Easy Peasy Tip: Unplug it!
By tinychoices | September 15, 2007
In order to cut down your electricity consumption at home, try this simple solution: Unplug non-essential appliances. Obviously this won’t work for the refrigerator, but items such as your TV, microwave, and laptop chargers all use electricity to power “stand-by” systems when they’re off or not in use, and by unplugging them you can override the stand-by and reduce the energy used.
If your plugs aren’t handy or you don’t want to stoop down, consider using a power strip with an on/off switch to shut off multiple appliances at once - an ideal location for this is at your computer desk where you may have multiple peripherals or entertainment center full of electronics. And you can use your toes to switch your appliances on and off.
- Optimize your power strip with these tips from Lifehacker
- Ask Pablo confirms that his microwave uses more energy to power the clock than to cook his food!
- Get Fancy! For complicated areas full of electronics check out the Smart Strip, which has one outlet for a control mechanism (like a desk lamp) that is always powered and, when the lamp is switched on, allows power to flow to the other outlets on the strip. It also has three outlets that are constantly “hot,” for items that you MUST keep on, like your TiVo.
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Topics: Easy Peasy Tips |
I looked into the Smart Strip and what “turned me off” to it was that the “hot” outlets determine whether the other ones are on or not. So, it’s good for when you turn your computer on - your speakers, printer, and scanner comes on - but - since you need your tivo on all the time, all the other outlets would also be on all the time. Please correct me if I’m wrong, because I love the idea of it. I wish they made power strips like you could find years ago where there are two hot outlets and an on/off switch for all the other ones. I use one in my office - my computer and clock are always on and I have to reach down and switch it on to use the speakers, shredder, pencil sharpener, additional lamp, etc. Since I use those peripherals only a couple times a week, it’s not a hassle.
The latest version of the smart strip has a control outlet with six switched outlets, and then 3 outlets that are constantly hot and not controlled by the the switch at all. so it gives you two different power use scenarios in one power strip.
the photo of the product shows the different outlets really clearly.
another thing to consider is that the control device plugged into the control outlet has to have sufficient electrical draw to trigger the switch for the switched outlets - even though there is a sensitivity control that you can adjust. so a lamp with a CFL would probably not work!
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