Vampire power costs

comments from our community

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  Posted by gpgope2002 Tue Jun 30, 2009 7:30am PDT

  My kids won't understand this!! And not even my wife. I wish I could turn them green, then each time they look in the mirror they will see it all written all over them.They like the mirror too!!

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  Posted by Mary Thu Jul 2, 2009 11:11pm PDT

  open4energy completed an energy study on recharging a BlackBerry. In summary: Cost of electricity charging the BlackBerry each year: 12.5 cents Cost of vampire power $1.26 Our result shows 90% wasted energy, on what I call the charger pretending to be a small wall heater. I know technology will help us save, but can I add a reminder for us to try and save in what we do. Unplug it when it is not being used.

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  Posted by Yellowtreats Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:54am PDT

  I hake sure to unplug my moms box.

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  Posted by saxplayer1216 Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:17am PDT

  It only uses energy when not in use if it has little lights or runs stuff, even when your not using it, or the basics like lights. The DVR is obvious, it records stuff when your not around, but most people don't want to give up Judge Judy, College Basketball, or Motorcycle racing, so that one's out of the question. Answering machines, well, the point behind thenm is to run while your not around, so that one's out of the question, too. Leaving batteries charging overnight, well that's the perfect time to do so. You don't want to have to wait for the batteries to charge during their waking hours, so you do it while your dreaming off in la-la land. Then there's the thing about the PC. There are so many arguments and angles about that one that I won't go too deep, but overall, turning off your PC at night helps. If you turn it off every moment you walk away, you have to wait for it to start back up and open all your windows again and hope you remembered to save everything before you turned it off. Plus if your impatient, there's no way you would go along with this. But it does weigh out, especially on the patients side, to turn off your computer overnight. The computer automatically saves everything you do in it's temporary memory (also called RAM) and the fastest, most complete way to do that is to turn it off, unplug it, wait 30 - 60 seconds, plug it back in, and everything in the RAM will be gone. If you keep all the stuff from the day before in the Ram when you use it the next day, then you will end up waiting for the computer to figure out what information is the oldest (which takes RAM, too) delete it, and then load the new information into the RAM. So, if you think your computers running too slow, then shut it down, unplug it for 30 to 60 seconds, plug it in, and turn it back on. Then there's the monitor. If you use an LCD, also called flat panel, monitor, then it does not use much electricity, especially when your computers off and it's in sleep mode. If your penny scratcing, yeah, unplug it at night, and turn it off when you walk away. Then there's CFL monitors, which can most clearly be described as a big honkin' things that weigh a ton and have a huge back sticking out so it barely fits on your desk. Those take so much energy that it's almost undescribable. turn it off whenever your not looking at it! especially at night! oh, and BTW, ahol, If you installed an electricity-generating windmill in your backyard, then yes. you would produce enough electricity to power your house and put a lot extra onto the grid, so that the power company [b]would[/b] owe you money.

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  Posted by whitedragon18th Thu Sep 3, 2009 2:12pm PDT

  children dont learn to turn off anything till the light bill has their name on it.

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  Posted by oldestguru Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:47pm PDT

  This is a lie, a laptop computer needs less energy(80w) than a desktop computer(600w). Stop lying to us!

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  Posted by smazer Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:42pm PDT

  Earth is not just 'the planet we live on'... and 'green' is not just about our imaginary value constructs such as money.... but i am a hypocrite as well. It's a start.

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  Posted by shopper Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:34pm PDT

  A laptop costs more energy to run than a desktop?!?!? Completely bogus: http://www.eu-energystar.org/en/en_022p.shtml Makes me wonder about the rest of the list.

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  Posted by Behnam Fri Sep 4, 2009 1:54am PDT

  That's not possible.

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  Posted by Anton C Fri Sep 4, 2009 6:10am PDT

  Now that the kids are back to school. I can save money! I use power strips everywhere in my house. I turn them off and unplug them before I leave the house. By the way, I still have land line phones that are not cordless.

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  Posted by ShannonW Sun Nov 1, 2009 5:09am PST

  Unplugging is a great way to save energy but too much hassle for most people. This article left out a very easy way to accomplish this. "Smart" power strips do the work for you. You turn off one appliance and they cut off power to other appliances. Include a few outlets that are normal (constant power) for cable boxes/DVR/Tivo, etc. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/12/smart_power_str.php

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