Zap! Where Did It Go?

The Objective : The objective is to determine how much Standby Power is wasted in typical household electronic devices per hour?

Methods/Materials

Kill-A-Watt (instrument to measure power) Camera, Laptop, Desktop Computer, P.S.P. Console, Wii Console Pencil, Logbook An outlet Table/free space Results Trial 1: 14 W Trial 2: 16.5 W Trial 3: 18.1 W

Conclusions/Discussion

My project was "How much standby power is wasted in typical household electronic devices?" I chose this topic because I've always wondered how much un-necessary energy is being wasted.

Additionally, while I would be putting away my charger/adapter, it would be warm. So I asked my dad why do they stay "warm" and he said, it was due to standby power.

I went to Intel Corporation to meet my dad and his colleagues to understand more about this standby power concept. There I used the 'Kill-A-Watt' instrument to test and measure various devices.

I recorded all the data, observations and graphed the results. My hypothesis was that 32W - 35W (Watts) of standby power is wasted in typical household devices per hour. The average standby power from my three trials was 16.2 Watts. On an average, each device consumed the following amount of standby power:

Laptop - 1.03W,

Desktop Computer - 8.33W,

PSP Console - 2W,

Wii Console - 3.67W.

Therefore, my results DO NOT support my hypothesis. I think my hypothesis was wrong because originally I over-estimated that standby power in all these devices.

Initially, in this experiment, I did not know how to measure standby power correctly. I did not have a good understanding of exactly what is standby power.

Later, I corrected my mistakes and gained correct knowledge and achieved valid results.

This project is about the amount of standby power being wasted in typical household electronic devices.

Science Fair Project done By Aakash N. Shah

 

 

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