How To Reduce Your Air Conditioner's Standby Power

Removing AC Standby Power

A common appliance in many homes that can suffer from standby electricity is the air conditioner unit. 

This standby electricity greatly adds to the quarterly electricity bill and for some householders it is hard to discover and remove. 

So let us take a look at why this standby electricity occurs in an air conditioning unit and how to eliminate it.

The standby electricity in your AC unit can be caused by:

• Power being applied to the compressor windings
• Power being applied to a crank case heater
• Power applied to the control panel, thus creating constant communications between indoor and outdoor components of the unit

So how do you reduce the standby electricity of your air conditioner? 

Well the simple solution is to turn it off at the power board when it is not in use. In some homes this can be for six months or more of the year, when the AC unit is not used.

With 100W of standby power costing at least $300 over the year [when based on a thirty five cent tariff], this is an amount of electricity costs that should not be ignored.

If you decide to turn off the AC unit, you need to be aware of one important fact. Which is the time before use, where the AC unit needs to be powered on. This may be written in the instruction manual and should read similar to:
'When you require the operation of the A/C please allow at least 4hrs on standby (after the isolator has been turned on) before initialising the touch pad ON/OFF button'.

The reason for this initial power up sequence, is due to the control board sending a ‘trickle’ charge through the compressor windings to warm the oil of the unit, during this four hour period. This warming of the oil is needed to get it to the correct viscosity. This process also removes any migrated liquid refrigerant from the compressor sump.

If this warming process is not carried out, premature damage may occur to the compressor. Furthermore there may be an increased efficiency loss and eventual seizure could occur. This is why if the power is removed, the correct procedure needs to be followed before operation.

On some inverter style AC units, the design energises the compressor windings (trickle charge) if the outdoor ambient temperature falls below 21C, during the off cycle or while in standby for a duration of 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off until the compressor is initialised for heating or cooling again. 

It can be this constant energising of the compressor windings that greatly adds to the standby power consumption, especially during any cooler periods where the ambient drops below 21C regularly.

It is noted this method [trickle charging the compressor windings] of heating the oil is far more efficient than any crank case heater in earlier AC units. These crank case heaters being powered on all the time and consuming large amounts of standby power.

Standby power is easy discovered by using an ELECTRICITY MONITOR in the home, where each appliances 'on power' and 'standby power' are easily discovered.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY SAVING SERVICE industry in Australia.

Q. When Is Standby Power Close To Normal Power?

Discover Hidden Standby Power

The answer to this question is when the power rating is close to the normal operating power. Standby power is often far less than 10% of an appliance's normal power rating and is decreasing all the time due to changes in technology and design.

After testing a few older entertainment appliances for standby and normal power, we were amazed to see some older appliances almost using the same power in standby mode, as when the appliance is turned on in normal mode.

On testing a set top box for a normal power rating the reading was 10.92 watts +/- 0.5W. The standby power for this same appliance being 10.40 watts +/- 0.5W. The appliance in question with these results is the Homecast STB eM-1150.

It makes you wonder why the manufacturer even bothered adding a switch, when all it does is reduce the power rating by only a few percent.

As mentioned standby power can be anywhere from 10% or less of normal operating power. With recently released electrical appliances, this standby power has been reduced further due to the normal power ratings being reduced by design and technological improvements.

A lot of manufacturers are now offering an on/off switch to make sure there is 100% no standby power.

For more on the cost of hidden standby power, visit our STANDBY POWER page.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY SAVING SERVICE industry in Australia.

Maximising Solar PV Generation

The media is informing us, we are going to suffer more electricity rises in the near future. How will these electricity price rises, affect the financial gain of solar PV systems?

Shockingly enough electricity costs only have to rise a small amount, to create a large reduction in the financial gain of any solar PV system!

If you're not aware of the average Aussie home having a STANDBY ELECTRICITY issue, you need too be. Most homes we have visited, have a standby electricity rate, at anywhere between 25 watts to 250 watts plus. If your home has 150 watts of 24/7 standby electricity, this equates to 3.6 kW per day. Per year it is a staggering 1314 kW.

It does not take a lot of electrical waste within the home, to reduce a solar PV's gain.In our example Aussie home:

100 Watts Of 24/7 Standby Reduced Solar PV Gain By 40%!

Visit our website for more information on SOLAR PV GAIN.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY REDUCTION SERVICE industry in Australia.

Standby Electricty In Australia : 50 Watts 24/7

Power The Microwave With Saved Standby?

Many homes in Australia are not aware of the true costs of standby electricity. The reason for this is simple, no-one has explained where standby electricity hides and the occurring costs to them.

It does not take long for standby electricity in the average Aussie home, to amount to a considerable cost on a quarterly bill.Why? Well remember most appliances using standby electricity are using it 24/7. And that is for 91 days on a quarterly bill!

Some homes Aussie Home Energy has visited, have literally 100's of watts, of standby electricity.

What we are going to tell you now, is how 50 watts of electrical standby can cost you dearly. Just as important though, is what this energy could be alternatively used for.

50 watts of 24/7 electrical standby, equates to 110,000 watts per quarter. This wasted power costs you $27.50 when based on a charge of 25 cents per 'kWh'. That is $110 per year! Now if you were to eliminate the standby electricity, you could use the saved power to do one of the following:

• Roast a chicken twice in a standard oven, every week.
• Run your pool pump for 8 hours every week.
• Power a 51cm CRT television, for 16 hours every day.
• Boil your kettle for 50 hours per quarter.
• Power two 25 watt lights 24/7.
• Keep a 15 kWh home running for over a week, once a year.
• Keep your LCD television going for 8 hours per day.
• Boil your veggies for 4 hours as well as heat your electric fry pan for 3 hours, every week.

Amazing to think that you could be doing anyone of these tasks, for no further cost! Simply by turning off the electrical standby you are wasting and using the same power for a more beneficial use.

Do you know what your home is consuming in electrical standby?

To start discovering the Standby Electricity and it's related costs, in your home, visit our STANDBY ELECTRICITY page.

This blog post and podcast brought to you by Aussie Home Energy, a major player in the HOME ELECTRICITY REDUCTION SERVICE industry in Australia.