Wall Warts and Energy Vampires Save on Electricity
“Wall Warts” are all of those external power supplies (EPS) at the end of power cords that you get with cell phone chargers, telephones, MP3 players and so on. These things are also often called Energy Vampires because they literally keep sucking power the entire time they are plugged in, albeit at a somewhat reduced rate.
One quick and easy way to save money and electricity around the home is to take a good look around the house for how many of these little beasts you have. I counted 12 wall warts in my own home and I know many people have a lot more. These things are positively ubiquitous nowadays.
How many of yours do you leave plugged in all the time? Cell phone charger? Baby Monitor? Some have to be left in, like my telephone, but most can be unplugged when not in use. However, by simply not leaving wall warts plugged into sockets you can start saving some real money now. For my pc, printer, router and external hard disk I plug them all into a surge protected power strip and turn them all off at once with the flip of a switch at the end of the day.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, estimated that EPSs and standby power on appliances like TVs and microwaves could account for as much as 10 percent of residential energy consumption. So if you can start disconnecting only half of yours that could be 5% of your bill right there!
External power supplies manufactured after July 1st 2008 will be subject to new Federal regulations requiring increased efficiency both when under load and when not under load.
Still, it will pay to be mindful of EPSs as the old ones will still be around for a long time and you will still be paying to leave even the new ones plugged in.
Electricity service is a reseller of Texas electricity and generally concerned when it comes to excess electricity usage by providing access to cheap electricity in Texas. The Texas energy company maintains a save electricity blog which provides tips and suggestions about how to save money on your electricity bill.
Tags: electricity, energy vampires, save electricity, save on electricity, wall warts