Did you know your microwave uses up more power when you’re not using it than when you are? Yes, the microwave draws a lot of energy when you start nuking something, but the vast majority of the time, the machine’s sitting idle while slowly sipping energy to light up its display. According to Umbra at Grist, that slow, daily sip ends up being about 80% of the energy your appliance consumes!
Such is the silent cost of vampire power — the slow draw of energy and drain on your wallet by gadgets that are plugged in, but not in use. That’s why last year, I wrote about how to slash vampire power and save money. But while more people know about vampire power now, many have yet to take action to reduce it — maybe because the thought of running around the house unplugging everything all the time seems like a lot of work for releatively little money savings.
Once you have a vampire slaying habit worked out though, starving energy sippers comes really easy. Plus, new greener routines can be better for your health too. Increasing evidence shows electrical energy could be harming our health, as Katherine Butler points out in MNN — a concern if you tend to leave your wireless router on all night. And light pollution’s been linked to everything from insomnia to cancer — not to mention larger ecological problems for birds and other wildlife. While your microwave display or wifi router may not be creating a huge amount of light and electric pollution, it makes sense not to have dozens of electronics lit up and buzzing away while you’re trying to sleep at night.
Before you freak out about cancer and develop fear-induced insomnia: Reducing wasted vampire power, electrical energy, and light isn’t too hard — at least inside your own home. Below’s how I’ve gotten rid of all three in my apartment. Depending on your own quirks and preferences, you may want to use slightly different methods — like relying more on hi-tech smart strips and less on manual unplugging. But hopefully this post’ll help you figure out how to get started!
1. Get power strips. I have 3 power strips around the house — one for kitchen appliances, one for the TV and VCR, and one for the stereo and its accoutrements. Basically, the gadgets plugged into each power strip are gadgets I use in tandem — like the electric kettle that boils water while I grind coffee beans in my electric grinder for the French press, or the VCR I put a Netflix DVD in to watch a movie on my TV (I don’t have cable or an antenna, so I never use the TV alone).
I simply flick on the power strip switch whenever I need to use any of the attached gadgets — which makes things a lot simpler than manually plugging and unplugging individual items — then flick it off when I’m done. Newbies may forget to turn the power strip off at the beginning, but the money-saving habit will form soon enough.
2. Unplug. For items I use alone or use rarely, I manually plug and unplug — just as most people do with, say, irons. Remembering to unplug my laptop at the end of the day at home’s easy, since I’m in the habit of unplugging the laptop whenever I take it to a coffee shop or library. This unplugging habit also has the happy side benefit of extending the life of my laptop battery. As I write this though, I’m wondering if I should get a fourth power strip to plug my laptop and wireless router in together, since when I’m home, I always use the two in tandem.
I also manually plug and unplug my microwave — my kitchen power strip is full and the microwave’s the appliance I use least — and my printer, which I rarely use. Depending on your lifestyle, you may single out complete different gadgets for manual unplugging. In fact, if instead of a laptop you have a desktop computer-and-monitor setup, you may want to go with the third option altogether –
3. Think smart strips. Smart strips are like power strips, except they’re smart enough to figure out when to turn themselves on and off. Because I already had my vampire-slaying habits in place before I ever got a smart strip, I haven’t found these newfangled gadgets particularly useful — but for the forgetful, smart strips may be the way to go.
Smart strips can be especially useful for charging up gadgets with batteries overnight, or cutting off power to electronics like TVs and computer monitors if you’re the type of person who forgets to flick off power strips. To see if smart strips may meet your energy efficiency needs, read my review of one new smart strip devide on the market: the iGo Power Smart Tower.
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Figure out a vampire slaying solution before Earth Day so you can sign up on Unplug, a Facebook app that lets you pledge to unplug electronics for Earth Day! (via Treehugger)
Top photo by tim7423; bottom photo by Siel
I say just ditch the microwave. My gf and I haven’t had one in the 2+ years we’ve lived together. Toaster ovens are you friend :)
Comment by Dominic — February 8, 2010 @ 8:45 am
I’ve got vampire energy pretty well slayed as well. My new thing is the modem and router. I use to have a dvr that used the wifi and would update in the middle of the night so I would leave it on but reading this reminded me I no longer have that dvr so my router and modem don’t need to be on all the time.
The problem with that is I have a laptop and my husband has a desktop, at the moment his desktop is on a power strip with 2 spots that are always on that we have the modem and router plugged into. Also we use our computers at different times so it’s going to be something we have to figure out how to use the best way.
I’m going to unplug them when I leave for work today and I just know I am going to forget to tell him that I did that and get a frustrated call from him when he gets home from work before me.
If I talk to him about it he will veto it but if I just do it he will have to go along with it. Is this what that study about couples fighting about going green was all about, teehee. ;)
Comment by mudnessa — February 8, 2010 @ 12:37 pm
Dominic — I may end up doing that, mainly because since I rarely use the thing, I feel like the space it takes up could really be more useful for other stuff I don’t yet have. Like a food processor.
mudnessa — What about 2 power strips — One for your husband’s setup and one for your own?
Comment by Siel — February 8, 2010 @ 5:10 pm
My laptop is currently on the same one that the tv is on because I usually surf while watching tv. His computer is on the opposite side of the apartment and he’s wired internet so the router and modem are over there and on his power strip. I set up a new strip for just the internet stuff we just have to remember to turn it on and not turn it off on each other. Not turning it off on each other is the one we will have to be careful of.
I have one of those slightly smaller “apartment” size fridges and our rarely used microwave is on top of it. I can’t see inside it and barely reach stuff in it but I don’t use it that often.
Comment by mudnessa — February 8, 2010 @ 6:12 pm
I put post it notes on the TVs, my sewing machine, and other items I kept forgetting to shut off after I used them to turn them off at the power strip switch. It made a big difference in my electric use.
Comment by Condo Blues — February 8, 2010 @ 8:30 pm
Post-Its are a good idea. Do you find that after you have the Post-Its for a while, remembering to turn the switches off becomes automatic? Or have the Post-Its become permanent fixtures?
Comment by Siel — February 10, 2010 @ 4:26 pm
Great post. I have become obsessive about unplugging. Going to bed has become quite a ritual. I’m not so sure giving up the microwave is really the way to go. It uses about a third the energy of an oven whilst a toaster oven uses about half. Why not have both and use each one for what it does best?
Bev´s last blog ..Energy Efficient Clothes Washer Buying Guide
Comment by Bev — November 7, 2010 @ 6:52 am