How Much Power Do Electronic Equipment Consume When in Standby Mode?

Zero Consumption

We could see some equipment at home not consuming absolute nothing from the power grid when they are in standby mode. Of course they consume something, but the current is so low that our power meter read it as 0.00 W.

This is just a sample and of course you may have equipment from the categories below that consume something when in standby mode, if they are from a different brand or are a different model. That is why we are specifying the brand and model.

The equipment that were consuming absolute nothing when in standby mode were the following:

• LCD TV (LG 47LC7DF, 47” 1080p)
• Home theater audio receiver (Sony STR-DG510)
• DVD player (Panasonic DVD-S53)
• Cell charger with no cell phone attached (Samsung)
• Battery charger from digital camera with no battery installed (Sony)
• Surge protector (APC) with nothing installed on its output

We were really surprised by our TV. Since it consumes a lot when turned on, we thought that it would be consuming something when in standby mode. Not at all. The result from the audio receiver was expected, as receivers from Sony and other brands use a relay (which is an electromechanical switch) to shut down the unit (you can clearly hear a loud click after pressing the power switch coming from the relay). The result from the DVD player was also expected, as even when they are playing discs they don’t consume a lot of power (below 10 W).

We added the cell charger and the battery charger because many people have the habit of leaving them attached to the wall all the time. From what we could see, you can keep doing this. Of course when you install the cell phone or the batteries they will start consuming some power.

And for some people the surge protector consuming nothing would be obvious, but not for us, because surge protectors have some LEDs that are always turned on and we were afraid that such LEDs could be consuming something. It appears that it isn’t the case.