You could be wasting money on energy bills without having a clue if energy vampires are draining your wallet. As southwest Arizona’s intense summer continues, you want to make sure that as much energy as possible is being used to cool your home, rather than being drained by various electronics around your house.
Energy vampires are energy-sucking devices that stealthily use electricity even when they’re not in use. The television and stereo that stay plugged in, with lights blinking, but may not actually get turned on for days; the electronic keyboard that may stay idle for weeks at a time; the half-dozen chargers that stay plugged in, waiting to charge electronic devices – none of these need to be plugged in when they’re not being used, and they’re just a few of the many culprits that drain your wallet through higher energy bills.
According to the federal Energy Star program, the average household wastes $100 a year on energy consumed by devices that are plugged in or in standby mode. Nationally, this amounts to a staggering $10 billion a year.
Conquering these energy vampires only takes a modest amount of effort:
- Unplug electronic devices and appliances that are not in use and do not need to remain plugged in. A power strip can be a handy way to cut power to several devices at once.
- Plug chargers in only when actively charging an electronic device. Unplug the device from the charger immediately after it’s finished charging, and then unplug the charger.
- Activate the Energy Star power-management settings on your computers to have them go to sleep automatically after a specified time of non-use. Plug computer, monitor, printer and other peripherals into a high-quality surge protector and turn everything off at the end of the day.
- Look for Energy Star-labeled devices when shopping to ensure lower power consumption.
- When you go on vacation, make a sweep of the house. Unplug anything that doesn’t need to be plugged in while you’re gone.
For more on energy vampires and saving energy, contact us at Hansberger Refrigeration and Electric Company. We’ve served the Yuma area since 1952.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Yuma, Arizona about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about energy vampires and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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