Hey, Dude, Where's My Phantom Load?

Beware the...Phantom Load! This specter is haunting the American college dorm, and is costing our young plugged-in scholars a lot of money. Brian Keane, the president of the nonprofit group SmartPower, defines phantom load as the electricity wasted because appliances -- such as flat-screen TVs and phone chargers -- continue to draw current when turned off. "It's 10 to 15% of energy use," Keane said, "and it takes the equivalent of 17 coal-fired power plants just to meet the demand it creates."

If your dorm room has a flat-screen TV, DVD player and cable box, all three are sucking juice while you're vegetating in "Modern Civilization 101." According to SmartPower, just those three will use $110 a year in phantom load (and cost more than the refrigerator in total demand). The whole setup uses 17% of its energy when shut down. What to do? How about plugging everything but the cable box (which has troubling reboot issues) into a power strip and get into the routine of switching it off. It's an extra step, but not a big one.

"Kids between 17 and 22, the 'echo-boomers,' are the largest wasters of energy," Keane said. "And in 10 years they'll be buying houses, apartments and cars. We want them to drive an energy-efficient economy; we want them on a food chain of sustainability. As a generation, they're hard to impress, but this is a big 'a-ha' moment and it can get them there. College kids are plugged into everything, from iPhones to Blackberries, and just the cell phone costs them $10 a year in phantom load. We can show them how to save money and really motivate them."

Obviously, phantom load wastes a lot of university and student money, which could otherwise go to Phish tickets. So with that in mind, SmartPower created a contest challenging campuses to compete for the largest campus energy reduction. With a deadline of October 5, schools with the most campus participants can win $5,000, and a similar amount for the largest percentage of carbon reduction.

Since this is college we're talking about, there's also a Facebook page and a YouTube-based video contest that will award $10,000 to the school that comes up with the best ad for SmartPower's effort. Some of the videos already entered are just, well, totally cool. Take a look, and start going after the dreaded phantom load.

See more SmartPower videos.