Daily Home Renovation Tips

Today’s energy conservation tip for the home is a simple one.

There is a thief in every household. This thief is stealing electricity that you and I pay for out of our hard earned wages.

This thief is known as The Phantom. Some call it the Phantom Menace!

It steals electricity at night when you are sleeping. This thief has no fear; it even steals electricity during the day when you are away from home and right before you when you are home.

According to just about any electric utility, electrical devices consume small amounts of electricity when they are turned off. Yes, that’s right. Here are a few sights which talk to such phantom electricity consumption:

•  US Department of Energy
• ConsumerReports.org

Some sites indicate that phantom, or stand-by, power loss can approach over $100 per year or up to 10% of your annual electric bill. 

Just what type of electrical household devices are we talking about which use electricity to display the time or other information or to store / update programming information? The following is a partial list:

• Television
• DVD / VCR Player / Recorder
• Receiver
• Satellite Receiver
• Computer (laptop or desktop)
• Fax machine
• Home office phone
• Microwave

All you have to do is:

• Purchase a power bar with a timer that will switch off during planned times you will not be using the device and switch on again (say off at night and on 1st thing in the morning
  • Pro’s - avoids having to get into the habit of doing this manually every day
  • Con’s - more expensive than a power bar without such a timing device
  • Con’s - not useful for those with irregular patterns of equipment usage

• Purchase a power bar into which the electrical cords of your household equipment are placed such that the power bar’s off switch can be reached very easily
  • Pro’s - useful for those with irregular patterns of usage of the home’s electrical equipment
  • Pro’s - once the habit is established, typically one looks for more and more ways to conserve electricity in the house
  • Pro’s - less expensive than a power bar with a timer
  • Con’s - requires one to start to get into the habit of turning the power bar off

In our home we have positioned a power bar at areas with several electrical appliances such as our home office (phone, boom-box, laptop, fax machine) and family room entertainment area (TV, DVD player, VCR player, receiver, satellite receiver). Usually I am the last one to go to bed at night so I simply turn the power bar off in my home office when I am done for the day and the family room entertainment area on my way to bed at night.

In the picture below the power bar for the home office is tucked to one side. It could (probably better) to have it attached to the inside of the desk to I don’t accidentally kick it with my foot and make it easier to reach.

Here is a picture of our family room focusing on the entertainment area. You can seen the end of the power bar plugged into the wall in the lower right area of the picture but you cannot see the power bar itself. Yes, it is easy to reach but as you can see it is not visibly obtrusive.

A simply habit to be sure. An easy habit to get into.

You’ll pay for your power bars in 1 to 2 years if the amount of consumption from the various sources is correct.

Look at your own home and see if there is an opportunity for you to get rid of the Phantom Menace!