Audio/Video, Cell Phones, Computers, TV, Green Tech
Five Percent of U.S. Electricity Wasted By "Vampire" Electronics
You may not know it, but your electronics use electricity even when they're "off." Most home electronics, including your microwave, TV, and DVD player, continue to consume small amounts of power even after you're done using them. Why? Because rather than switch off all electronic circuits, gadgets and devices often switch into "standby" mode.
This small amount of power adds up over time. It's estimated that five percent of all electricity in the United States is wasted powering devices that are not in use, and that figure could rise to 20 percent by 2010, according to the Department of Energy.
California, which is usually at the forefront of conservation efforts, passed the Vampire Slayers Act last year, which requires that electronics have a tag detailing the amount of energy used not only during normal use, but also in standby mode, as well as when turned off.
Even chargers, such as those for cell phones, are a major drain on the system. They use up a trickle of energy after the phone is completely charged, or even if the phone is disconnected.
You can avoid adding to the problem with some simple tips:
- Unplug any devices you can when not in use. If you're done charging your phone, don't simply disconnect the phone, but unplug the charger completely. The same goes for laptops, electric razors and toothbrushes. When you're done watching TV, unplug the set from the wall.
- Utilize power strips. Plug your home entertainment system, as well as your computer, monitor and other peripherals into power strips or surge protectors so that you can easily shut off the whole set up when you're done. You can try "Smart" power strips, which shut off automatically if a device isn't on for a certain period of time, as well as shut off, say, all your peripherals if you turn off your computer. (That said, make sure to keep your cable box plugged in to a separate, always-on power strip, since the cable box often de-authorizes itself if left unplugged for too long.)
- Look for the Energy Star logo. The government backed program rates electronics on energy efficiency. Looking for electronics with the highest Energy Star rating possible will guarantee you waste as little electricity as possible.
Vampire electronics not only drive up your electricity bill, but also drive up the price of energy in general and pollute our environment. These tips along with switching your light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs will make sure you contribute as little as possible to global warming.
From AOL News (AP)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
riconian said 4:37PM on 4-08-2008
Simple solutions are often already within our reach. Just use an outlet strip, mount within reach, after powering down devices, FLIP IT OFF! Problem solved. Dont reset the clocks every time, Put up one battery powerd clock in a central location of your living area. If the blinking bothers you, put some black tape over it or something! Radio presets, bummer but make some effort, save a few dollars or else plug it seperatly.
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Dave Mc G. said 4:38PM on 3-28-2009
It seems many have gotten a little upset about this subject, maybe because there so use to leaving things plugged in forever or don't really realize just how much electricity is really being wasted by all of us!
Turning things off or unplugging things not in use, is very much a good thing! Not only in conserving in energy, but saving you quite a bit on your electric bills month after month! And not to say, makes your home safer from Fires in your home!
Keeping everything plugged in for easy use, for most have been a life time habit, but it's also a very bad habit. And truely is a waste of money towards your electric bill too. The fact is laziness comes at a price. Most everything today that runs on electricity has made made with components that actually start the product up instantly, well them components are constantly wasting electricity even when you turn or push the off button!
So the best way to the solution of the electric waste, is to purchase a multi plug surge unit and plug the things you always have plugged in, but don't use as much. And turn the main off switch off on the surge multi plug unit when not using things much plugged into it, because it will also protect your electrical products from electric surges and in bad weather days! Plus you will be doing your part in saving energy and saving on your electric bill besides. It's a win, win all the way around!
The fact is, getting angry over saving some good money off your electric bill isn't going to help your electric use costs. Electric rates are always going up and in part mostly because all the consumers waste of electricity. If you don't mind your elctric bill constantly costing you more and more each month, then do nothing to save on your bill. There are many people that are tired of paying big bucks out month after month for there electric bill!
And a study just released a few months ago, stated that if you have major appliances tha are over 6 years old, there really wasting aot of electricity and making your electric bill much higher, then if you had all up to date today's New energy Efficient appliances! And if your one of thoses, that ran out and bought one of thoses big HD TV's, I got bad news for you! They eat up 3 to 8 times more electricity then the regular TV's we've all used before HD TV came along. And the bigger you bought of the HD TV's the much more electricity it is gobbling up! So you may be excited you finally bought one, but you won't be excited about the increase of your electric bill it will make for you!
( The regular TV's had life spans of up to 25 years, the new HD TV's life spans is around 8 years! And they cost much higher then regular TV's)
Thanks for your time,
Dave Mc G.
Cashnsave Ceo
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Mario said 7:30AM on 11-02-2009
And the next story will read "10% of Americans time is 'wasted' by running around like a mental patient unplugging everything." Who doesn't apprecaite a blinking (12:00) on all their appliances. Pass. I'll gladly pay that 10% for the conviences that stand-by mode brings.
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jon said 6:24PM on 10-31-2007
good ideas. one exception: fuorescent
light bulbs when broken have a bad effect
of chemical pollution, and clean up is
expensive.
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K Miller said 6:36PM on 10-31-2007
Many electronic gadgets have an electronic memory for channels, stations, etc. as per the Cable box mentioned. How does one overcome that limitation to be green?
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Greg Morgan said 6:57PM on 10-31-2007
The VCR loses its time, as do the microwave & oven, the TV has to reboot something that takes a couple minutes, the stereo loses its presets (a good 10 minute reprogram). I agree that having a listing of the power-up and standby power drains would be helpful, but doesn't it seem likely that the combined standby power drains of all the above would be less than the savings from one compact florescent, and insignificant as to that from twenty or thirty. And, gee, how mant standby electronics would it take to compensate for one Hummer? Every little bit helps, but by the time we shut off every electronic device we'll have saved enough energy to light one major league ballgame for one night.
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JBJG24 said 7:45PM on 10-31-2007
WHAT THE HELL ARE SUPPOSED TO DO ,RUN AROUND THE HOUSE AND PLUG AND UNPLUG EVERYTHING THAT WE USE EVERYDAY. ?? IF THATS THE CASE THATS ALL WE WOULD BE DOING ALL DAY LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ralph Winstead said 7:49PM on 10-31-2007
Maximum PC will tell you how to put your computer into a deep sleep mode, I have a new panasonic DVD recorder that has two standby modes. The first mode allows for the machine to boot up quickly and the second takes around a minute to come on or boot up... They are thinking green.
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Ralph Winstead said 7:58PM on 10-31-2007
On the floresent light thing, I found that they put out signals that will change channels on certain DVDs like my pannasonic.....yep, I was useing one as a desk lamp about a couple of feet away from the unit and lost all the settings. This happend a couple of time till I moved the lamp away from the unit... This may have been a fluke so I would'nt say its for sure...ok?
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Anne Wingate said 7:58PM on 10-31-2007
One particularly maddening leak is the computer printer. Even when not in use, they are power hogs, and most of them no longer have "off" switches. I keep mine unplugged unless I need to print something, and since the printer and the doorbell ringer are plugged into the same power strip, I think twice before plugging the power strip in. This has had the added result of causing me to do far less printing of things that don't really need to be printed.
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Ralph Winstead said 8:05PM on 10-31-2007
I have computer, printer, scanner on a power strip and surge thing and when I'm done I cut the power to all,,,,GREEEEEn. I have ME on this computer so it boots fast as long as I clean it up once in awhile.
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j said 8:08PM on 10-31-2007
Seems like a lot of to do over nothing or at least not much..........what will you save in a year 10 bucks........? Hell skip one harcut or a couple of candy bars and you'll save that much!!
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David L Johnson said 8:51PM on 10-31-2007
For crying out loud, in the Northwest we have hydro-electric dams on almost every river....and we have a lot of rivers...the hydro-electric dam on the Columbia River even powers everything east of the Cascade Mountains, all the way to the Rockies...clean...no cost electric power, those money grubbers are pinching the public. The cost of paying people and upkeep of the system should not afford a power company to charge millions of conections as much as they do!!!
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David L Johnson said 8:51PM on 10-31-2007
For crying out loud, in the Northwest we have hydro-electric dams on almost every river....and we have a lot of rivers...the hydro-electric dam on the Columbia River even powers everything east of the Cascade Mountains, all the way to the Rockies...clean...no cost electric power, those money grubbers are pinching the public. The cost of paying people and upkeep of the system should not afford a power company to charge millions of conections as much as they do!!!
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David L Johnson said 8:51PM on 10-31-2007
For crying out loud, in the Northwest we have hydro-electric dams on almost every river....and we have a lot of rivers...the hydro-electric dam on the Columbia River even powers everything east of the Cascade Mountains, all the way to the Rockies...clean...no cost electric power, those money grubbers are pinching the public. The cost of paying people and upkeep of the system should not afford a power company to charge millions of conections as much as they do!!!
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Greg said 9:47PM on 10-31-2007
There is a new solution. It is easy to use, it is called GreenSwitch a wireless home energy management system. With the flip of one switch, it turns off all designated wall receptacles, light switches and sets the HVAC to an economy setting. There is a split receptacle for leaving on the TIVO or computer but allowing you to turn off the other stuff. If you dont want stuff that blinks to go off, you dont include them on the system. Go to www.greenswitch.tv and take a look. Your savings on your total power bill will make for a fairly quick payback on the investment and it sure is nice when you are running out the door, or going to bed at night. Just hit the GreenSwitch
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Ellen said 10:35PM on 10-31-2007
DLP tvs should not be turned off by using a power strip or being unplugged because they go through a cool down cycle!!
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Dave Mc G. said 11:12PM on 10-31-2007
Lets face it!We little people are the ones that always have to cut back on everything, but the huge corporations get to just keep wasting electicity,gas, and water and polluting the air we have to breathe and our waters! They use way more and we little people pay more!!!
By cutting back on all our usuages of water,electric and gas! Does that guarantee a huge price drop in are rates on all our monthly bills??? Hell no!!! When the big gas, electric and water Companies start being fair about things and quit being so greedy and money hungry! Then maybe customers will be a little more respondent to there hollow crys of waste!!!
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willowreed said 11:23PM on 10-31-2007
Hey Ann Wingate. Maybe you need a new printer. I sell printers on the weekends at Best Buy and EVERY printer they have there...has an on/off button.
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Dave Mc G. said 3:54PM on 3-28-2009
I have switched all my lighting to compact fluorescent bulbs, when they had a huge sale on them, But I find there Hype over them way OVER rated, they say a 13 watt compact fluorescent bulbs is the same lighting as a 60 watt regular light bulb!!! NOT!!! Some area's that we read or use computers, I had to switch them back to regular light bulbs, because the compact fluorescent bulbs 13 watts DO NOT give the same brightness, they are about the same brightness of a regular 25 watt bulb! Sure I could turn around and spend a whole lot more for bigger watts of the compact fluorescent bulbs, but too get the right lighting, it would start to get a little costly for me, and I really don't believe the savings in the long run are worth all the money to buy them! and then wait to see if I really saved any real money for all the troubles and costs, plus all fluorescent bulbs aren't supose to be thrown out in to the trash either so there's another cost to get rid of them the right way! How far are we really supose to go out of our way to do things the big boys tell us we should be doing and using!
I really believe a begining to help the global warming is not to throw the problem to us little people, but to all the companies that make so much variety of electronics, gadgits constantly, Do we all really need all that stuff in the first place, sure everyone wants the stuff when it hits the market, but we don't need it!!!
And I really feel if there are many products out there to help on the global warming, Why is it so costly to consumers to buy and use??? If they really wanted us all to help, wouldn't you think it would be a lot cheapier so many would go out and purchase them to help!!! they say plant trees to help fight pollution! yeah that would help wonders, but at $30 and up a piece, sure can't afford to plant to many! Why don't that tell the growers and sellers to drop there prices way down so we could all plant lots of trees, But see I think it all boils down to, lets all go green, the consumers and empty our bank accounts in the process! it isn't fair to us little people, just the business owners rake in all the glory! Things have to be changed on that side of the fence first, before we all can take action on the Big BREEN!
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