before leaving for our recent trip, i thought hmm, let me unplug stuff in our apartment to save some dollars and power. i unplugged the power cords, laptop, clock, lamps, etc. and thought gee, i'm getting something done here!well, not really. according to the recent good magazine and their monthly spread charts called transparency (such as our outrageous sugar consumption and student debt rates, etc.), i only hit the tip of the iceberg with our lurking vampire energy. even when our appliances are turned off, most still consume electricity, either in passive or active mode. good magazine's chilling vampire chart (not yet online but will be soon) tracks average standby modes and annual kilowatt sucked energy. vampire energy is estimated to cost us consumers $3 billion a year.
the worst culprit in active standby mode? a plasma tv at 1,452.4 kws or 160 bucks. while i did right by unplugging the laptop (144.5 kws, much lower than a desktop at 311) and rechargeable toothbrush (12.3 kws), i didn't unplug our cordless phone charger or TV combo VCR/DVD player (171 kws). we don't have a microwave, but that sets you back 35 kws. and don't forget game consoles -- they eat up lots of active power at 234 kws.
so what should we do? obsessively plug/unplug stuff? buy less stuff? buy with a better conscience?
i suggest all that and investing in smart strips to curb your idle power use or check out the mini power minder (cheap at 15 bucks) that has "the smarts to shut off your computer’s peripherals and doodads when the computer itself is shut down."
well worth the price, right?
2 comments:
Great article. I plug and unplug my things obsessively. I like the idea of this doodad that effectively does it for me.
Great stuff la francaise. Really interesting. I don't even think about that when I am leaving for vacation.
Keep those posts coming.
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