How much is Ghost Power costing you?
One of my most popular articles is my post on Five ways to Cut your Electric Bill in Half. We cut our electric bill in half last year and it was already pretty low! With the summer season upon us, most of you are now paying your highest electric bills of the year. Electricity is not a “fun” bill to pay. Save your hard earned money for more fun things!
Knowing the Cost – Kill A Watt Meter
Knowing is half the battle to reducing your electric bill. If you would like to see exactly how much an appliances costs to run then all you need is a Kill A Watt Meter.
I am always trying to save money on the electric bill. A Kill A Watt meter is an easy way to help you do that! A Kill A Watt meter connects to your appliances to see how efficient they are. It operates at 0.2% accuracy! It can then calculate your electric expenses by the day, week, month, or year. When you see exactly how much your computer, TV, lights, refridgerator, etc cost you then you will know when it is cost effective to upgrade.
Since you only need one per household you can consider splitting the cost of the meter with friends or family. Once you test the appliance you can move the meter to the next.
Stop Ghosting – Smartstrip
You should always unplug your computer, TV, audio and game systems when you are not using them. These appliances use energy when they are in standby mode (sometimes not much less than when they are turned on!).
If you forget to unplug your appliances then you can either switch the plug they are in to a switch (so you can just flip the switch to turn it on and off) or you can use a smartstrip. A smartstrip automatically cuts the power when you shut the item in question off. The smartstrip has a “control” appliance plug, a few “always on” plugs and a few “controlled” plugs. The number of each depends on the smartstrip you choose.
For example, we have our TV plugged into the “control” appliance and our gaming systems, ROKU, and DVD player are plugged into the controlled plugs. Those items will never have to be on when the TV is not. When we turn the TV on the other items automatically are also turned on. When the TV is shut off, those appliances are shut off with it. It really saves a lot!
I love the idea of a power strip that will turn off EVERYTHING when not in use so we wouldn’t have to unplug a million bajillion plugs from the entertainment center.
Angela England recently posted…5 Ways to Use Kool Aid to Clean Around the Homestead