Reducing electricity waste: Unplug and manage it!
September 2, 2010
This is the first guest blog post from Wako Takayama, sustainability consultant and author of Everyday Sustainable. Wako is committed to living and working sustainably and helps companies develop sustainable products and services.
When people find out that I have a passion for energy efficiency and have been conducting basic residential energy efficiency audits (as a volunteer with Acterra Green@Home HouseCall,) they often ask what they can do to be more efficient at home.
Talking about CFLs is easy because you can see them and you can tell when they are on and using electricity. Not so with so many of the other electronics products plugged into our homes.
A recent study of energy usage in Minnesota shows that “Home electronics is a growing portion of each household’s electricity usage, close to 20 percent.” In 1980, the average home had three electronic devices. We might guess a TV, stereo/radio and how about a blender?
These days, think about all the gadgets plugged in around a typical house. And we keep bringing new ones home, eager to try out the new computer, brew a cup of coffee or play the latest video game. The last thing on our minds is wasted electricity and how to manage it.
But it turns out that a lot of these things are drawing power even though we don’t see it–for example when electronics are is “standby mode.” And then there are the things that we forget are even plugged in because we don’t use them, like that extra fridge out in the garage that is empty except for a couple liters of soda left over from last Thanksgiving.
The Minnesota study names 5 low-cost and no-cost energy reducing opportunities:
- Enable computer power management [in other words, make sure your computer goes to sleep or hibernates automatically after it hasn't been used for a while ]
- Manually unplug devices that draw standby power when not in use
- Manually turn off devices that are left on but not used
- Use “smart” power strips to eliminate standby power consumption of peripherals (e.g., a DVD player) when the main device (e.g. television) is turned off
- Use timers to eliminate electricity use by devices that are only used at certain times of day
So here is what I suggest for cutting down wasted electricity at home. Walk around your house and give it a one-time plug load audit. A device like a Kill-a-Watt can help you “see” the watts used by a device when it’s on and off and on standby. You can also feel the heat on devices that are drawing power when they are “off.” As you review the devices in your house, consider which of the opportunities above might work for it. And don’t forget to do this every time you bring home your next latest-and-greatest-gadget.
The study was conducted by the Energy Center of Wisconsin. To read the full report of the study and video presentations, go to http://www.ecw.org/plugload.




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