Two VERY EASY things you can do to save power and money

Q: I leave most of my electronics plugged in all day, even when they’re not turned on or in use. How much energy do these idling appliances consume, and is there anything I can do to reduce it?

A: Power switches can only do so much. Even if they’re turned off, your electronic devices are still likely pulling a charge as long as they are plugged in. And while the trickle of electricity consumed by so-called electrical vampires is often just a watt or two, this adds up, especially since most appliances are plugged in 24 hours a day.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/how_to/4263301.html

Also, if you have a CRT monitor, please consider using www.blackle.com as your home page. Apparently you can save as much as 15-20% of power consumption on your monitor - which is a power HOG!

http://www.blackle.com

unless you're leaving your monitor on at all hours with that browser window up?

How many times a day do you use google?

And again most LCD monitors don't use almost any more power with a white/black screen, but a lot of people have CRTs still.

as when it's "on". (Tube TV sets are an exception, they use much less in the 'off' condition but they still consume a fair amount...all the time.)
:-)

on my electric bill, even though I turned the whole business off by the power strip when I wasn't using it.

It made a much bigger difference than converting to CFLs did.

I do leave the TV and DVDR plugged in, though, because I don't want to reprogram them every day.

Something that I use once a month has no reason to be plugged in. Took me 20 seconds and will probably save me a couple bucks a month :shrug:

because it's got electric ignition and a calibrated oven and I can't see any reason to get a new one just for fashion's sake.

Back in the good old days when I had pilot lights on a gas stove, I always turned them off and lit the stove with a spark lighter. I still keep the lighter at the stove just in case there's a power failure.

However, dumping the CRT monitor made a huge difference. I also have one LCD TV set that is the set I use the most. You don't realize what power hogs CRTs are until you dump them.

The most interesting aspect we found was that of the LCD monitors we tested of size 22-inches or less, all showed an increase in power consumption using Blackle. Beyond the 22-inch mark however, five of the six models showed a fractional decrease in power consumption when using Blackle, except the ViewSonic VX2835wm, which showed a 2.2-watt increase.

For the five that dropped their power consumption, the average drop was 3.16-watts, again, not the 15-watts being suggested.

But for the sake of fairness, here’s what we suggest – if you’re using a CRT monitor, you can save some power by using Blackle however it won’t be as much as its supporters will have you believe. We still think it’s around half.

For LCDs, each element has to be kept set at 000 so the backlight won't let the color go through.

CRTs use three beams of light (red, green, blue); keeping the monitor black means none of the light tubes to hit the phosphors (which produces what you see on screen)

And the the study involved both. The savings on CRT's was about half what they claim.

Power strips, children. Power strips.

Especially behind those "entertainment center" equipment snarls we all have. Plug all the wall warts and any other electrical plugs into the power strips. Mount the strip in a handy to reach place. Switch off at the power strip. Viola! Complete cut-off from the electrical supply.

HOWEVER....... do not include the TV on the power strip! As far as I know, TV's are still being made with tuner memories that forget everything when powered off in this way. You will find that it doesn't know where any of the channels are or if you have cable or an antennae (or the 67 "preferences" you spent a week setting) if you power it completely off. Many radios will lose their pre-sets - but not all. I have a receiver that remembers through this kind of power-off - probably a little rechargeable battery on the circuit board somewhere. Other programmable devices may forget, too. You'll have to experiment.

Just remember to place that strip in a handy a place. That means routing all the AC cords with the goal of reaching your handy strip - not the wall outlet. F'rinstance my computer desk has the strip mounted to the underside of the desk's top. The strip's red power switch is right close to the edge. So it is just as handy as any other switch - but the strip doesn't show! And yes. it's OK to power down your entire 'puter setup ('puter, monitor, printer, speakers, sub-woofer etc.). Just be sure to shut down the computer first. Then off at the switch. This is for the millions like me who's computer just sits all night - or all day while at work. Shut it totally off at those times and save a surprising amount of electricity.

Thanks for listening.

No need to fiddle with blackle...

True; for most items, installing a well made timer or just keeping them unplugged is good enough.

Good post.

Therefore, they are heavy on features and convenience and energy-savings are a feel-good afterthought. I don't think that will be the case anymore. Hopefully, one of the first things they will do, is design products that when they say 'off' are actually 'off'. Because most people aren't going to do what you suggest, they take the path of least resistance so we need to make that path of least resistance low-energy friendly.

:)