Our house audit

In March 2007 we decided to do our own house audit - just to see where energy was being wasted in a typical household.

We focused not so much on the bigger items (such as hot water cylinders and space heating) but on the accumulation of small bits and pieces like appliances on standby. The list is surprisingly long.

Modern appliances are never actually "off".

Unless you turn them off at the wall, computers and monitors remain on - even if they hardly use any power. So do printers and scanners. Many run through a small transformer that's easy to plug in and forget. You may need to be cautious about this though, as some printers prefer being on standby rather than being physically switched on and off.

A computer with the monitor, scanner and printer can use up to 20W while apparently being off. Our household had two computer setups, so we start with 40W that could be saved.

Around the house?

TVs, DVD players, VCRs, stereos, game machines all use power on standby.

New models with an Energy Star label often use very little - down around 1W. Older models can use 15 to 25W. Our audit found three TVs, a decoder, a VCR, a DVD recorder, a Playstation, a home theatre amplifier, a CD player, and a cassette deck ... all humming away on standby.

All up, 74W. Just like leaving a light bulb on 24 hours a day. All except the decoder and VCR could be switched off at the wall. Even the VCR can, if you don't mind resetting the clock.

The decoder can also be switched off, although Sky prefers you to leave it going. It burns up a toasty 17 watts on standby. Most surprisingly, it only used another 0.4 of a watt when running. Not worth turning to standby! And is clearly a prime target for EECA's Energy Star.

You may not want to go to all this bother for the VCR and some of the stereo gear, but it does show the potential savings that can be made.

How about the kitchen?

We found a microwave clock, stove clock, cordless phone, a dustbuster, and four chargers - for the toothbrush, iPod, and mobile phone (plus a battery charger to feed the digital camera). This household has five mobile phones for four people.

(Mobile phone chargers are not always an energy thief. Of the phones in our CDMA test, none used more than 1 watt if left on without a phone connected. Some used nothing.)

If all these are left on, that's another 20W. The washing machine may also be on standby... not common, but possible. And then there's the doorbell - it has its own small transformer.

Out in the garage?

Is the cordless drill charger plugged in? Beer fridges can be real villains: they're often old and highly inefficient fridges retired to beer-cooling duty.

Standby waste

The potential standby waste in our house is 130W - that's two 60W light bulbs on all the time. This will cost you around $220 a year in electricity. Of course we use all these appliances, so the savings are a bit less in reality. Nonetheless, it shows the potential for savings if all appliances have the Energy Star.

Your own power meter?

You can check out your household energy use yourself by using a power meter. See our report on Power meters for more information.