Green Intentions March - Fighting vampires by Özlem Bulut

Are You Aware of the Vampire Lurking All Around You?

Vampires are cool. We love them in movies, video games, and books. We would probably not want to be near one in real life, though. The danger is that they suck away our blood, our life source, our energy. The blood-sucking vampire is not the only kind of vampire. There's another one that lurks around us all in the dark. To suck … electricity. Vampire power, sometimes also called phantom power or more boringly standby power, refers to the electrical energy consumed by electronic equipment while they are switched off or in standby mode.

You might think that a device is switched off, but it might still be sucking electricity through the plug. There are good reasons why this phenomenon exists. Some devices, such as answering machines, need to be operational all the time. Some others need remote control and, therefore, should stay in a quick-to-switch-on state. Standby power is also what makes displays showing the time or something else running. Although it's crucial in some instances, do we really need to see those displays? And can't we be patient to wait a few more seconds for our devices to wake up from a completely switched-off state instead of standby? This issue of vampire power might seem trivial. But I will try to convince you that it is not.

Why is this a big deal?

In a typical household in developed countries, 5-10% of electricity usage is due to standby power. We're all paying so much for electricity we don't even actively use. Let's assume that you have a ton of money, and therefore you don't care about this fact. Then hear this: Standby power is estimated to be responsible for 1% of the total global CO2 emission. Although nuclear, water or wind-based electricity production is growing, it is still mostly generated by the combustion of materials such as coal, gas, and oil. This process, of course, releases carbon dioxide. Also, heat is generated while devices are in standby mode, which means extra cooling (extra energy) might be needed.

Let's look at some numbers specifically from the EU. Data from a study with 1300 homes across the union estimates that an average of 305 kWh of standby power is consumed per year in a household. This makes up 11% of the total electricity usage of that household. Crazy! The annual household standby energy consumption of all EU countries is responsible for around 19 million tons of CO2. For offices, it's roughly 20% of that. Even that 20% is a considerable amount. To sequester 1 million ton of CO2, we would need to grow 15 million tree seeds for 10 years or maintain an almost 5000 square kilometers (1/8 of the area of the Netherlands) of grown forest for a year. I like knowing the numbers and putting them into perspective. Otherwise, these types of things are all very vague. But the numbers hit you in the face.

The world realized how big of a problem this was in the early years of the 21^st century. In 2010, European Commission mandated that household and office equipment's standby power cannot exceed 1W. This number was further halved in 2013. This was an efficient solution. The regulations have reduced electricity consumption by 35.5 TWh per year, which amounts to Romania's total annual energy consumption.

What can we do in the lab and the office?

The European Commission is doing its part. But despite significant improvements, there is still a lot of emissions that can be avoided. For me, the biggest challenge is that people are not aware of this problem. Honestly, I had never heard about this until it was suggested as the writing topic for this month's green intention. Now I am appalled by the difference it makes, and I believe that collective consumer action can contribute to the legal efforts to curb this problem.

In the lab, much of our equipment is on 24/7. Some of them, like freezers, have to. But even the ones that can be switched off are still left plugged in when they are not in use. You now know how much energy seemingly switched-off devices consume. So, think of which devices you can unplug when no one is using them? Your mass spectrometer, flow cytometer, or microscopes are definitely not in constant use. You can discuss with your labmates to unplug them during idle periods or even only on the weekends. Make it longer when you can. Probably no one needs any equipment during Christmas break. Alternatively, timer plugs can be used. These cost around 10-20 euros and can be programmed to block the energy vampire at certain hours or days of your choice. The University of Edinburgh decided to do this for their labs. You can have a look at their study file to have an idea about how much typical lab equipment costs in energy and money.

In the office, it's obvious and easy. Switch off your computers and monitors when you're not using them. Unplug them at the end of the day. You can also unplug printers, copiers, or any other electronic device around. It is estimated that a department of 100 computers could save more than 5000 euros every year by just completely switching off computers at night and during the weekends. If you are too lazy to exercise your fingers switching off and unplugging things, timer plugs are again a good solution here. Another option might be connecting multiple devices to a single power strip so that they can easily be turned off by switching a single power source off.

Please join us in this intention of fighting the energy Dracula. Every little switched-off monitor counts!

The Green Lab Initiative is a new collaboration of green enthusiasts at the Radboudumc who want to encourage people to go green in the lab. With our green intentions of 2021, we will try to inspire you every month to take small steps. Find us on Twitter!

Blog by Özlem Bulut