I decided to measure the consumption of my major entertainment appliances and the "phantom" power they all use.
Here's what I measured:
| Appliance | Power Usage (Watts) | Phantom Power Usage** (Watts) |
| XBox 360 | 150 | 3 |
| Playstation 3 | 110 | 1 |
| TV (Samsung 46" LCD) | 210 | 0 |
| Receiver/Speakers (Samsung) | 22* | 0 |
| Cable Box (Rogers) | 15 | 15 |
| Cable Modem (Rogers) | 5 | 5 |
| Wireless Router (Apple Airport) | 7 | 7 |
| Total | 519 | 31 |
* - I didn't actually test my receiver while I was driving the speakers. So this is probably lower than it is while I'm actively using my speakers.
** - All appliances where phantom power doesn't really apply because I leave it on for 24 hours/day (eg. Wireless router), I've just put it's active power consumption under phantom power.
The following calculations are in Canadian dollars and assume that active use costs 90 cents/year per watt and passive/inactive/phantom use costs 53 cents/year per watt. I show how I came up with those numbers at the bottom of the article. American readers can multiply all dollar figures by 0.95 to get American dollars (accurate at time of writing).
So the phantom power consumption on my entertainment system costs $16.43 / year.
Interesting points are how both of my Samsung appliances use no measurable power while those units are off. That was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.
Also of interest: My main phantom power offenders are the only appliances I rent from Rogers. The TV box doesn't even consume less power while not in use. Pretty disappointing but not surprising given the company it comes from.
Also of interest: While I play my XBox with the TV and speakers on, I'm using 382W of power which is costing me 3.92 cents/hour to play.
Just for fun, I took a few more readings.
| Appliance | Power Usage (Watts) | Phantom Power Usage (Watts) |
| Macbook Pro | 60 while charging, 16 with charged battery | 1 while in sleep mode, 13 while display turned off (CTRL-SHIFT-Eject) |
| 24" Samsung external monitor | 45 | 2 |
| Electrictoothbrush | 2 | 2 |
| LED Christmas lights on my tree | 20 | 20 |
Assuming I always left my Macbook Pro plugged in (no battery charging), and used it for work 8 hours/day, I'd be spending 1.3 cents/day for power. Assuming I used it for 5*52 days/year, it would cost $3.41/year in power.
Assuming I left my Christmas lights on for 24 hours/day for 2 months, they would cost $1.76.
Summary:
I was a bit surprised at how little all of these things cost. The oven, refrigerator and lightbulbs are the only other power consumers in my condo, so I only have them left to blame for the major bulk of my electricity bill. The main reason I did this was to see exactly how much "phantom" power I was consuming. As it turns out, nothing to get bent out of shape over.
HOW I CAME UP WITH THE NUMBERS:
Based on Toronto Hydro's Time Of Usage and the current rates at the time of writing (low = 4.4 cents/kWh, mid = 8.0 cents/kWh, high = 9.3 cents/kWh), I calculated that a 1kW appliance left on for 24 hours/day for an entire year will cost $535.37. Dividing by 1000, we get 53 cents/year per watt. Since you're not using your appliances at random points in the day, this is probably a bit low for an active usage estimate. Let's just assume that active usage of an entertainment centre probably occurs during mid or high usage times (7am-9pm) on weekdays and during weekends. So the magic number I'm pulling out of thin air is 90 cents/year per watt during active use or 0.010273 cents/hour.
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