It’s good to practice habits that save money and preserve resources, but any energy vampires in your home could undermine your efforts. These are the electronics, appliances and devices that continue to use electricity even when they’re shut off, or those with clocks or timers. It may not seem like they use much power, but over the course of a year, it adds up to a discernable increase in your electrical consumption.
Managing These Devices
You may not be able to or want to get rid of everything that draws standby power, but you can manage them by using power strips or surge protectors equipped with smart technology. By gathering all the portable devices you use and labeling them, setting aside a place for charging using a power strip, you can easily cut their consumption simply by turning off the power strip.
A smart power strip or surge protector has one or more receptacles that senses when the device has finished charging, and will turn off the power going to the plug.
Televisions and their peripherals are often energy vampires that you can plug into the same power strip and turn off when you’re not using them. Desktop computers use more energy than laptops, and shut down instead of sleeping when you’re away for longer periods. Surge protectors keep these expensive electronics safe from electrical surges.
If you don’t program your coffee maker, consider unplugging it when you’re not using it. Most microwaves use clocks, but if you don’t need it, either put the microwave on a heavy-duty power strip or unplug it.
Replacing When You Need To
New devices that carry the Energy Star label often embed technology that shuts the power off when they’re done charging. These chargers are smaller and lighter than the older AC adapters and don’t radiate as much heat.
Eliminating energy vampires will reduce wasted energy and it’s not difficult to do. It’s also easy to save energy with your home’s HVAC system by keeping it clean and maintained. To learn more, contact Arpi’s Industries, Inc., providing HVAC services for Calgary homeowners.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Calgary, Alberta about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy savings and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide.
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