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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Saving The Planet – My Little Dents

How many of you have thought about the amount of electricity that is used by all the electronic gadgets that are turned off in our homes? That is not a typo – many, many items now are using power even when we are not using them.

Here’s a partial list:
-VCR
-DVD player
-TV
-Stereo with remote control
-Anything which has a remote control
-Microwave oven
-Programmable coffee maker
-Programmable toaster
-Power strip
-The stove (if it has a clock)
-Battery chargers


Each night I shut down my laptop and when it’s all the way down, I turn off the power strip so that external drives, modems, printers, etc. are off with one switch. I’ve been doing this as far back as I can remember, originally for my own ease.

If you’ve been reading my ramblings for any time period, then you know I went away to work in Louisville, KY, earlier this year. Before I left, I unplugged everything I wasn’t going to be using while I was away; many of those items are on the list above. When I received my electric bill for one of the months I was away, I was very pleased at how low it was. This caused me to think about two things – my finances and the environment.

So now, any of the items on the list above that I own (except for the stove, too dangerous to fool with a 220 outlet and plug) I unplug when I’m not using them! When I want to watch a film, I plug in the appropriate player and TV and unplug them when finished. If I want to “zap” something, I plug the microwave oven in, clear the flashing clock, cook the food, and unplug it again. Not so hard, takes just a few extra seconds.

I hope you’ll look around your house and find even one item you can completely turn off. Every little dent will help.

Peace, Judi

6 comments:

bbb said...

what a great idea!!

Unknown said...

This is such a great idea! I just got our bill for July. You know how our apartment is set up and the sun beats in most of the day causing it to get very warm. Compound on top of that the humidity & heat back in July plus the fact we're on the 3rd floor and the ac was running a lot. Now we didn't do anything else different and our bill went up by about 22%!!!!!!

We have turned off the ac and I am definitely going to start working on these suggestions. Great list, thanks!

Suldog said...

Huh. I didn't know that. Thanks for the tips.

Also, thanks for the link-love! I just noticed my name on your sidebar. I have, of course, reciprocated.

Arty Allsorts said...

Yep - we noticed a difference too. We had a lodger for 3 months who was at home all day. He was online most of the day and our electricity bill skyrocketed! Now we switch everything off except the satellite tv box off (only 'cos it takes ages to reset) but prices are climbing so fast over here at the moment (just had a 30% price increase announced) it's almost impossible to cut our bill.

Frau Zinnie said...

wow that's amazing that it makes that much of a difference!

High Desert Diva said...

Phantom electricity. It really does pay to unplug.