Your TV, cable or satellite box, gaming console, and home theater system are consistently ranked among the biggest standby power consumers in any home. Modern smart TVs maintain active Wi-Fi connections even when they appear off, running background processes and keeping various circuits live. Cable boxes in particular are notorious — many of them draw almost as much power when turned off as when they are on, because they are constantly receiving signal updates and downloading program guides. Together, a typical TV and cable box setup can account for around 3 percent of a household's total electricity use just sitting there doing nothing.
Kitchen Appliances With Digital Clocks or Displays
Your microwave, coffee maker, toaster oven, and other small countertop appliances are drawing power continuously if they have a digital clock or display. That little glowing clock on your microwave is not free — it is running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The same goes for coffee makers with programmable timers and toasters with digital displays. These appliances are easy to unplug because you only need them for short periods each day, and unplugging them eliminates their standby draw completely.
Chargers and Computer Equipment
Phone chargers, laptop chargers, tablet chargers — all of these continue drawing power even when no device is actively being charged. A laptop charger left plugged in with nothing connected draws an average of 4.42 watts continuously, which adds up to nearly 40 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year from a single charger alone. Desktop computers, monitors, printers, and modems in sleep mode also contribute meaningfully to your phantom load.
My 4-Week Experiment: What I Did Every Night
For 28 consecutive nights, before I went to bed, I made a short circuit of my home and unplugged the following devices:
