We’ve all heard about the energy vampires that lurk in our homes. But just what do they look like and how can we get rid of them. A power stake (AKA power strip) right through their heart (flip the switch) will rid them from your home, saving you on your energy bill each month.
Punny as it may be, a power strip will pay for itself in less than a year if you put it on some of your larger collection of electronics. At my home we use them for our computer equipment and for our home entertainment system.
We spent $40 on all of our power strips (4) and to see just how much we would be saving I went around and measured the standby loads of all of our devices. To measure the electrical load I used a Watts Up Pro, plugging in each power strip to the meter and then the meter to the wall.
Figure 1 Tools of the trade, a cup of chai and my Watts Up energy meter.
The results?
Home Entertainment System: 64.8 W
Office 1: 31.2 W
Office 2: 28.6 W
TV/Cable Box 2: 22.9 W
TOTAL: 147.5 W
This is how much electricity is drawn while the equipment is in standby mode. By turning the power strips off when we go to work and to bed (roughly 16 hours) we save 861.4 kWh and over $50 over the course of the year. Our electricity rates are about 50% of the US average of $0.10/kWh and about 25% of New York City so other areas have an even greater opportunity to save.
Figure 2 Power strip, which controls our home entertainment system
Wild Assumption Time: If every one of the 110 million US houses could save 100 W for the same amount of time as above we would save over $6 Billion each year on our electricity bills.
Whether you have a large entertainment system or just a couple of electronic items, a power strip will help you to save money by slaying those pesky energy vampires that are lurking in the shadows.
