EEVblog 1505 - 120W Home Phantom Power? Audit Time! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 04, 2022, 09:01:50 am
content: My home takes 120W phantom standby power. Let's do a complete audit and see what is consuming the most power, and how it can be reduced.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2022, 10:23:20 am
content: I'm impressed by how reasonable most of those standby power figures are, even though most of them could clearly be lower. There used to be a LOT of stinkers taking multiple watts, and being obviously warm all day and night. What's up with those air cons, though. That calls for some thorough investigation.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 04, 2022, 10:30:15 am
content: Quote from: coppice on October 04, 2022, 10:23:20 amYeah, I was kinda surprised.

author: Ed.Kloonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 04, 2022, 10:53:10 am
content: FTA TV amplifier?

author: cortex_m0
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 12:32:53 am
content: Bit of napkin math. If Dave shut off his NBN modem and router for 7 hours per day, and utilized a timer that had zero phantom draw itself, it would take approx. 20 months for the timer to pay for itself.If Dave installed a timer on the power toothbrush so that it could only charge 1 hour per day, it would pay for itself in about 6 years.So going around the house installing a bunch of timers seems a bit wasteful, at least in the short term.Maybe Dave could analyze some of these plug packs in the lab for efficiency and power factor at various loads. Presumably even the lesser plug packs are adequate when operating near their rated current.Notes:1. Timer: Jaycar part number MS6114, which costs AU$19.95.2. Calculated at the AU$0.30/kWh electric rate that Dave mentioned in a different video3. Assumes all electricity comes from the grid. Since Dave has a large solar array, this power is only drawn at night, extending the payback period.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 12:46:28 am
content: 120W sounds pretty low, my base load is close to 275W. I have a handful of vintage digital clocks that all draw several watts though, and around half a dozen UPS's on various things, and a Plex server although that's a mini PC that draws under 20W.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 08:49:49 am
content: Quote from: Ed.Kloonk on October 04, 2022, 10:53:10 amNopeBut I did forget three mains connected smoke alarms. And ironically I've done a video on the power consumption of those.

author: bartgrefte
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 10:28:24 am
content: Years ago I did the same here. Initially I just taped an optical sensor (CNY70) in front of the spinning disk on the old analogue electricity meter, which rotated 375 times per kWh, and hooked it up to a resistor and an ADC in between. (Note: a YouLess didn't fit, the door of the case around the circuit breaker box was far too close - about half an inch, a little over a cm - in front of the meter. So that's why a diy'd solution. Oh, and diy is more fun)With the measured rotation-time in milliseconds, plus the 375 rotations per kWh and a little bit of math I managed to create a highcharts-graph of the power consumption in watts of the entire house, though not a very precise graph. If I recall correctly, back then we're talking at least 200 watts idle.Years of power saving attempts later, and also a switch to a not-smart digital meter with blinking LED that blinks once per Wh (BPW34 photodiode as sensor) and a300 baud slow IR-portfor the kWh-counters, I managed to get the idle power consumption of the entire house to as low as 68 watts and around 100W when the fridge/freezer-combo starts running.That 68 watts consists of:- fiber modem, not much more than a media converter, no router-functionality;- 3 24/7 running computers (RPi and two i3 8100 era systems) plus diy 19V UPS, idles at about 15-20W total;- TP-Link SG3216 switch that draws max 15W;- RIPE Atlas Probe, basically a TP-Link TL-WR902AC mini router with alternative firmware;- Idling gas-based heating system, has a very power hungry pump that only does 2 things: Nothing, and running at such a high speed that the neighbours can hear it and it's keeping me up at night, plus the power consumption when it's on is much higher than it's 20 year older predecessor;- Idling fridge/freezer combo;- 3 clocks, two alarm clocks and an Adafruit Ice Tube Clock with GPS-mod;- Printer in deep sleep;.... I believe that's about it.For those who love graphsIf someone happens to notice something around 01:00 and 06:30, that would be the digital tv receiver/decoder (Mut@nt HD500c) with OpenPLI firmware that turns itself off around 01:00 and automatically back on at 06:30. Initially I set this up since it has a tendency to freeze after several weeks of uptime, but it also lowers the power consumption a bit. But even if I left it running, it's so much less power hungry than the provider supplied receivers/decoders that draw around 40-50 watts just by sitting there, this one a little less than 10W.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 05:42:55 pm
content: Interesting videoI was a bit surprised to see a Gigaset DECT phoneI always assumed these were a very european, or even german thing.Anyway, at the end you mention that you are considering to turn off your internet hardware during the night. Please consider the phones. Do you still have a dedicated analog phone line coming in, or are the phones connected to the NBN or WiFi Device?

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 05:49:45 pm
content: Quote from: Ranayna on October 05, 2022, 05:42:55 pmI know the E in DECT is supposed to stand for European, but why would you think that? The G in GSM originally stood for Group, and was only changed to Global when it took off. A lot of now global comms standards were developed and standardised under EU stewardship, for EU usage.

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 06:25:40 pm
content: I did not even think about the abbreviationBut these phones, and gigaset in particular, surprised me a bit in the video