Stake Vampire Power With Help From EUMV.

The Aug 1 meeting about cutting “vampire power” waste should have been simple.

After an introduction by Mountain View Mayor Kasperzak, High Energy Audits founder Steve Schmidt should have spoken to city residents about simple remedies to cull base load energy waste. Schmidt should have told the crowd to toss out their old wine-coolers and buy new ones, buy the energy saving water heater, set their pool pumps to only run for a couple of hours and turn off unused lights. The residents should have picked up their free smart power strips and gone home.

Only that didn’t happen.

While Schmidt did speak for an hour about all the easy-to-do tips to cut vampire power, nothing about it was simple and residents stayed well after to learn more.

“I wish I could tell you to buy the new,” Schmidt said. “I wish it was that simple.”

Opening, Schmidt recounted swapping out a friend’s old wine cooler with a newer, more efficient model where on a whim; Schmidt decided to test both wine coolers with his Kill-A-Watt meter.

“This newer efficient wine cooler was drawing more watts than the older, wasteful one,” Schmidt said.

So what that the newer one takes more power, it’s newer, it’s more efficient with that power; it saves by being effect, right?

Actually, no.

While fridges became the gas guzzlers SUVs of the appliance world back in the 70s, and have sense been regulated into lean, mean, cooling-machines, computers, cell phone chargers, DVRs, TV and almost anything under the sun which draws power has begun to siphon power on the side, even when off.

This has become known as vampire power, phantom power or plug loads (as merely plugging in an appliance draws a load), and this load isn’t just a bane on homeowners who pay half of their power bill because of these loads, but a problem to the state as well.

To illustrate: Here is an equation to calculate the cost of something that is always-on:

1. Idle Watts / 1000 = Kilowatts
2. Kilowatts x 59808 = Kilowatt/Yr
3. Kilowatt/Yr x (Cost of Energy) = Annual Phantom Energy Cost per Device

If that was too much math, just multiply the watts of an appliance by 3 and call it money.

So, an appliance with a plug load of 35 watts, like a pet’s waterfall water bowl, costs a household more than $100 a year. Add that up across a city and it adds up.

“Phantom power is equal to three nuclear power plants,” Mayor Kasperzak said. “If we could just get households to cut back 15 percent we could prevent that type of infrastructure.”

Schmidt elaborated by quoting PG&E’s loading order, that “The cheapest way to create a watt, is to save a watt,” Schmidt said adding that peak-energy plants, plants that come one just to provide power during peak energy use times, are both costly and preventable.

But most people don’t know how much power is wasted on laptop chargers kept plugged in without laptops or old appliances left connected in unoccupied rooms.

Schmidt said his household had a VCR plugged into a guest room that hadn’t been used for 8 years. He didn’t realize it was there, costing him more than $100 a year for almost a decade.

People also assume that because something is labeled as “energy efficient” it saves power. Unfortunately, efficiency, in terms of appliances, can mean anything; better seals, using less water and a lower operating wattage are all things that qualify as “efficient.” What they don’t reveal, and is hard to find without a watt meter, is how much the power device draws when simply plugged in. 

Other times it is counterintuitive.

“The power usage for pumping water is not liner; it actually costs more to pump water over a short period of time than longer,” Schmidt said. “So the pool guy sets the pump for only a couple of hours to save you money but he isn’t paying the bill.”

Fortunately, Schmidt said there are easy-but-not-simple steps people can take to reduce their plug loads.

• First, check out a watt meter from any Santa Clara County Library. Simply plug your appliance into the meter and into a wall to learn how wasteful the devise is.
• Second, either unplug the devices when not in use (time consuming) or acquire smart strips (easy) which automatically cut power to auxiliary items like DVD players and stereos when primary devices, such as computers and TVs are tuned off. Households can also get timers for appliances such as coffee makers, so the device is only on for the time it’s being used.
• Lastly, households should focus on the unknown appliances and devices rather than fretting over replacing all the lights in the house. Schmidt had 93 devices plugged in, from toasters to drill-battery chargers in the garage; he didn’t know half of them were plugged in. Mountain View residents can also sign up for no-cost programs that will analyze their power usage and offer recommendations.

Energy Upgrade Mountain View has collaborated with Google and High Energy Audits, along with the cities of Mountain View, Los Altos and others along the peninsula to analyze household energy consumption and reduce energy waste.

More information on Energy Upgrade Mountain View can be found on their site, http://www.energyupgrademv.org/ in both English and Spanish.

More information on High Energy Audits can be found on their site, http://corp.highenergyaudits.com/ along with tools to help track your power usage.

Schmidt will be holding another meeting Sep 12 and Oct 11 just like the one on Aug. 1, as always if you sign up and present your PG&E bill you get a free smart power strip.

But hurry, as Energy Upgrade is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and funding will be gone by the end of the year.