Results

Observations and inferences

The splitter cable was inserted into the outlet then plug the appliance making sure they were connected and not loose. The Ammeter was used next to measure the current when the appliance was off. Almost all the appliances had loads except the printer and electric pencil sharpener. This shows that most of these appliances use power in some way. For some appliances, they have to be on all the time so they always use power like a phone.
After looking at the readings, the results were expected. It was confirmed that most appliances do have phantom loads. The amounts were low but the combined amount was high. The experiment shows that the VCR player, home computers and satellite receiver are taking a lot of energy. A few possible reasons are because they all have displays, some have internal clocks and others have infrared controls, which requires the circuitry to be looking for those signals.

By converting the current measurements into kilowatt-hour, calculating how much one kilowatt-hour costs and how many hours there are in a year, the resultant answer is that $145.65 can be saved by eliminating phantom loads yearly. This cost is quite significant.

In Saskatoon, there are 84,281 homes. If the house that was tested is considered a typical house and if half of the houses in Saskatoon eliminated half of the phantom loads then $3,068,881 could be saved yearly. In Saskatchewan, there are 431,628 homes and if a half of these homes eliminated half of these phantom loads then $15,716,654 could be saved yearly. In Canada, there are 12,548,588 houses and if half of these houses eliminated half of the phantom loads then $456,925,460 could be saved yearly.