Save Power - Standby Power

Save Power - Standby Power

Power is a very critical issue in todays time in INDIA. Electricity bills are getting higher and higher today. We must know the different means of minimising our electricity bills by updating our knowledge with the right use of electrical equipments we use. I will share you here, how we can reduce the electric power consumption by avoiding use of StandBy Power mechanism supplied with most of the electronic gadgets that we use in our home and office daily.

Standby Power is an electrical power that consumes electricity when not in present use, but plugged into a source of power and ready to use. The best example to understand this Standby Power is when you switch off your Television Set with Remote Control. Here using Remote Control Television gets off but it still uses electricity in its standby mode because it is not switched off from its plug point switch. Another example, when your music system is turned off using the remote control and not from the plug point switch, it is not performing any useful work but still consuming some electricity.

The gadgets that uses this type of Standby Power are namely, TV, CD-DVD player, Microwave Oven, Washing Machine, Mobile Phone Chargers etc. Its true that Standby Power consumed by individual gadget is very small but if you have all of the above gadgets at home then sum of all the units becomes significant. Average monthly household Standby Power consumption in KWh in a house for various gadgets is as below. *Source: International Energy Agency Standby Power report

Cordless Phone - 2KWh

PC Speaker - 2KWh

AC - 2.5KWh

Microwave Oven - 2.5KWh

Printers - 2.9KWh

Washing Machine - 2.9KWh

Modem - 3.1KWh

Laptop Computer - 4.7KWh

Desktop Computer - 5KWh

Hi-Fi Stereo - 5.2KWh

TV - 5.3KWh

VCR - 7.1KWh

DVD Player - 10.8KWh

Voltage Stabilizer - 11.3KWh


So you can imagine if you have all of the above gadgets in your house then your average monthly household Standby Power consumption will be 67.3 units per month assuming the gadgets are kept on standby power for one month.

All this can be saved by turning off the gadgets from "PLUG POINT SWITCH"

• Turn off electrical appliances when not in use.

• Turn off your TV, DVD player, music system, battery charger for mobile phones, microwave oven etc. from Plug Point Switch.

• Turn off the battery chargers as soon as your mobile phone is charged.

• Use Energy Efficient appliances

Reference: http://www.iea.org/Textbase/subjectqueries/standby.asp