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.

Air Conditioners And Hidden Standby Electricity

Have you been trying to eliminate all of the standby electricity in your home recently? Well did you ever think of the air conditioner unit?

Like a lot of homes, you may only use your air conditioning for six months of the year. Could your system be using electricity whilst it is technically in standby mode?

Well research shows in some cases, there is considerable standby electricity with some systems. Anywhere from fifty to over one hundred and fifty watts of standby electricity! Now that is costing you!

The reason for this hidden standby electricity, that it is built in by design, is due to the requirement of the refrigerant to be kept at a certain temperature. It is all to do with the viscosity of the fluid, for those of you interested in the technical side of things. The fluid has to have a certain viscosity, so as to not damage the unit.

So what can you do, if you do not use your air conditioner for six months of the year? Well you can turn it off in the fuse box. You will be looking for the switch with clearly marked AC on it.

Now for those of you with HOME ELECTRICITY MONITORS, we would like you to add a comment to this blog post, noting what your standby electricity was.

If you do decide to switch off your unit, we would suggest you firstly call your manufacturer and ask them for any other information, that they may suggest. You do not want to be turning the unit back on and using it at once, as there is a certain amount of time where the unit will need to on, to condition the refrigerant before use. You could turn it on at least 24 hours before use, to be on the safe side. The last thing we want is anyone damaging their air conditioning unit.

Air conditioner standby electricity, has been found during our HOME ELECTRICITY AUDITS. We always advise as to turning off the unit when not used for six months of the year, as a electricity reduction method.

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