[Elecraft] K3 Current Drain When Off

[Bob]

My K3 (about 2 years old) is pulling under 5 mA when powered off.  I
usually turn off the power supply that feeds it to avoid wasted power.

You would be shocked to find out how much power things can pull.  It adds
up (after all there are 8760 hours in a year) .  My original cable box
consumed 68 watts an hour no matter what mode it was in (ON or OFF).  At my
electrical rate that was over $100 a year.  Now my FIOS box is much better,
and OFF is only a couple of watts, or about $3 a year.

I was also real proud of myself when I took a bunch of surplus PC parts and
built a file and printer server that was powered on 24/7.  However power
measurements indicated it was pulling almost 400 watts an hour, or more
than $600 worth of electricity a year.  Once I knew that I replaced it with
a high efficiency commercially built server that consumed less than a tenth
of that.  It paid for itself years ago.  That's also why I tend to use
laptops rather than desktops now -- far more power efficient.

I even mentioned to the group a year ago that my KPA500 pulls a tad bit of
phantom power even when the switch is off.  As I recall it added up to
about $20 a year.  But to be as green as possible I unplug it if I'm not
going to be using the radio for a bit.

73, Bob, WB4SON