As part of a focus on energy usage and efficiency, I thought the following information from SRP would be beneficial for people to get a grasp on what the many appliances we have plugged in actually require in terms of energy usage. The chart below isn’t talking about the cost of usage annually for actively using your television or other devices, this chart represents the additional cost of your appliances when they are sitting in their standby modes.
Now, it doesn’t matter whether you live in Chandler, Gilbert, Glendale, or Scottsdale – the outside climate has nothing to do with this. Your electricity provider may charge you more but these values deal with usage within your home.
Now, at first glance, the numbers don’t sound all that bad in terms of the cost of these appliances. However, try calculating this out for your own home. For instance, do you just have one cable or satelite box or two or maybe even three? Is there a clock radio in every bedroom of the house? How many televisions do you have in the home? SRP estimates that each household has an average of 20 of these appliances throughout the home.
Now, you can begin to see how extra appliances start to cost you over the course of the year even when you are not using them.
Tips to Reduce Energy Usage from Idle Appliances
- SRP recommends that you put many of these appliances on plug bars. This way, when you are not using them, you can just turn off the plug bar as a master off switch.
- Unplug some of these appliances altogether when not in use. If you use an appliance only a few minutes a day, keep it unplugged the rest of the day.
- Go around your home and ask yourself as to what really needs to be plugged in. Have an empty guest room? Unplug all of the appliances you may have in that room. Wherever you have appliances that just aren’t needed, consider unplugging them.
So, try calculating your standby energy usage and figuring out what you might be able to reduce. And feel free to let me know what you come up with.
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