The other day I was watching the Oprah show and there was a woman who saved over $200 a month on her electric bill just by unplugging her electronic devices when they weren’t in use.
Shortly after watching that show, I received an electric bill. Hmmm, time to do some trimming. Immediately I went around the house to unplug and deactivated all unused electronic gadgets. I unplugged the few devices that weren’t in power strips, and I deactivated (or turned off) the power strips.
This is going to take some getting used to because my family believes that the dust particles in each empty room enjoys watching TV so they travel from room to room watching 15 minutes of a show never turning off the TV in the room they just left.
Nightly Savings
I think I’ll start them off painlessly. We’ll start by unplugging all unused electric devices every night. They won’t even know we’re saving money. Once I can show them the financial savings, maybe that will be enough motivation to get them to turn off and unplug devices as they leave the room.
They’re going to complain about things like the cable box taking time to reboot and TV’s having to warm up, but I’m hoping the savings will win them over.
I’ll report an update in a few months. Anyone with a few encouraging words?
BTW, check out the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy website. It’s a neat site that helps to explain the amount of energy some devices used even when they’re off.
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Dear Felicia,
I’ve had this argument with electricians that have come to the house. They said, “all you got to do lady is turn off everything.” I’ve retorted, “no, as long as it’s in the wall plugged in, the juice is consuming.”
Case in point, I noticed when I turned off the pc, there was still a little light lit inside the casing. When I turned off the power strip, the intensity of the light lessened.
But when I unplugged even the power strip from the wall, everything went off and black. UNPLUG every appliance at night and then check your next light bill. Thanks for letting me share.