Electricity-Vampires
Unplugged

The colored lights all over your home are indicative of the power drains working non-stop.

If you think you've turned your electronics and everyday appliances off and nothing is running, think again.


The red, green, and yellow lights you see in almost every room, are an indication that these pieces of equipment are still on and drawing power.

Electricity-draining mode, is more like it.

These appliances continue to draw energy even after you
have flipped the off switch. This phantom-load, or as it
is also known by vampire-power, is present in anything
electric.


Consider the many types of "entertainment" pieces of
equipment we all have some assortment of in our homes.

• Plasma Televisions

• Stereo/Audio Equipment

• Computers

• Game Consoles

• VCR's and DVD's

What about all of our kitchen appliances on our counters and extra things we use for recharging batteries and cell phones?

Fact - While in so-called off mode,
home electronics use up to 75% of the
electricity used to power them.

The way to avoid the electricity-vampires in our homes, is
to cut power to the appliance altogether.

The use of a power-strip is the answer. Of course many
items can be unplugged completely from the wall. How
realistic is this though really?

Personally, I'm not sure many people want to run around
day after day unplugging every electrical device, only to
have to plug them all back in the next day repeatedly.

The power-strips are much easier. They may cost you a few
dollars to start, but will make it up in the long run.

You can plug a number of items into them at once, and shut
off the power switch. This will stop power from going to
any of the electrical units.

Kitchen appliances can be unplugged daily. That is easy
enough with or without the power-strip.

A charger should be unplugged once it has done it's job.
Remember, it is still drawing power even after charging
is complete.





SOME COMPUTER MYTHS


When it comes to your computer, there are a few myths out
there that need correcting.

Starting up and shutting down of your computer is not hard
on the computer like some of us may think. This may have
been the case alot of early computer years ago, but not now.

In fact, shutting them down saves alot of system energy.

The fans that continuously run to cool the computer use
a tremendous amount.

Screensavers don't save energy, they only save screens.
(This is in fact true; screensavers do not save energy)

Putting it in sleep-mode at least, will help so that the
screen will go blank when not being used. If you want
to really save energy though, simply turn off the monitor
completely.

Fact - There was a university study done that estimated
that 30 monitors in sleep-mode is equal to one vehicle
off the road in terms of a reduction in energy consumption
and emissions.

The Internet-Carbon-Footprint

It is estimated that the carbon footprint of the internet grows at least by 10% yearly. Energy demand bills are ever-increasing and the internet companies have to come up with more ways to handle the costs.

We, as users, get so many free services but unfortunately there isn't the revenue for the companies associated with these services.

To balance out, new designs, renewable energy investments and improved engineering methods are researched continuously.

Everyone feels the pinch!

So, if you want an easy cost-effective way to reduce the
electricity-vampires in your home, these are indeed small
changes you can make. It's a positive move towards
positive results for savings and towards reducing emissions.


Leave Electricity-Vampires, Return to Cut Hydro Costs

Return to Carbon-Footprint Defined Home Page