Why is the meter still running when the appliances are not in use? Who is "stealing" your appliances?

Shut down the machine without interrupting power consumption and the meter runs quietly - prevent standby energy consumption from becoming a "hidden waste"

Many people don't know that the electric appliances at home are not in use, but the electricity meter is running quietly. This phenomenon is called standby energy consumption. A reporter recently found that the waste of standby energy consumption is quite common in my country, and the public's awareness of this waste is seriously insufficient. It is necessary to prevent standby energy consumption from becoming a "hidden waste".

I have been away from home for a month and used 10 degrees of electricity. The waste of standby energy needs to be taken seriously.

Mr. Li's job requires him to travel frequently. Not long ago, he found that even when no one was at home and all electrical appliances were turned off, the electricity consumption was about 10 kWh per month. After several inspections, he could not find the cause, so he contacted the power department for a home inspection. It turned out that the central air conditioner at home was the "troublemaker". Although Mr. Li would turn off the air conditioner every time he went out, the central air conditioner still consumed a lot of energy when it was powered on.

The power consumption caused by the appliance being connected to the power source when not in use is called standby energy consumption. Unlike the effective energy consumption generated by the appliance during use, standby energy consumption is basically a waste of energy, and it is often a "hidden waste" that is not easy to detect.

The reporter randomly visited more than ten households and found that standby energy waste is quite common. Except for one or two elderly households, most households only use remote controls to turn off their TVs and set-top boxes, without turning off the switches or cutting off the power supply; common household appliances such as air conditioners, range hoods, and washing machines are powered on and in standby mode all year round. The reporter also found that more than half of the households' electric water heaters and small kitchen appliances are running 24 hours a day, and they are not turned off even when people are not at home.

Yang Jiawei, customer manager of Taiyuan Power Supply Company of State Grid Shanxi Electric Power Company, told reporters that according to his observation, many families do not pay attention to the power consumption in standby mode. "For example, most families in the north rarely use air conditioners except in summer, but few people will unplug them. Some people don't know that this will still consume electricity, and some people know but don't care."

During the interview, the reporter asked about their understanding of the standby energy consumption of their homes. Most users said they were "not sure", "probably not much" or "never paid attention to it".

The picture shows a customer manager of Taiyuan Power Supply Company of State Grid Shanxi Electric Power Company checking the electricity meter for a user.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ma Xiaoyuan

The total amount of energy consumption in standby mode is huge

The interviewees pointed out that the standby power consumption is difficult to detect because it is a waste that accumulates over time. Yang Jiawei told reporters that, taking a router with a standby power of 12W as an example, if the daily standby time is calculated as 15 hours, the standby power consumption of a router is 0.18 kWh per day, which may not seem like much, but in a year it will consume 65.7 kWh. "After two or three years of standby power consumption, it will be enough to buy another router."

To estimate the total standby energy consumption, the reporter conducted interviews with many parties. Wang Fei, director of Haier Air Industry Performance Research Institute, said that his team had calculated the standby energy consumption of common household appliances, including air conditioners, washing machines, televisions, microwave ovens, and rice cookers. The standby power was between 12W and 15W, and the standby energy consumption was about one kWh per 3 to 5 days, or 0.2 to 0.33 kWh per day.

Zhang Min, a senior engineer at the Electric Power Research Institute of the State Grid Shanxi Electric Power Company, made a simple calculation for reporters. Taking into account 12 common household appliances such as TVs, set-top boxes, and routers, a household consumes about 0.86 kWh of electricity in standby mode every day. If the electric water heaters and small kitchen appliances that are always running but not used are included, the energy wasted by a household can reach 1.52 kWh of electricity every day.

The reporter also invited several electricity account managers who have been providing household services for many years to make estimates. The feedback results showed that the daily standby energy consumption of each household is between 0.3 kWh and 1 kWh.

To put it in a nutshell, even if we calculate based on a daily standby energy consumption of 0.2 kWh per household, a city with a population of 5 million (based on 1.9 million households) would consume nearly 139 million kWh of standby energy throughout the year.

Some electrical appliances were not in use but the power was not turned off.

Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ma Xiaoyuan

Urgent need to curb unnecessary standby energy waste

Experts interviewed pointed out that in the current situation of tight power supply and demand, curbing the waste of standby energy consumption is realistic and urgent. Reducing unnecessary waste of standby energy consumption can reduce coal consumption, reduce carbon emissions, reduce base load, and alleviate load pressure during peak power consumption.

"The electricity bill caused by standby energy consumption is not large and is easily ignored by users." Zhang Min said, but the meaningless, unnecessary and value-free waste of standby energy consumption must be resolutely curbed.

Han Xiaoqing, a professor at the School of Electrical and Power Engineering of Taiyuan University of Technology, suggested increasing the research, development, application and promotion of relevant energy-saving technologies. "Technological innovation is an important way to effectively reduce standby power consumption. Scientific research institutes and enterprises should be encouraged to develop more low-standby power consumption technologies and promote the application and promotion of related technologies."

Wang Fei said that my country's energy efficiency labeling system has played a positive role in promoting enterprises to reduce product standby energy consumption. However, various new electrical products are emerging in an endless stream. For those new products with high market maturity and high standby energy consumption, they should be included in the national mandatory access standards in a timely manner to guide their energy-saving development.

Zhang Zhaoming, deputy chief engineer of the Household Appliances Testing Center of the China Household Electrical Appliances Research Institute, said that for the energy-saving indicators promoted by enterprises, while the market supervision department increases supervision and spot checks, it can also give full play to the role of third-party testing agencies to objectively evaluate energy efficiency and energy saving indicators represented by standby power, and play a supervisory and incentive role.

Many interviewees also suggested that the public's energy-saving knowledge and awareness should be further strengthened, while also creating conditions for cultivating energy-saving habits and guiding the public to develop an energy-saving lifestyle.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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