My home energy monitor showed a weird number after I unplugged everything

So I got one of those home energy monitors last month, you know, to see where my power goes. I was trying to find the 'phantom load' from stuff left on standby. After a week of checking, I turned off the main breaker to my house in Portland, just to see the baseline. The monitor still showed 2 watts. Two. I stood there in the dark, looking at the number, totally confused. My whole house was off. I called the power company, and the guy on the phone laughed and said it was probably the monitor itself using a tiny bit of power to run its own display. It felt so silly, chasing a ghost load that was the tool I was using to find ghost loads. It did make me think about how much energy we use without even knowing it's happening. Has anyone else had their energy tracker show something that made no sense at first?

2 comments

2 Comments

riverwhite1mo agoTop Commenter

That's the perfect example of the observer effect. You measure a thing and the act of measuring changes the result. My smart thermostat does this, it uses power to report how much power it's saving.

mia_fox981mo ago

My old Kill A Watt meter did the same thing, it drew about 1.8 watts just to light up its own screen. It's funny how the tool becomes part of the problem you're trying to solve.