This morning with coffee in hand, from my always plugged in coffee pot, I sat down to read the newspaper. Imagine my shock as I read the article "Beware your Home's Standby Vampires" and saw coffee pots turned off but plugged in still suck down the energy. Sitting there doing nothing, it eats 1.1 watt. Not only that but leaving your power charger in the outlet after your phone is charged eats another 0.3 watts. Putting your computer to sleep before hitting the sack keeps it consuming 3.9 watts. That is while it's OFF! Here was the kick in my rear, leaving your DVR idle sucks up 43.5 watts. That is while you are not even watching television. Did you forget to turn the wii off completely, another 120 watts being sucked out of your house.
So now that your sweating as hard as I was, what can we do. Power Strips are perfect for controlling much of this energy loss. Plug multiple sources into one power strip and then when the day is done, instead of putting every computer to sleep, turning off printers, sound systems, game consoles and kitchen appliances, you just pop a few plugs out of the wall, and everything else sleeps quietly.
Interested to see what your house is using while you sleep? Try the Kill-a-watt. Plug it into a wall socket and then plug in the appliance you wish to look at. This will tell you much it uses while sitting there off, and while it's on. It's an eye opener.I guess it's time for me to take the extra step and unplug, not just turn off.
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