.
Hay naku, Ann… nanay ko talaga!
Ise-set-up ko na nga siya ng sarili niyang blog… stagemommy.wordpress.com. or blognilola.wordpress.com. 
Sana nga makatulong tong entry sa mga readers makatipid ng konte sa kuryente.
Noemi, I used to charge our laptop almost 24 hours a day too not realizing that it was costing me money and wasting electricity. Hopefully, getting rid of the phantom load would lower our bills.
Hi Toe! Thanks for this very informative post. I always keep my laptop running and my TV on instant-on mode. Now I know better. I wonder how much I’ll be able to save (I’m the only one in my apartment and I pay nearly 5,000 a month for my electricity, eeek!).
Bugsy, oo nga… that’s quite high.
I really hope the tips above work. Let’s compare notes when our bills come ha!
just an obiter…but i cant wait for your mom to write her own blog…
Mabelle, ano nga ba ang obiter?
Okay… I will invite her to get a wordpress account. Oh heck… I’ll invite you too. 
Wow! That is informative and *shocking* (lol – couldn’t resist the electricity pun)… I am going to have to look around the house and see what I can unplug!
Tee, isn’t it electrifying?
Unplug away then… just make sure not to unplug the refrigerator. 
Sigue, i-set up mo ako ng sarili kong blog.
Akala niyo ba kayo lang ang marunong sumulat? Baka talbog lahat ng kaibigan mo.
haha..hip na hip si mommy…
anyhow, ako, I have the microwave clock siempre and the computer turned on the whole time. I wonder kung yung fridge eh kasama sa phnatom load but I really do not have a choice on that, do I?
ah, sometimes the cell phone charge which I keep forgetting to disconnect once chinarge ko na..
Mom, I invited you na!
But okay, I’ll set it up for you na lang. 
Ting, siempre you don’t unplug your fridge.
I always forget about the cell phone charger too. It’s such a hassle unplugging it.
Very Informative Toe, i’ll inform my mom about this and might even buy that extension cords (it’s cheaper here) and send it home.
Im currently working here in dubai (UAE) and we dont have problems regarding electricity. My rent for my flat includes water and electricity so im kinda gastadora here. Aside from my ref, water dispenser, instant-on-TV and DVD plugged all hours/day, im using electric equipments in the kitchen.
wow, you’re setting a blog for your mom, dont forget to invite/inform us and we will check on her. your mom is cool toe.
Hi mom, welcome to blogsphere.
wala kang washing machine? naglalaba ka ng manual kung ganun? waahhhhh pasakit kaya sa kamay at katawan yan?..sabagay pag nasa pinas ako laba din sa kamay gamit ko
Suwerte mo Mmy-Lei… you don’t have to worry about your electric bill at all. That’s good because I heard that it gets really hot in the Middle East. But I also heard that it’s very modern there with that cool hotel in the middle of the palm-shaped island and all. Yes… I’m about to set up a blog for Mom… para maalaska naman nya ko sa blog nya at hindi parate sa blog ko.
Manilenya, haha… the apartment gives us free laundry service… buti na lang kc kahit mejas nga hindi ko malabhan.
But the maid doesn’t launder very well… kuminsan naghahawa mga damit at kuminsan may mga naliligaw na men’s briefs from other apartment units. Yuck!
[...] Not only can you help save the earth, this will also lead to a significant decrease to your electricity bills. You can read more about the phantom load in this post. [...]