The Phantoms Among Us

It’s the steady drip, drip, drip of power consumption.  I think we’ve all seen the unblinking red, orange, green and blue LEDs that stare back from the supposedly switched off devices throughout our homes.  Sometimes they serve a great purpose to guide us from collision in the dark, but with every consumer electronic device glow, there’s a steady stream of power being used with little or no purpose. 

Add that to the power consumed by devices while in use, and it’s no wonder that demand for electricity continues to grow.  Did you know that a 42” plasma can consume more power than a full sized refrigerator?  Data shows that 46.1 million LCD TVs shipped worldwide in Q1.  How about the energy consumed by the 1.1 billion chargers worldwide that accompanied the new cell phones shipped last year?

There may be a bit of hope on the horizon. Among the myriad of approaches being engineered and coming on the market, the development of next-gen power factor correction (PFC) devices may help reduce the overall demand for new power plant construction as well as the greenhouse gases associated with putting another generation facility in operation.  PFC circuits can reside in power supplies of almost any electronic device – computer, HDTV, DVD player or even the lowly wall charger for cell phones and laptops – and can reduce overall energy drawn by each device.  Think of it as the difference between drinking from a fire hose and a water glass – using this new approach, devices ask for much less power from the wall socket and don’t waste excess energy.

[Full disclosure – I worked with a semiconductor firm last year with PFC news outreach to OEMs.]

In the meantime, there are basic strategies to adopt to get a handle on your overall energy consumption:

• Do an energy audit of your house, provided by your local utility at little or no cost
• Use an energy consumption meter to determine which devices in your home really are drawing the most energy
• When replacing appliances and electronics, take a look at Energy Star-compliant devices as well as exploring those that employ Power Factor Correction in their power supplies
• Unplug those wall chargers and switch off power strips when devices aren’t needed

Sure, it might mean a few less night lights for guidance in the dark, but learning to save starts with a series of incremental steps.