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>View our Testimonials
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Home Inspection Services are available in the following Counties:
PINELLAS | HILLSBOROUGH | PASCO | HERNANDO | MANATEE
A good home inspection takes time, experience and knowledge.
PINELLAS | HILLSBOROUGH | PASCO | HERNANDO | MANATEE
A good home inspection takes time, experience and knowledge.
Certified Inspector
| AAA Advanced Home Inspections, Inc January, 2012 Newsletter |
Ah electronics, we love them and we hate them at times. The relentless rise of electricity prices over the past decade has
made many consumers more conscientious about how they use electric power. Many of those conscientious people may
find it frustrating — to put it mildly — that their daily or even hourly efforts to turn off devices they're not using hasn't delivered
the results they'd expected. The blame belongs to the growing number of "vampire" or "phantom" electronic products that
populate today's typical home. An alarmingly large number of electrical products cannot be truly turned off without being
unplugged. These 'vampire' products draw power 24 hours a day whether "on" or "off."
These devices draw so-called standby power when they are off, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(LBNL), which has recently completed a large survey that measured the "standby power" in hundreds of products. So what is
"standby power"? ...standby power is electricity used by appliances and equipment while they are switched off or not
performing their primary function. That power is consumed by power supplies (the black cubes—sometimes called
"vampires"—converting AC into DC), the circuits and sensors needed to receive a remote signal, soft keypads and displays
including miscellaneous LED status lights. Standby power use is also caused by circuits that continue to be energized even
when the device is "off."
A watt is a measure of power — Joules/second — analogous to speed — miles/hour. So, to calculate watts, power must be
converted into energy (like speed into distance). Here's an example: if a device draws 1 watt constantly for a year, then its
energy consumption was 9 kWh. That corresponds to about $1.00. While a single device consumes very little in annual
electricity use, when multiplied by several dozen products, you're no longer talking about chump change. An individual
product draws relatively little standby power, but a typical U.S. home has forty products constantly drawing power. Together
these amount to almost 10% of residential electricity use. Altogether, standby power use is roughly responsible for 1% of
global CO2 emissions. What can you do? It is not easy to reduce the amount of standby power many devices use, but it is
possible. In fact, research has found that an aggressive effort can reduce standby use by about 30%.
Here are a few strategies: Use a switchable power strip to pull the plug on clusters of computer or video products. Buy low
standby products if you can find them. Don't ask a salesperson though because they probably won't know. Better to look for
ENERGY STAR products, which are tested for profligate reliance on standby power. Buy a low-cost watt-meter, measure the
devices in your home and take targeted action. If all else fails, pull the plug.
Sincerely,
Michael Myers
Owner/Inspector
made many consumers more conscientious about how they use electric power. Many of those conscientious people may
find it frustrating — to put it mildly — that their daily or even hourly efforts to turn off devices they're not using hasn't delivered
the results they'd expected. The blame belongs to the growing number of "vampire" or "phantom" electronic products that
populate today's typical home. An alarmingly large number of electrical products cannot be truly turned off without being
unplugged. These 'vampire' products draw power 24 hours a day whether "on" or "off."
These devices draw so-called standby power when they are off, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(LBNL), which has recently completed a large survey that measured the "standby power" in hundreds of products. So what is
"standby power"? ...standby power is electricity used by appliances and equipment while they are switched off or not
performing their primary function. That power is consumed by power supplies (the black cubes—sometimes called
"vampires"—converting AC into DC), the circuits and sensors needed to receive a remote signal, soft keypads and displays
including miscellaneous LED status lights. Standby power use is also caused by circuits that continue to be energized even
when the device is "off."
A watt is a measure of power — Joules/second — analogous to speed — miles/hour. So, to calculate watts, power must be
converted into energy (like speed into distance). Here's an example: if a device draws 1 watt constantly for a year, then its
energy consumption was 9 kWh. That corresponds to about $1.00. While a single device consumes very little in annual
electricity use, when multiplied by several dozen products, you're no longer talking about chump change. An individual
product draws relatively little standby power, but a typical U.S. home has forty products constantly drawing power. Together
these amount to almost 10% of residential electricity use. Altogether, standby power use is roughly responsible for 1% of
global CO2 emissions. What can you do? It is not easy to reduce the amount of standby power many devices use, but it is
possible. In fact, research has found that an aggressive effort can reduce standby use by about 30%.
Here are a few strategies: Use a switchable power strip to pull the plug on clusters of computer or video products. Buy low
standby products if you can find them. Don't ask a salesperson though because they probably won't know. Better to look for
ENERGY STAR products, which are tested for profligate reliance on standby power. Buy a low-cost watt-meter, measure the
devices in your home and take targeted action. If all else fails, pull the plug.
Sincerely,
Michael Myers
Owner/Inspector
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