Saving Electricity through Your Electronics

Electronics use a considerable amount of electricity while on standby, which means they draw power even when they’re not switched on. This isn’t eco-friendly behaviour because converting oil, water, or coal to electricity produces greenhouse gases. Some appliances — especially older ones — use up to 85 percent of the power on standby that they do while in use!

To reduce the standby loads in your home, turn electronics off at the outlet when they’re not in use:

• Check the living room/entertainment room where stereos and other electronics reside, and don’t forget to check around the kitchen, study, utility room, and bedrooms for appliances plugged in but not in use.
• Unplug all those cellphone and other small appliance chargers that use electricity even when they’re not charging anything.
• Plug appliances such as TVs and DVD players into a power strip to make it easy to turn them off completely. Instead of pulling the plugs from the wall sockets, you simply turn off the power strip. This works especially well if your appliances have a battery backup that maintains your channel and clock settings even if the power’s off.
  
  
  
  
  
  Switching off electronics for the night before switching off yourself saves the planet.
  
  
  Make it someone’s job to check the house every night before bed, turning off every switch that doesn’t have to be on. Just about the only items you need to leave on overnight are the fridge and freezer, the heating system and hot water heater, and the alarm clock — unless you have a wind-up or battery-operated alarm.