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I don't know how to figure something like this out, so I'm hoping maybe someone else here does!
I'm wondering how much money you save by unplugging things when not in use (i.e. toaster, power strip that has TV, DVD player, stereo, etc.). If it's only going to save a person a couple bucks a month, to me it's not worth the effort of doing it each day. But if it's more significant, perhaps it is.
I get into debates with my husband on this. I prefer to shut off everything that is not in use but has a blinking light. Coffee pots, dvd player, etc... I'm always shutting off lights and he gets annoyed and turns them on. He insists that he saw a episode on Discovery Channel Mythbusters that shows that you don't save enough money to worry about it.
I believe we do save money keeping things dark. We have different thermostats for upstairs and downstairs in our house. I keep the temp to 78-80 degrees on our house in the Summer. I live in TX and we get month long 100 degree days. He works from home and keeps the upstairs at 68 -72 in the summer. Crazy. Now it's winter. I keep the downstairs temp at 69-71 he has the nerve to say he's cold at 71 and wants the temp at 75. CRAZY!!!! He couldn't keep his office at 75 in the summer!!!
Anyway, that's my rant for today. Our electric bill for a 2,200 square foot house in the hot summer months averages $120. I believe what you keep plugged in uses electricity even when it's not in use.
Another question that came to mind after I posted was this... does it actually use more electricity (and cost more money) to plug in appliances and turn on surge protectors? I wish I knew where to find these answers.
I think some of the electronics will tell you the trickle power consumption in the specifications in the user manual. I think it's negligible personally. Maybe you can tie all into a power strip which is plugged into a switched outlet -- each room in my apartment has one outlet that is activated with a wall switch. So you can turn everything off just by flicking a switch and turn off all power drain. You want to make sure not to accidentally turn it off when turning off a light though.
The big draws are climate control, water heater, and using large appliances and big draw eletronics. Always turn your PC off when you're not going to use it, it can draw quite a bit of power.
From what I've read - If it has a digital display, light, whatever - it's worth it to unplug - keep it on a powerstrip and turn that off. I agree with Rose Red, turn it off. I shut down the computer at night, unplug the microwave when not using, I also like the house cooler - about 63 for heat now that's it's colder for daytime - 50's at night. When you do laundry, weekends are better (rates are supposedly cheaper) - and do several loads at one time since you don't need to heat the dryer so much. Some might scoff but we have a small house (1300 sq.ft.) but my last bill was $0 (that was the final 12 month of the budget billing) - we pay sixty bucks a month otherwise. I do laundry every 2-3 weeks and on a Sat. or Sun.
Water heaters are one thing that DOES make sense to dial down when going out of town. Sounds like OP is worried about the tiny current drawn by other appliance. My general sense is that most of these are truly not worth the effort. To be sure you can get a little plug in type monitor and it will tell you how much juice anything you plug into uses either when "on" or "off", my gut tells me you'd need a heck of big house with lots of plug in appliance before you'd save the cost of the device, but at least you'd know for sure:
I think this is roughly correct: If you have 10 things that use 2 watts ALL THE TIME = 20 watts * 24 hours * 365 days = 175 KW/H a year = about 20 bucks @ 10 cents per KW/H.
You can measure most of the stuff pretty easily with a "Kill a Watt" meter. Satellite receivers and cable boxes, tivos, and routers, can be significant. Cordless phone chargers, etc. less so.
i keep everything unplugged but i don't really see a difference. i think you're talking about $2-$3 a month in savings. doesn't really help me since mine is over $300 since i have to filter my pool.
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