I’ve started unpluging anything that shows a light after I turn off the power.
Microwave/TV/radio/computer/such…
Any idea how much money I save per month? I’m awful at any math.
Not sure how you could tell how much you are saving other than waiting until next month and comparing your electricity bill.
Anything that shows a light after you turn it off is using some power. Most such things, however, are using a very small amount of power. Let’s say that power costs ten cents per kilowatt-hour, that you’re turning these things off for ten hours, and that in their standby mode they use a watt of power (all back-of-the-envelope, but should be close enough for our purposes). That means that, over those ten hours, each device you unplug is saving you a tenth of a cent. A tenth of a cent is probably not worth the time you’re spending unplugging things and then plugging them back in when you want to use them.
Does your power company do energy audits? I think most do…they do where I live and it doesn’t cost anything. And, if you’re low-income, you can get a lot of upgrades at no cost to increase energy efficiency in your home. Just a thought.
I imagine it would be a pain in the ass to keep plugging in and re-setting minor appliances. I don’t see how it would save much money. I suppose you could try it one way one month, then the other the next month and compare…but I doubt you’d see much savings. The bulk of your energy costs are for things that heat (furnace, dryer, stove) or things that cool (air conditioner.) My monthly utility bill is typically over $200 in winter when I am heating my house, and $60-70 in the milder months, with a small spike during very hot months when I’m running the air conditioning.
I’m all for saving power (and saving money), but you would be miles ahead by replacing an incandescent bulb with an LED one, or turning your AC up by 1 degree.
There’s 7 things,so that =7/10 so almost a full cent. sorta…
I used 503 somethings,which cost $61.91 before sales ax… AC 24/7,shades drawn,storm windows and windows shut,door and storm door shut… I gotta go Google
Am I the only person who didn’t understand this?
Lorene, the issue might be the high AC usage. Do you live somewhere very hot?
I got a couple of health problems,so gotta keep it coolish… Yes,got the twisty lightbulbs,and only have one lamp lit at night,usually no lights during the day…
I’ve talked to Housing about putting lighter colored shingles the next time they re-roof,and we do have good insuluation… My clothe dryer is solor…
I gotta go to bed- I’m forgetting how to brain
Central Texas,so,yeah.
and a couple of health problems.
Goodnight…
My cat is telling me it is bedtime now.
That sounds like 503 kilowatt-hours, at about twelve cents per kilowatt-hour, a bit more than my estimate. But if you’re using the AC full-time, you can definitely get bigger savings there. Either get used to being just a little less comfortable, or find out where the gaps are in your insulation and plug them. Or both.
I learned that A/C is hungus expensive! I tried using it for just two weeks last summer and by electric bill for that month was double!
Fortunately for me, I find hot weather to be tolerable, even if not always quite comfortable. OTOH, I really really hate cold weather!
ETA: My neighbor, who is persistently broke and persistently stupid, insists on running her A/C all the time, then wonders why her electric bill is $300.
Turn your water heater down. You can shave $20 off your bill depending on how much you use.
I remember reading once that plugged-in DVRs use a lot of electricity even when “off” because they keep their hard disks running all the time.
This article from last December discusses an agreement recently reached between the US Energy department and manufacturers to reduce energy requirements of appliances that are “turned off”. It specifically mentions DVRs and claims that
“Generally, a DVR device consumes half as much electricity as a standard refrigerator and freezer”
Sorry about the slightly jumbled posts,when I get very tired the brain shuts down.
The electric bill last month was $62.84… Housing put in new AC units last year and the bills are lower. The water heater is gas,as is the range.
All in all,with what I’ve gleaned from several sites found on Google,I save about $2.00 per month. No,not a lot,but I’m at least trying to do something.
‘forgetting how to brain’ - I LOVE that. I ‘forget how to brain’ regularly, now I know how to identify it. Thank you.
That is interesting about the DVR sevenwood, Mrs. Fluffy’s DVR is an ancient motorola that drones away like a model T endlessly. I’ve been expecting that hard drive to fail for some time now maybe I will just go get a new one. That it would consume half the energy an appliance with a compressor I find a bit of a stretch though. If that’s the case PC’s should be even worse other than they have a sleep mode. Our last electric bill was obscene and the aircon hasn’t even been on yet (Alberta).
I was going to suggest to Lorene that she look at her fridge and freezer, make sure the backs are clean, not too old etc, because usually compressor appliances are the big culprits. Another thing that can be quite significant is to close up any unused rooms and cover their vents.
Hi, Lorene. I don’t have anything useful to add to your discussion, but I had a request if you don’t mind… I enjoy reading your posts, but because my eyesight is getting worse these days, I sometimes have a hard time understanding them due to the spacing. Could you possibly add a space after your commas and before you start your next word? If you don’t mind, that is. 
Thanks!
The fridge is newish,they replaced it last year and cleaned all the AC ducts… they also had more insulation put in the ceiling and put in ceiling fans… The house is one bedroom, there are no unused rooms… Housing also put solar screens on the windows and I keep the shades drawn in the hot weather… I think I’m doing everything I can to conserve energy/save money. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Hey, bring it up with the US Energy department; they’re the ones making that claim, not me. 
When PCs go into sleep mode one of their big ways of saving energy is to shut down their hard disks. When DVRs go into sleep mode they typically don’t. (One of the things that article mentioned was that "Tweaking DVR hard drives so they do not spin when not recording can reduce the device’s “vampire” rating by five to seven watts. ", which is supposedly one of the changes that will likely be implemented on newer models.
The article also points out that folks typically rent their DVRs from their cable providers, and the cable providers aren’t paying the electricity bill and typically don’t care how much energy their DVRs use. Let’s face it - if you’re Motorola and are building DVRs to sell to Comcast who will in turn rent them to customers are you likely to use the less expensive disk drives that take more energy to run or the more expensive ones that use less energy?
Yes, refrigerators have compressors and compressors use up quite a bit of energy when running - but a refrigerator’s compressor isn’t running all that often. Also, while DVRs aren’t marketed using their energy requirements, refrigerators (at least those sold in the US) sure are - and the person purchasing one is likely the same person that’s going to pay for its energy use. The last time I purchased a refrigerator, every model on display in the store had a large “expected energy use” sticker prominently displayed on it which made those energy-efficient models look a lot better.
Make sure you turn your ceiling fans off when you leave - they don’t do any good unless yo are in the room to feel the breeze.
My library has a thing you can checkout which shows how much power a device is using. You can do your own power audit. It’s even programmed with the rate of the electric company, so it can show you the usage in watts or cost. See if your library has one.