Turning off heaters now that spring is here!?!?!???

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Electricity doesn't leach into the air - where have you heard this? A heater with a mechanical thermostat (as most have) will not draw electricity when off.[/QUOTE]

Yea it does. I'm not really expecting to convince you, but your toaster,blender, whatever, is wasting electricity if its plugged in even when turned off. Don't believe me, go to Home Depot and buy a tester, you'll see that in the few inch area around the outlet where something is plugged in, youll get a reading. Maybe only a watt or two, but an outlet is not 100% efficient. There is energy loss to the atmosphere.


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Just to be clear, some heaters do use an electronic thermostat or an 'off' indicator light. These heaters do use a small amount of power (<1W) when off. Most heaters still use a mechanical bimetal thermostat - these consume no electricity when switched off.

Recent legislation has capped the acceptable use of "phantom load" at 0.5W for appliances on standby. Appliances that contain transformers, clocks, electronic circuit boards, and off-power indicator lights are capable of using electricity when off. Older appliances can draw quite a bit, so they are the ones that you should unplug when not in use.
 
I set my thermostates to 68 in the summer.. so when we get a cold snap ect the tanks are covered... I've lost one to many fish to temperature swings to feel safe enough to unplug my heaters... it depends imo on a few things 1) what species your keeping 2) if heating in general is low/lightly used. temp swings are potentially dangerous... just like water quality swings... if you don't get swings... you can for the most part keep your tanks unheated year round within' reason. we use to live in a small appartment and where able to keep the temp consistantly 72... we didn't use heaters. when we had the fish in my parenst large unfinished basement we had to buy heaters, and I still ended up lossing fish due to filter clog/water flow all but stopped/heater only heating a very small space so the tank temp plummeted over-night/ ultimately 1 dead fish and 1 I was barely able to save.
 
Anchovie said:
Yea it does. I'm not really expecting to convince you, but your toaster,blender, whatever, is wasting electricity if its plugged in even when turned off. Don't believe me, go to Home Depot and buy a tester, you'll see that in the few inch area around the outlet where something is plugged in, youll get a reading. Maybe only a watt or two, but an outlet is not 100% efficient. There is energy loss to the atmosphere.


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Click to expand...

Is this the kind of tester you mean?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Too...0661787?N=boff

These testers measure voltage by detecting the magnetic field produced by a live wire. They do not measure electricity leaching into the air. I'm not expecting to convince you either, but the simple fact is that electricity does not leak or "leech" (actually spelled "leach") into the air. A tiny amount of electricity is lost in transmission due to resistance in the wires, but over short distances in a properly sized conductor this amounts to milliwatts, not watts.
 
Drstrangelove said:
Just to clear this up, both of you are right.

Electricity does not leach into the air.

Many appliances that are turned off do still use electricity if they are plugged in. Although it's very small (a few watts per appliance per hour.)


http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/myths/appliances.html
Click to expand...

It is true that some appliances do use standby power, but not all do.

A large number of electrical products - from air conditioners to VCRs - cannot be switched completely off without unplugging the device or turning it off at a power strip. These products draw power 24 hours a day, often without the knowledge of the consumer. We call this power consumption "stand-by power," but we call these products "energy vampires." (from the link)

It is absolutely true that many (more and more all the time) devices do use power when turned off, but certainly not all. A heater that has a mechanical thermostat will not. A heater with an electronic thermostat will draw electricity, but is is less than 0.5W if it is a heater being sold today in California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative
 
Dan F said:
It is true that some appliances do use standby power, but not all do.

A large number of electrical products - from air conditioners to VCRs - cannot be switched completely off without unplugging the device or turning it off at a power strip. These products draw power 24 hours a day, often without the knowledge of the consumer. We call this power consumption "stand-by power," but we call these products "energy vampires." (from the link)

It is absolutely true that many (more and more all the time) devices do use power when turned off, but certainly not all. A heater that has a mechanical thermostat will not. A heater with an electronic thermostat will draw electricity, but is is less than 0.5W if it is a heater being sold today in California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative
Click to expand...

Me, I wouldn't unplug anything to save 3 watts an hour, much less 0.5 watts. Of course, I don't recycle either...:ROFL:
 
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