Not that kind of vamipireThis kind of vampire
Energy Vampires.
Between 5-30% of your electric bill is for energy used after you turn an electrical appliance or device "off." Most of our electronics are not really turning off, rather thay are going into standby mode, thus continuing to draw electricity.
Forget the garlic or holy water, these vampires are a lot easier to vanquish.
1). If you don't use it very often, it doesn't need to remain plugged in. Do you use the blender or toaster more than once or twice a day? How about leaving it unplugged until you are going to actually use it.
2). If the items purpose is to recharge something, say a cell phone, why not just plug it in while you are charging it, then unplug it.
3). Consider gettting power strips or surge protectors. You can plug multiple devices in and when done using them for the day, you can flip one switch and stop them from sucking down wasted power.
4). Consider getting a Smart Strip. These surge protectors are a fantastic advancement. Let's use your home office as an example. You plug your computer, printer, speakers, etc. into this strip and when you turn your computer off, the strip recogonizes that the computer is not in use, so it powers down all the peripherals, atuomatically stopping your cash loss. This also works great on entertainment systems. Is the TV off? The do we really need the vcr, dvd player and game consols to be still drawing power?
I've found that the cost to make this change is minimal, the most expensive would be a Smart Strip which costs around $30.00. I haven't gotten one of those yet, but when I consider my savings on the electrical bill, a Smart Strip is not far away.
Let's all be vampire slayers today!
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1 comment:
This is an excellent post. There are other simple things that almost anyone can do to be more green and conserve energy, like installing a ceiling fan or a Programmable Thermostat that can adjust the temperature automatically for times when it is not needed, or cleaning or replacing their Furnace Filter or Humidifier Filters with something like Aprilaire Furnace Filters or Aprilaire Humidifier Filters that are more energy efficient. Also, installing Refrigerator Water Filters instead of drinking store bought bottled water, cuts down on waste. Just some ideas that might help the cause.
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