New power supply may drive out 'energy vampires'

Power supplies, like these plugged into outlets, above, consume power even when an appliance is on stand-by

From Don Knapp
CNN Correspondent

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- A new, "smart" power supply may cut by 90 percent the amount of energy wasted on keeping electronic appliances on stand-by, ready to respond to a remote control.

Alan Meier, a government scientist who specializes in energy efficiency, says existing appliance power supplies are "energy vampires" sucking up to 10 percent of the electricity that comes into a home.

"The reason we call them vampires is because they consume power even when the appliance is switched off," said Meier, a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, which is operated by the U.S. Department of Energy

Thanks to a microchip, the new power supply from Power Integrations Inc. of Sunnycale,California is smart enough to know when power is needed. "And when the power is not needed, it cuts back the consumption to almost nothing," said the company's Balu Balakrishnan.

The new technology may get a boost from the California Energy Commission.

"The interesting economics is this device only costs 25 to 50 cents more than the old fashioned one," said Arthur Rosenfeld of the CEC. "It will take over the market eventually, but we could accelerate this enormously with an incentive program."

A new power supply controlled by a microchip cuts by 90 percent the energy wasted by old power supplies

Meier said the only way to separate existing power supplies from the electricity they silently devour is to unplug them.

A battery charger, he said, uses a couple of watts, a cordless phone will use about three watts and a VCR could use up to 12 watts.

About one billion of those energy vampires drink up to 60 to 70 watts every hour of every day in nearly every U.S. home.

"We think we're consuming anywhere from five to eight very large power plants in the United States for stand-by power consumption," said Meier.

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Berkeley Lab
Alan Meier
Power Integrations
California Energy Commission

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