Mr. Green Exorcises His Vampires

The cleanest, quickest, and cheapest way to fight global warming and save energy is simply to use less. I've harped about this constantly, noting, for example, that folks like the Germans and Italians consume roughly half the electricity we Americans do. I'd managed to cut electricity use in my house in California down to 3,200 kilowatt hours a year, half the annual California average of 6,960 kWh, and way less than a third of the national average of 11,232. Mr. Green, of all people, dare not be caught with a stupendous utility bill like Al Gore was a few years ago.

Among the many suggestions I've given for painlessly cutting energy use is to shut off or disconnect computers, chargers, and other electronic devices, including those in standby mode. Yet, let it be noted that not until this April did I began to systematically turn off power strips that were feeding standby devices and chargers in our house. The results proved instructive, yielding a 25 percent reduction from last year's April consumption. Happily, our standard of living didn’t drop by 25 percent because we had to wait five seconds for the idiot box to glow and vibrate with the sounds of reruns or somber reports about global warming. All we had plugged in were a DVD, a CD, a TV, a phone charger, two computer chargers, and a printer. Yet these alone were wasting 2 kWh per day.

The reduction in our house tallied with one study that found that the average Northern California home has 67 watts of standby capacity, with the highest at 169 watts. This means that if you're at the high end of standby use, you could waste 4 kilowatts in just a day. That would cost anywhere from $90 to $370 per year or even more, depending on electricity prices where you live. So make sure your house isn't lurking with vampire-like gadgets.

Comments

[Rob]

Mr. Green

Great points. We've been eliminating vampire devices like you describe as much as possible, whenever possible. Of course, the challenge comes from devices like DVRs which you want to come on to record your favorite shows or any other devices that need to be on at certain times of the day. To address this we recommend a variety of devices; from timers to auto-sensing power strips that cut power to devices when they enter standby mode.

Little changes can drive big results! The easiest way to make the largest impact is to talk with one of our Priority Energy Planners. They will help you understand where your power is going; how much is dedicated to these vampire like, always on, base load devices vs seasonal appliances (air conditioners). Visit us at www.priorityenergyplanning.com to learn more.

[Notebook cable lock]

Yes, this is an important issue and it is one of the easiest steps to implement in "going green".
Manufacturers have gotten away far too long with making machines and gizmos that dont turn off when you turn them off! Hopefully this will change.