Editors note: At the request by Albert Kong, Vrinda Agarwal and Shilpa Bhat - students from R.J. Grey Junior High School, who are participating in the Siemens We Can Change the World challenge, Acton Patch is running this article that was submitted by the group. We thought it was relevant to post the article today on Earth Hour - an event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, which asks everyone to turn off their electricity for one hour on the last Saturday of March.
Vrinda Agarwal, Shilpa Bhat, and Albert Kong, eighth graders at Acton’s R. J. Grey Junior High School, strive to make Acton a greener community. They are working to reduce the amount of phantom load, or standby power, in households.
Phantom load is the energy wasted when a device is “off”, but still plugged into the outlet and consuming power. Though it may seem like this wasted energy only contributes to a couple of watts per year, phantom load is a big problem- it can add up to 5% of your energy bill! This useless energy consumption can easily be stopped by simply unplugging devices when they won’t be used for a while, or investing in a power strip, which makes unplugging devices more convenient.
So help cut down CO2 emissions and reduce your energy bill while you’re at it by reducing your phantom load!
And, while you’re at it, please help the team by filling out the quick survey that is on the website.
