Vampires in Your House Need to Be Unplugged
Just a quick note on cutting your electricity bill. This one is so obvious, and yet so many of us overlook it.
vampire electronics
Chart by Good magazine, if you click on this, you can view it more clearly and in-depth.
You know, your DVD player, your tv, your cell phone charger, even your microwave are known as vampires, a clever little term for anything plugged into the wall that “sucks” electricity while not technically on or in use. How often do you use these electronics compared to how much they draw wattage from your power connection should be an indication that you should be turning them off.
Don’t beat yourself up over this waste. I do it, too. As I write this, I notice that my DVD player is in “stand-by” mode because I have it plugged into a power strip that also runs my TV and my cable box. I think that I should unplug it from the power strip that I try to turn off when not watching TV, and instead manually plug the DVD player into the wall when needed. You see what I am doing there? I’m reducing my electric bill. Sure, it’s only a few pennies this month, but over time and with the ever increasing price of power, it will only be better for not only my wallet, but the Earth. Ding! Less electricity needs less coal.
California has a great website, Energy Quest, for a little interaction with virtual vampires. I know it’s designed for kids, but I like it, so what does that say about me, I don’t know, nor do I care. It’s kinda fun in a nerdy sort-a way.
Here’s a link.
As an example, my boyfriend always leaves his computer, monitor, modem and printer on. It drives me crazy. I went through the vampire scenario in the above link and found out that having the average price for electricity in the US, he is wasting nearly twenty dollars a year on those electronics IF he had them in stand-by — which he doesn’t. He was happy with the $20, saying “hey, it’s a pizza.” Now, when I tell him how much he is really wasting…
electricity, vampire electronics, DVD player, TV, microwave, California, Energy Quest, US, average price
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