How to Save Energy; Use Power Strips for Small Appliances and Lights

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By w1z111
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Using power strips for small appliances and lights helps reduce

Many indoor appliances and lighting can draw power when plugged in, even if they are turned off at their switches. This is sometimes referred to as "standby power drain".

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

As noted in text

Step 1

Assess your appliances and lighting.
Look at all of your small appliances and lamps in use in your home. Many devices are using power 24/7/365, just in "stand-by" power draw.

Some of the power-robbing appliances include VCR's, DVD players/recorders, stereos, radios, computers, printers, fax and copy machines, microwave ovens, toasters, coffee-makers, televisions, cell-phone and other charging systems, some washing machines, cordless or feature-rich telephones, refrigerators, cable and satellite TV decoders, and many others.

A rule of thumb: Pretty much, any device that has an external power supply, a remote control unit, or a clock will pull power at all times.
Step 2

In order to save energy through reducing this "stand-by" power usage, you will need to procure a number of adequately sized and rated power strips.

Keep in mind that power strips are designed to help manage power for several appliances or lights, and, as such, must be rated for the devices intended to be managed by them.

Power strips used for lighting power management will not need to be rated as high as those used for appliance power management.

You should take inventory of the power ratings given on your appliances and lighting fixtures, and procure power strips according to how you intend to group and control them.
Step 3

Install your power strips.
For best results, it is a good idea to affix power strips to a solid surface or component if possible. This helps keep your lighting and appliance wiring neat and safe.

Once you have affixed your power strips in the locations where you need to manage appliance or lighting power, simply plug the various appliances or lighting into the power strip for a "one-switch-control" of all items attached to each power strip.
Step 4

Using the power strips:
Now that you have your chosen appliances and lights connected to your power strips, you can control and reduce the "stand-by" power drain simply by turning off the power strips when none of the appliances or lights connected to them are needed.

Note that when you decide to go this route, all the devices with clocks will no longer maintain the correct time.

In addition, some televisions or other electronic devices might require some "warm-up" time, since many of these keep power on specifically for minimizing warm-up time.

Visit the link below for "More Ways To Save Energy At Home" for additional tips.

Comments

w1z111 said

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on 3/3/2009 Hi docjenny...thanks for the feedback and accolades! Sometimes it's the small things we tend to overlook that can make a lot of difference, when it comes to wasting energy or not.Thx again.

docjenny said

on 3/3/2009 Excellent article. I hope is it read by EVERYONE. Let's save energy, people!

on 12/31/2008 Hi, PABechko...thanks for the feedback.

Yeah, it's the little things that can add up to a lot.
"Keep Tweaking"

PABechko said

on 12/31/2008 Right on -- I've been doing this along with changing out light bulbs - even got new appliances with energy star .... watch that power bill drop.