fantomakuorma

Fantomakuorma, also known as standby power or vampire power, refers to the portion of electricity drawn by electrical devices when they are plugged in but not actively in use. It covers devices in standby, sleep, or off modes that still respond to wake-up signals, timers, or remote commands.

Causes include always-on circuitry, clocks, sensors, wireless adapters, and the need to maintain network connectivity or recent state. Common examples are televisions, set-top boxes, game consoles, chargers, routers, and home audio equipment. Individual devices typically consume from a fraction of a watt to several tens of watts in standby, with most consumer electronics in the low-watt range.

Impact: phantom load adds to household electricity bills and wasteful energy use, contributing to unnecessary carbon emissions. The cumulative effect can be higher for households with many devices or poorly designed power supplies.

Mitigation: unplug devices when not needed, use switched or smart power strips, enable automatic power-down or energy-saving modes, choose devices with low standby power, and group devices to manage power more efficiently, for example through a single controlled outlet.

Overall, the term is widely used in energy-efficiency discussions; in Finnish, fantomakuorma is the local expression for this phenomenon.