Photo: cogdogblog, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Walk around your home at night with the lights off and count the little glowing dots. A red light on the TV, a green one on the router, a clock on the microwave, a blue ring on the game console. Each of those is a device drawing power while you aren't using it.
That's standby power, sometimes called phantom or vampire load. A single gadget on standby usually uses very little. The catch is that a modern home has dozens of them, running all day, every day of the year, and a few older or badly designed ones use far more than you'd guess.
You can't eliminate it, and you shouldn't try to. But you can find the worst offenders in an afternoon and cut them with almost no effort. This is general guidance; your savings depend on your devices and your electricity rate.
Measure before you unplug anything
Guessing doesn't work here, because the device with the brightest light is rarely the hungriest. The easiest tool is a plug-in electricity usage monitor. You plug it into the wall, plug the device into it, and it shows how many watts the device is drawing. They're inexpensive and sold at hardware stores, and some libraries lend them out (worth a call before you buy one).
Measure each device twice: once while it's in use, and once after you've switched it off with the remote or button the way you normally would. That second number is the standby draw.
If your utility has a smart meter and an online dashboard, you can also look at your home's usage in the middle of the night when everyone's asleep. That overnight baseline is mostly fridge, freezer, heating controls and standby.
Turn watts into money
The math is simple, and it's what tells you whether something is worth bothering with. A device that draws a steady load all year runs for 8,760 hours. Multiply its standby watts by 8,760, divide by 1,000, and you have kilowatt-hours per year. Multiply that by the rate on your electricity bill.
As a worked example with round numbers, a device idling at 10 watts uses about 88 kilowatt-hours a year. At a hypothetical rate of 20 cents per kilowatt-hour, that's around $17 a year, just to sit there. A phone charger left in the wall with nothing attached usually draws a tiny fraction of that, while some set-top boxes and older AV equipment can draw far more. Run the numbers on your own devices with your own rate before deciding what to change.
The usual big offenders
In most homes, a handful of categories tend to top the list when you measure. Cable and satellite boxes, especially ones with a recorder, often keep working nearly as hard on standby as when you're watching. Game consoles set to an "instant on" or rest mode can draw noticeably more than in their energy-saving mode. Desktop computers that never fully shut down, older AV receivers and subwoofers, and printers that sit awake all day also tend to show up.
Small gadgets like electric toothbrush chargers and modern phone chargers are usually minor. I'd still unplug a charger you never use, but I wouldn't build a routine around it.
Fixes that take two minutes
Start with settings, because they cost nothing. Most game consoles have an energy-saving or full shutdown option buried in the power menu, and switching to it is usually the single biggest win for a gaming household. The tradeoff is slower start-up and updates that don't download overnight. TVs often have "quick start" or similar features that keep them partly awake; turning those off cuts their standby draw.
Next, group devices that are only used together onto one power strip with a switch, like the TV, soundbar, console and streaming stick. Flip it off at night or when you leave. If you'd rather not remember, an advanced or "smart" power strip switches the accessories off automatically when the main device, usually the TV, goes into standby.
A timer plug works well for things on a predictable schedule, such as a printer you only use in the daytime.
What not to switch off
Some devices are meant to stay on. Leave the fridge and freezer alone, obviously. Your router and modem may need to stay on if you rely on them for a home alarm, smart thermostat, security camera or Wi-Fi calling. Recorders need power to make scheduled recordings. Some medical devices, alarm panels and heating controls should never be on a switched strip at all.
A safety note while you're rearranging plugs: don't plug one power strip into another, don't overload a strip with heaters or other high-wattage appliances, and replace any strip or plug that feels warm, is cracked, or has scorch marks. Keep cords out from under rugs.
Your one-afternoon standby audit
Borrow or buy a plug-in monitor. Check the devices behind the TV and the home office desk first, since that's where the clusters are. Write down each standby number, work out the yearly cost with your own rate, and change settings or add a switched strip for anything that comes out at more than a few dollars a year. Then check your next couple of bills, because the overnight baseline is where you'll see the difference.
