Read any article about energy efficiency or saving on your electric bill, and you’re bound to hear about phantom loads. But what exactly?
What is Phantom Load?
There are different words used to describe what we are talking about today. In addition to the term “phantom charge,” you may also hear phrases like vampire draw, vampire power, vampire energy, phantom charge, or standby power used to describe it.
Ultimately, what all these terms describe is a situation where an appliance or device consumes energy when it is not working properly. When you watch TV, the electricity that your TV consumes is not a terrible load or standby power, because the electricity does the main job, doing the work for which the TV was made. The electricity consumed by the TV when it is turned off, on the other hand, represents a phantom load. However, the situation is not limited to energy waste. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of devices that consume power when you are not using them directly.
Advantages of phantom loads
While it’s easy to immediately think that all phantom loads are destructive, it’s not that cut and dry. Typically, this “phantom” power is not only free, but is used to keep the device in standby mode.
Remotely controlled devices such as TVs, stereos, etc., have a phantom input to activate the IR or Bluetooth receiver, at least, so you can turn them on directly. Without this phantom load, you have to turn on the device and switch on the device itself before the remote works. Similarly, if you have smart devices such as smart plugs or smart bulbs, they should consume a small amount of energy ready to respond.
Phantom load also allows for “quick” operation on devices and applications that require warm-up time or similar. It is more common today than in the past, but one example in the 20th century was the CRT tube television. The tube television took several seconds to warm up and display the image clearly. Therefore, manufacturers have designed tubes to withstand such hot conditions. So when you turn on the TV, you don’t feel like you’re waiting for a heater. warm up.
The device that holds the phantom charger also enables sleep and background work. On the power side, you have less power to run things like your microwave clock. A network DVR always uses more power but ensures that your shows are recorded and available for playback throughout your home. Advantages of phantom loads
While it’s easy to immediately think that all phantom loads are destructive, it’s not that cut and dry.
Typically, this “phantom” power is not only free, but is used to keep the device in standby mode. Remotely controlled devices such as TVs, stereos, etc., emit phantom power to activate the IR or Bluetooth receiver, at least so you can turn them on directly.
Without this phantom load, you have to turn on the device and switch on the device itself before the remote works. Likewise, if you have smart devices such as smart plugs or smart bulbs, they should consume a small amount of energy ready to respond.
Phantom load also allows for “quick” operation on devices and applications that require warm-up time or similar. It is more common today than in the past, but one example in the 20th century was the CRT tube television. The tube television took several seconds to warm up and display the image clearly. Therefore, manufacturers have designed tubes to withstand such hot conditions. So when you turn on the TV, you don’t feel like you’re waiting for a heater. warm up. The device that holds the phantom charger also enables sleep and background work. On the power side, you have less power to run things like your microwave clock. A network DVR always uses more power but ensures that your shows are recorded and available for playback throughout your home.
Advantages of Phantom Load
All the advantages we have mentioned focus on comfort of use and ease of use. Naturally, the downside focuses on the power consumption. Historically, phantom limb was a much bigger problem than it is today. There is no real pressure to produce devices with non-existent or low phantom loads. It’s not uncommon to see devices in your home with phantom loads in excess of 10 watts for something as small as holding a clock on a VCR.
Surprisingly, before initiatives like Energy Star and the One Watt Initiative, standby power consumption accounted for more than 10% of electricity consumption. As a result of such initiatives, the demand for standby power from many electronic devices has decreased in recent years. Many devices that use energy like a small light bulb when they work now consume only a few watts, even half a watt or less.
Ironically, however, as each device works better in standby mode, we also have more devices in our homes than ever before. Therefore, replace the old device that draws 10 watts in readiness with a device that draws only 1 watt is good. However, if the household now has 20 more devices than before, the benefit for each device is greater, but the net benefit for the expected energy consumption ends up being higher than before. however update.
All of these phantom load issues may interest you to know about the many different phantom applications that exist around your home, and what your home’s overall phantom load is. We won’t leave you hanging, so check out our guide to checking phantom power to get to the bottom of it.
