OFF? NO ON! There's a phantom in your electricity bill. It's very small, but it's there all the same. Here's how you can find it and get rid of it for good. Lower your electrical bill by going through your home and locating "phantom loads". These are appliances that you may be leaving plugged in even though you aren't using them at the moment and which are just sitting there using electricity unnecessarily.

PHANTOM BEGINNING The problem is a fairly recent one. Once upon a time when you turned an appliance off, it was really off. Then back in the seventies, you began to see TVs that offered an "instant on" feature. When you turned the TV on, the picture and sound came on immediately. A handy feature. But, the cost was that the TV used a small bit of electricity to maintain this ever-ready state.

NEXT CAME REMOTES TVs and stereos equipped with a remote control needed to be ready to heed the press of the remote 'on' button. And that meant that they, too, used a tiny amount of power.

Then came the VCR with digital timer. It used a little current to remember what time it was. Before long, these features were a part of many different appliances. Today any household appliance that has a clock, timer, memory or remote is consuming electricity even if it's turned off.

HOW CAN YOU FIND THEM ALL? Well, there’s no complete list anywhere. Many different appliances offer features that create a phantom load today. But there are ways to identify which appliances are guilty.

America’s Lincoln Electric Systems estimated the following annual costs for phantom loads: 19" color TV $6.65; TV cable box $0.83; stereo receiver $1.83; microwave oven $1.38; phone answering machine $1.95; personal computer $0.75. So that’s a total of $13.39 (around Rs 615) in a household that has all of these. One study estimated that the grand total phantom load from TVs alone was equal to the output of a Chernobyl sized power plant.

HOW CAN YOU CONTROL IT? Plug the TV or other appliance into a switchable outlet. Choose an outlet that's controlled by a wall switch or get a power strip that has an on/off switch. But remember that when you turn on your TV it might need to relearn which channels are available in your area. And that could take 30 seconds or so. You also won't be able to turn on the TV using your remote. The remote will work fine after the TV is on, but not until then.

(Source: www.stretcher.com/stories/990913l.cfm))

1905 American meter reader Earl Richardson develops a lightweight iron and then persuades a power company to provide electricity during the day on Tuesdays for ironing. This is the beginning of 24-hour electrical service.		1933 US President Franklin Roosevelt becomes the leading exponent of the idea that low electric rates mean better living.

1948 Three Bell Telephone Laboratories scientists invent the transistor, which leads to the miniaturization of electronic equipment and to the development of the modern computer.	1957 The first power plant using nuclear energy begins operation in Pennsylvania, America.	1965 The first great US blackout begins on Nov 9 evening in two states to the next morning. 800,000 commuters are stranded in the subway, a prison riot takes place and TV screens go blank	1999 In India, more than half of the population still have no access to electricity.	2003 North America's biggest blackout hits 50 million people on August 14, bringing traffic to a halt and plunging New York and Toronto into darkness.