Turn it off! (when you’re done)

What’s your TV doing when you aren’t watching?

We can easily save energy and reduce pollution. We can reduce greenhouse gases by millions of tons. All we have to do is turn off our stuff when we aren’t using them. If it’s so easy, why don’t more do it? Are people just selfish and lazy? Is it because no one ever calls them on it? That people just aren’t thinking and talking enough about it?
My feeling is that when the effects of global warming worsen, and becomes impossible to ignore, combined with dramatically increased energy prices from peak oil then people will conserve energy in earnest. However, if enough buzz gets generated, the mainstream media and politicians grab onto this issue then maybe people can start to be more conscience of this issue before its too late.

Turning off the TV or stereo and shutting down your computer at night may not seem like your are doing that much to save the planet, but once you multiple that by millions of people it adds up to some serious energy consumption. Clearly this alone won’t be enough to solve our problems but it is a start and it is something that we can all do right now, at no great expense or effort.

An article in the Independent talks about how a national survey done in Great Britain showed that one in five white-collar workers leave their computers on at night at least three times a week. The power usage from this winds up emitting 200,000 tons of carbon a year, equivalent to the exhaust fumes of 120,000 SUV’s. The article also goes on to state that a million tons of carbon is pumped into the air each year by tv’s, stereo’s, DVD’d etc being left on standby power in British homes. They also state that some products use almost as much power when in “sleep” modes as they do when working.

Other appliances that you don’t often consider as using that much electricity while in standby or sleep modes are dishwashers, which when left on at the end of their cycle use 70 per cent of the power it uses when running, according to the same Independent article. Washing Machines, dryers, and TV’s are other appliances that can use a great deal of electricity when in stand by mode. The solution is to simply make sure it is turned off when you are done using it. Treehugger has a good blurb on phantom energy here.

Other culprits are computer printers, make sure to turn it off when you aren’t actually printing. One of the biggest energy user in the home is the refrigerator. If your refrigerator is an older model, consider getting a newer energy efficient model. Look for the energy star logo and ratings whenever you buy any appliance and make that a major part of your decision making. There are some good tips on getting better energy efficiency with your fridge and other appliances on this wikibook on how to reduce home energy use here.

Beyond that, there are gadgets you can buy that will help you to both monitor your energy usage as well as power down your devices. Kill A Watt is a relatively affordable device (under $30.00) that monitors electric usage of your devices. Here is a fairly comprehensive review by the-gadgeteer.com of the kill a watt device. Worldchanging.com also has a good article on the Kill A Watt device.

The Kill a watt device seems silly to me as for this to be really useful you would need to attach these devices to all of your appliances - not something most people with other things to do with their time would consider. But for the real control freak who likes lots of gizmo’s in their life this might be just the ticket to encourage them to turn off more stuff!

A greater awareness of your ecological footprint and how your footprint is just one of millions of footprints stomping around the planet may help to get us moving. Our footprints all tend to look pretty similar, hopefully,we can soon start pointing them in the right direction.

A great book that addresses these concerns and more is The Home Energy Diet: How to Save Money by Making Your House Energy-Smart (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
Also, there is good comprehensive article on Treehugger, how to green your electricity that speaks well to this issue.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 6th, 2007 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Computers, EcoFriendly, Energy Saving, Green Appliances, global warming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.