If it stays warm after you turn it off, It’s a POWER VAMPIRE.
Power Vampires or Phantom Loads occur in most appliances that use electricity. These include VCR’s and DVR’s, TV’s and DVD’s. But even more invisible are the cell phones and other assorted devices that come with wall warts (those wall cube power supplies) that come with such items as cordless tools and electric toothbrushes. Add in computers, printers and oh, yes, the kitchen devices. You know the ones, microwave, coffee maker, can opener, electric knife and whatever else we found a good deal on at our local box store. All these wonderful goodies are sucking the life out of us (Gore Speak) or at the very least, draining our paycheck through the electric company. But as with all vampires there is hope. Follow on and see how easy it is to save 25 – 45% off your electric bill.
The easy way is to just unplug when not in use. Unplug the dryer, and use a clothesline. Dump the alarm clock, (save about $1.15 a month) instead, use your cell phone. You can set extra alarms and even wake up to music. And if there is a power failure, your on time for work. As you move through the house, unplug the electric toothbrush, coffee maker, and entertainment units. All right that isn’t exactly easy. But you would save about 45% of your electric bill. Fortunately, modern technology has provided us with convenience devices to help keep convenience devices conveniently affordable (or at least green). You could invest in timers, to automatically turn on and off your devices when you know you won’t be using them. Timers are best used on the big vampires such as you TV, VCR, stereo unit that suck as much as 50 watts or $3.60 a month. I would not use it on the DVR or you might miss your favorite show. Timers can draw up too 2 watts of power so don’t use them on the small items and create a power station to charge all those pesky wall warts. Then just turn off the strip when not in use. A better idea might be to invest in a “smart “ power strip. Plug in a handful of devices to a “Wattstopper” or Smart strip power strip. (TV, stereo, game system, etc. and the intelligent power cord cuts the power to phantom devices when they are not in use. There is a device called Mini Power Minder for your computer. Computers and the peripherals we bought with them have a voracious appetite for power. Using the Power Minder, your computer notifies the power plug and it shuts down printers, speakers or any other device that is connected to it, when you shutdown or hibernate your computer. Another option available to help with these power gremlins is the remote controlled power outlets. The idea is to plug your devices into the outlets; you can then control the flow of power with the convenience of a remote. An improvement over the remote is the “Greenswitch”. Installing the Greenswitch will allow you to pull the plug on phantom power draws for good. Wit h the flick of a switch, you can turn off all the electronics in your home that are not being used, effectively cutting off all standby power to your TV, stereo lights, and other devices that draw power whether they are switched on or not. · Finally, I would be remiss if I did not mention the P3 International P440 Kill A Watt Electric Usage Monitor. This little device connects to appliances and will assess its efficiency. As it counts consumption by the Kilowatt-hour. It calculates expenses by the day, month or year. It displays volts, amps and wattage for all 115-volt appliances. Priced under $40, you can tell what anything in your house is costing you to run. Now, if we could only do something about the delivery charges, fees and taxes, life would be grand.
