Vampire power costs

Vampire power costs
By Lori Bongiorno
Posted Wed May 27, 2009 10:57am PDT
Related topics: Electronics, Electricity, Saving energy at home More from The Conscious Consumer blog
There's a lot of interest in the fact that many electronic devices in our homes are using energy even while they are turned off or not being used. But, how much money do these energy vampires really suck up?

For many people, the standby power used by one device will seem minuscule, but the costs can add up when you take into account just how many things we all have plugged in. What's more, many households, have multiple televisions, computers, cordless phones, and others.

All told, the money wasted by an average U.S. household on standby power each year could easily be used to purchase an iPod Shuffle or in some cases even a Nano.

Below is a list of the annual average costs for many household gadgets that are turned off and plugged in. Just add up the costs for everything you have plugged in at home to find out how much standby power costs you each year.

Keep in mind that these are just averages, and in some categories there are big differences between most and least efficient products. How much energy each of your devices consumes will depend on both the device itself and your local electricity costs.

We calculated the following averages based on energy use stats from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy using a price of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Home Entertainment

CRT TV: $1.00
LCD TV: $2.97
Plasma TV: $2.97
DVD: $1.53
VCR: $4.63
Digital cable box: $17.65
Satellite cable box: $15.50
DVR: $36.63
Digital cable box with DVR: $43.01
Satellite cable box with DVR: $27.52
Video game console: $1.00
Portable stereo: $1.64
AM/FM tuner: $1.11
CD player: $4.99
Home Office

Desktop computer: $3.96
Laptop computer: $8.81
Laptop charger (unattached to laptop): $4.38
LDC monitor: $1.12
Printer: $1.98
Multifunction printer, scanner, copier: $5.21
Computer speakers: $1.98
Other

Coffee maker: $1.12
Microwave oven: $3.05
Cordless phone: $1.98
Answering machine: $1.99
Power tool: $3.96
Handheld vacuum: $2.97
Electric toothbrush: $1.98
Cell phone charger (unattached to phone): $0.26
Costs start adding up when you take into account electronics that may be left on when you're not using them.

Here's a small sampling:

Desktop computer: $71.00
Video game console: $23.10
VCR: $7.69
DVD player: $7.46
CD player: $8.53

There's little consumers can do about set-top cable, satellite, and DVR/TiVo boxes. Television shows can't be taped if boxes are unplugged and it typically takes a long time to reboot boxes. Since it's not practical to unplug them, the best you can do is remember to turn off the box when you're not actively watching TV. I have a Tivo, set-top box and TV, and I wondered how much it costs when not being used, so here the information is. I wish they had a TV and set-top that you could turn off and would turn itself on and off when a program you want to save comes on. I would also like to know how much energy is taken up by my BOINC program, which does reseach number crunching while I'm not using my computer. Its also not clear to me if the $71 figure above represents a monthly or yearly amount.