Even when powered off, appliances from air conditioners to DVD players draw power. Called "stand by power," it enables devices to be ready to spring into action when we turn them on. Unfortunately, the most inefficient of these electronics and appliances can draw 15-30 watts of power when off! Stand by power is 5% of the residential energy used in the United States every year. If you multiply even a low estimate of 5 watts by the amount of devices you have in your house by days of the year . . . are we on the same wavelength about this?
And let's keep it real--my Tivo takes about 10 minutes to restart anytime it's unplugged, so I'm not even going to pretend that I'm going to unplug that even when I have nothing scheduled to tape. But, just looking around my home I've already found five things I can easily unplug until I need to use them such as my toaster, coffee maker, printer, desk lamp, blow dryer . . . Look around. How many do you see?
