One Easy Way to Save Money and Energy

Did you know that your TV is consuming energy and your money even while you're sleeping? There are most likely several things in your house that are consuming your electric energy without you knowing it. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 50% percent of the electricity that powers home electronics is consumed while these devices are turned off. Some of these wasteful energy electronics include televisions, computers, stereos, DVD players, and TV or Satellite cable boxes. Also, small transformers that are used to recharge cell phones or convert electricity from AC to DC consume electricity when plugged in but not in use. All of these devices can be wasting valuable energy 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The obvious way to stop this constant waste of energy and your money is to unplug the devices from the wall when they are not in use. However, there is a more convenient way to handle this as we do in our home. We have power strips/surge protectors to organize the connections and allow us to turn off the electricity to our appliances.

This does two things. It provides protection against electrical storms or surges to our appliances when they are in use and saves money by stopping the constant waste of electricity during their "stand-by" mode. This "stand-by mode" as it is called is incorporated into many electrical devices so that we can operate them with remote controls or so that the device will respond instantly when we turn them on. In the "old days" when you turned on a TV set you had to wait for it to warm up before the picture would begin to form. By having a "stand-by mode" the TV can provide an instant on capability. However, in order to provide this "instant on" capability, the TV set's electrical components must be energized constantly.

In the case of the small black plug in transformers for cell phones, battery chargers, printers, modems, scanners, etc. they all use power when plugged into the wall. Because of the way transformers are designed to work they use electricity when plugged in even if the transformer itself does not have anything attached to it. So don't leave them plugged into the wall after you take your freshly charged cell phone out for the day.

The only thing we allow to stay plugged in is our satellite control box because the boot up process can take a long time and sometimes requires a call to the satellite company. However, when we go out for extended vacation periods we unplug EVERYTHING including disconnecting the hot water heater. The only exception is the refrigerator.