That blinking 00:00 on the VCR that you don’t know how to program, is doing more than just being a nuisance. That, the TV, computer, modem, microwave, coffee maker and other appliances which you leave plugged in when not in use, are sucking up electricity round the clock. So are your cell phone charger, cordless phone, answering machine, iPod and PDA, which require adapters to turn AC to DC. These are the "household vampires and wall warts" around your home – "with two sharp teeth that dig into a wall socket and suck juice all night long. All day long, too, and all year long."
Modern appliances do not go "off", they remain on standby – "silently sipping energy to the tune of 1,000 kilowatt hours a year per household, awaiting the signal to roar into action." In fact a better word on switches would be "idling." That is why on most newer appliances we see the word, "power" rather than "off/on". The culprit for the vampire like nature of appliances is the microchip, "whose presence is revealed by a "soft button" instead of a switch. Microchips are generally an improvement over mechanical controls because they are more durable and sophisticated. They also help reduce the size and weight of consumer products. But they require a continuous trickle of electricity. Energy experts say it would be simple to cut that trickle in half – not by running around the house unplugging everything in sight, which would require much resetting of clocks, but by engineering products differently."
Some late nights when all lights are out, I have walked into our study where the desktop, modem, printer etc. are located. That corner of the room looks like the dashboard of a UFO in the dark, with little green and orange lights staring or blinking at me. A bit less eerie is the kitchen, where the microwave, oven, coffee machine and their digital displays testify to their continuous, silent energy use. What I did not know, is that even the washing machine consumes energy when not in use. "My washing machine draws five watts even when there’s no sign of intelligent life," noted Alan K. Meier, a senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency, a consortium based in Paris.
I have started replacing regular bulbs around the house after they burn out, with low wattage, long-life bulbs of comparable brightness. It hasn’t made a dent in my electric bill yet. But every bit helps, I hope. "As a country we pay $1 billion a year to power our TV’s and VCR’s while they’re turned off," said Maria T. Vargas, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program, which sets voluntary standards for energy use, and grants its ratings to the most efficient products.
Accidental Blogger 