(Idaho Power Press Release, October 29, 2024)
Halloween is upon us, and it’s a great time to find and reduce the phantom load in your home to save energy and money all year long.
Phantom load — or standby power — comes from electronics that draw power even when they aren’t in use. A typical American home has 40 products constantly drawing power. These products include cable/satellite boxes, personal computers, modems/routers, video game consoles, and any appliance with a digital display. Together, these amount to about 5–10% of residential electricity use. In fact, the National Resources Defense Council estimates that phantom load accounts for $19 billion a year in energy costs in the U.S — about $200 each year for the average American home.
Idaho Power encourages customers to reduce phantom load with the following tips:
- Enable power-save features on computers, TVs, and videogame consoles.
- Unplug electronic devices that don’t require reprogramming or aren’t frequently used.
- Buy ENERGY STAR® products, which have lower standby use.
- Borrow a Kill A Watt™ meter from your local library to measure the standby use of devices in your home.
- Use a power strip and make it easy to turn off multiple items at once — or better yet, a smart power strip — to control groups of electronics like computer or video equipment.
- Use smart plugs to control the power supply to devices remotely. You can schedule them to turn off during certain hours.
For more energy-saving tips, visitidahopower.com/save.
Safety tip! Help your trick-or-treaters stay safe at night by adding reflective clothing or glow-stick accessories to their costumes. Idaho Power hopes to see some future line workers dressed up!
