Standby Power

Standby power, Vampire power, Vampire draw, Phantom load or Leaking electricity



Everything above speaks the same. It is about the energy we "used to" waste just because of our negligence and/or unawareness. This is the power consumed by an electronic equipment while it is "sleeping", i.e., when the equipment is put on to Standby mode.

Standby mode:
Todays electronic appliances have a feature called standby mode. You don't have to unplug the equipment from mains supply to switch it off (?) for the sake of convenience. You can use the remote control to put it on Standby mode so that you do not have to plug it again when you have to switch on the equipment next time.

What is the difference between Standby mode and Switching off?
Standby mode puts the appliance to sleep but it is listening to commands sent by the remote controller. "Listening circuitry" in the appliance is not sleeping. For this listening, certain amount of power is consumed. Power consumed for this "listening" depends on the appliance. This may be varied between 1W and 15W.
By switching off (un-plugging from the wall socket) an appliance you can switch off the "listener" as well.

Therefore, by turning off an appliance we can make sure that it does not draw power!

Standby Power Summary Table page has summarized some of the power consumptions of various appliances. Please take a closer look at this table. You can find how much power being wasted at your home/work place.

Next time please switch off your appliance when not in use and help save the world!