How to Save $60 a Year -- Is It Worth It?

I found the following stat in the January/February issue of This Old House Magazine:

$5 a month -- The extra money you pay to power "vampire" devices, like TVs and cable boxes, which suck electricity even when they aren't turned on.

Ok, so what's the option? Unplug each of these after use? Or is there some plug you can buy so these stop sucking power. As you know, I'm all for saving a buck (or even a penny) where I can, but if I have to plug/unplug my TV every time I want to use it, it's not going to happen. Someone please enlighten me on alternatives.

Comments

[Jimmy-Jim]

Power strips. You can cut the power to an entire home entertainment system all at once. There are also switches for a single outlet. Without power you may loose the current settings: that's what uses the energy. You probably don't want your TV to go through its entire startup every time you use it, but you can certainly unplug the devices you don't use very much. Especially something like an old VCR that has a clock in it.

[K.C. Jones]

http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Shop/Bits-Ltd./Item/LCG4/

Here's a start.

[Caleb]

There are power strips available that "sense" when a device is turned off and then close down the power completely. Here are a couple:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/smart_power_str.php

I'm sure there are many more ...

[Jeremy]

There are a few items as mentioned above that can help save a little bit of that power, but assuming you have these types of devices in multiple locations in your home you could have an initial cost outlay of well over $100-$200 based on some of the prices listed at that one site. Not only that, but you still aren't eliminating all of the power leaks, just reducing them. So while you may not spend $60 a year on this wasted energy and cut it down to $25 or so, the actual time required to recover the cost of the energy saving devices could be 3-6 years.

While saving energy is certainly a responsible thing to do I don't think that these devices are that cost-effective. If your goal is to simply help the environment by reducing energy consumption that is one thing, but if the goal is to save money on your electric bill I think there are many better alternatives that won't cost you a dime and save even more money.

Turn your refrigerator and freezer thermostat up a few degrees, if you have a dishwasher, turn the heated dry function off, wash your clothes in cold or warm water instead of hot, dry your clothes on a lower heat setting, etc. Appliances that convert something to hot or cold are by far the largest energy hogs in the home, so adjusting their use only slightly will have a profound effect on your utility bills as opposed to reducing idle power consumption to some electronic devices that use pennies compared to the other appliances.

So rather than spend money just to save a little money you could probably accomplish the same thing at not cost by making a few adjustments to your current lifestyle and not even notice the difference.

[Greg]

Cheap (<$5) power strips; use the switch to turn power to the device 'on' and 'off.' Chances are most of these devices are clusterd (TV, stereo, vcr). Just switch on when you are ready to watch, switch off when you go to bed.

I worked at a big-box home electronics store and at closing we flipped the breaker to all the powe on the floor.

[Lord]

Power strips are convenient as are timers, just make sure you want to turn it off. A programmed VCR will not only be unable to record but may lose it's programming.

I suggest calculating how much they actually cost you and decide if it is worthwhile. Costs are driven by power usage and duration. High power users are electric heaters, frying pans, toasters, power tools, saws, vacuums. Long duration users are televisions, refrigeration, pumps. Look at the power label for watts, or for amps and divide by voltage, commonly 120. Divide this by 1000 for kilowatts. Multiply by hours usage per month and cents/kw-hr on your electric bill. Usage for a thermostatically controlled device can be difficult to estimate, but usually one can only control the temperature anyway. Most lights, fans, radios, are quite inexpensive.

[Lord]

Oops, that was multiply by the voltage.

[Dan Melson]

I'd recommend against.

When power starts and stops flowing to electronic components and circuit boards, they expand and contract with the heat or lack thereof. This is one of the big reasons electronic devices develop faults and have to be replaced. For electronics stores, that's one thing - the odds of a given component being on display more than one season are essentially zero. But you want your electronics to last for many years, right?

[Kenny]

Oh my God. For saving $60 per year, $600 per 10 years, I got to make myself unproductive by pulling plugs off the appliance boxes and then reprogramming 'many' (I did not say all) of them once I reboot them.

I'd rather go to the library on 4 of the Hottest Weekends to read a book (as opposed to reading it at home), and save 2-10KW of power to save the same amount of money by turning down the AC!!!!!! I plan my outings around the coldest days and hottest days, so I get work done, don't have to sit and complain, and enjoy the 'comfort zone' at some else's penny.

That is called thinking about 'pennies'. Shackled by Saving Habits.

KKP

[Lazy Man and Money]

I thought about this, but really the biggest draws in my home is the TV and surround sound. I can't power cord them because they need to remember their settings.

[Lord]

I would recommend just pulling the plug on items you don't use much, especially ones with transformers. Timers or light and motion detectors are very convenient for lights.

[Blaine Moore (First Time Homeowner)]

Probably not worth your time in general.

That being said, we have our tv/vcr/ps2 (acts as an expensive dvd player!) and treadmill all on a flip switch along with the light. If we are down there and want to use any of those items, the light is on. When we are done, we will want the light off and it will remind us to flip the switch off. Since we don't use any recording features down there and don't care about remembering settings, it doesn't matter if we cut all the power to the devices.

Upstairs, though, I don't bother powering them down. Too much hassle to get behind the tv to hit the surge protector, and I wouldn't want to have to reprogram or look at the "you lost power" message each time the tv comes on.