Standby power requirements of household appliances in Canada

Standby electricity use, or leaking electricity, is the electrical energy consumed by electrical appliances when they are turned off, or not in use. This electrical energy is used by internal or external transformers, or features such as remote control, memory, clock display, and instant-on, and represents a significant component of residential electricity consumption. In this paper, results from detailed field measurements of the standby power requirements of new stock and existing minor and miscellaneous household appliances are presented. Measurements were made in four electronic appliance retailers and 75 houses in Halifax, Canada, and cover a wide range of appliances. Using the findings from these field measurements and self-reported usage, the annual average standby energy consumption per household in the sample was estimated to be 427 kWh, which is equivalent to a constant load of 49 W. This could be reduced by 59% (to 177 kWh) if the standby power requirement of all appliances with a standby power requirement over 1 Wwas reduced to 1 W. The estimated household standby power consumption of 427 kWh per year is likely to be slightly lower than the actual, since major and hard-wired appliances are not included in the analysis. Future work on the measurement of standby power requirements of such appliances is needed to further understand the residential standby power consumption.