Unplug, unplug, unplug
From a story on WKOW-TV, Madison:
Jeff Riggert’s home on the northeast side of Madison is no stranger to modern day convenience. In his living room alone sits a stereo system, computer, and entertainment center. It’s an image of plug after plug just begging for power. “It’s sort of like they’re sucking the juice out of your wall,” said Riggert.
Now he’s fighting back against his electronics, after he learned that pressing the ‘off’ button was still costing him money. What he didn’t realize was that even when you turn off electronics, something called phantom power keeps sucking energy, whether it’s for clocks, lights, or memory.
Riggert bought a watt meter to learn how much power he was losing for nothing. When he plugs in common electronics like his television and DVD player, it tells him they suck seven watts of phantom power continuously. He then added up on the phantom wattages for his entire home.
“I found out I had 171 watts altogether in my house of the phantom load or the vampire watts as we like to call them.” He added, “At MGE’s electrical rates, it toals up to about $195 a year that I don’t need to be using.”
So Riggert went to a hardware store and bought about four powerstrips. His electronics are first plugged into a strip, which is then plugged into an outlet. The power strips act as barriers between devices and the electric grid. Flipping the switch on the strip well then power-up his devices as needed.
