Unplug Your Way To Lower Energy Bills

Sometimes the most obvious things are the ones we overlook. If I told you that you could start saving money on your energy bills immediately and it could take less than 10 minutes of your time, you’d be skeptical. If I told you the answer was reducing or eliminating ‘plug loads,’ your response might be, “Ok, this sounds like it might be complicated, so what’s a plug load?”

Plug loads are simply devices that plug into your home’s electrical system and include appliances, TVs, DVD players and VCRs and home office equipment - faxes, computers, scanners (devices that up until a few years ago weren’t found in the home) and appliance chargers. In short, a plug load is any electrical equipment that plugs into a wall outlet or electric plug.

Studies show that electronics make more than 10% of a building’s electrical load and is the fourth highest energy user after lighting, heating and cooling loads. Think about plug loads in conjunction with phantom loads which are generated by equipment that consumes energy of from 3 to 25 watts per hour when turned off. Phantom loads can come from appliances that have electronic clocks or timers, with remote controls or with chargers.

Offices can have large plug loads, but homes can also be offenders. When I started looking into plug loads, I thought – we’re not gadget crazy; how many of these devices could be in our house? I took a walk around my house to see what plug loads are connected and how many could be easily disconnected. Started in the family room and there’s the TV, not a flat screen so it consumes a little less power, but it’s still instant on - which means it’s drawing some power all the time. Might not want to pull out the plug every time we turn off the TV, but savings could be as easy as plugging the TV into a timer. There’s a DVD player and a VCR. Those are both candidates for a power strip that can be easily turned off when not in use.

Came into the kitchen and there’s a cordless phone with a charger (that one needs to stay plugged in). But the coffee pot with the clock doesn’t need to be plugged in all the time. Then there are the chargers for the cellphones. If they are plugged in, even when they’re not charging the cellphone, they are using energy. These are easily unplugged and plugged back in only when the cellphones need to be charged.

The room with the computer has a bunch of equipment [maybe we really are gadget crazy]. The computer tower, monitor, scanner, shredder – anything that has one of those little green or blue lights that are on all of the time, can be turned off when not in use and save energy. Here are just three rooms in my house with multiple chances to save energy. Going through the rest of the house showed more of these devices with more opportunities to save energy (and money) simply by turning them off. I saved around $7 the first month, nothing earth-shattering, but still a savings. The more gadgets you have, the more potential for savings.

If devices were off overnight in business offices, the potential energy savings are huge. There are devices available that automatically turn power-using appliances off, they might cost more than the average homeowner would like to spend, but would have a very attractive payback for a business who would see large savings.

A homeowner or a business owner can find easy savings by unplugging devices when they are not being used.