Little electricity guzzlers
May 16th, 2006 | by
mbhunter |
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Certain appliances can act like dripping faucets on your electric bill because they consume electricity constantly. Two of the big culprits are cordless devices and devices that are activated with a remote control.
We have an electric toothbrush. I had thought that the toothbruch loses its charge pretty quickly, but we’ve had the charger unplugged for a week and the toothbrush still runs fine. When the battery in the toothbrush is fully charged, the charger still has to provide a small current to keep it fully charged since there’s a closed circuit when the charger is plugged in and the toothbruch is connected to the charger. Additionally, there’s a rectifier in the circuit that likely has a small loss even when the toothbrush isn’t connected.
Remote control electronics, like DVD players, will have to consume power even when off because they need to be able to detect when the remote control sends a signal to turn it on.
We’ve done little things like this to try to cut our power consumption a little, in addition to being more aware of turning off lights and computers when we’re not using them. It will be interesting to see if our electricity bill goes down.
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7 Responses to “Little electricity guzzlers”
By Dus10 on May 17, 2006 | Reply
I have a feeling that you will not see a large enough impact. I went crazy, several months ago, trying to reduce our electrical consumption. I would unplug the TVs and and switch off the surge supressor whenever the devices were not being used. I would run around the house turning off lights that my kdis left on. I was meticulous. Well, over the previous month, we used 1 kWh less electricity. It saved a measley 6 cents! That just wasn’t worth it. So, I have done more practical things. The largest impact comes from items that consume the most electricity. Clothes dryers are a huge one. Make a log of how many times the dryer is run. Then, try to cut that number down. We would throw clothes in the dryer in the morning to freshen them up before wearing them. That was a huge waste. Also, switch to CFL bulbs wherever possible. Try to optimize your use of central air/heat (regardless of whether it is electric or gas).
By Drew on May 18, 2006 | Reply
I agree with Dus10, don’t bother with the small stuff, even if it’s always on. You won’t save much. Get a electricity cost monitor (Kill-a-Watt is one example but there are others) so you can know what you are really spending. Focus on the big stuff: computers, A/C, clothes dryers, etc. Using a clothes line instead of a dryer once a month will save more than unplugging all your DVD players when not in use.
By We're In Debt on May 19, 2006 | Reply
We have two rechargable toothbrushes. After reading this, I am unplugging them immediately.
By rolo on May 25, 2006 | Reply
We reduced our electrical bill from an average of $123 monthly to a measly $74 monthly average.
Shut off/got rid of outdoor dusk to dawn type lighting and any decorator lighting, have a CFL in the front porch light
Dryer usage: EVERYTHING is hung to dry, outside or inside then the dryer is used for only 5 minutes to soften our outing clothing IF NEEDED.
COMPACT FLOURESCENT BULBS WHERE EVER POSSIBLE
We live a simple life–not a lot of gadgets and electronics that need to suck up the electricity
GET RID OF EXTRA TELEVISIONS–keep one
We all use the same room (a novel concept-togetherness) in the evening for reading, studies, etc–saving on the cost of lighting up multiple rooms
Lights do not come on until it is TRULY too dark to see without them
The list goes on
One thing I have noticed when walking about at the end of the day: neighbors with 2000sq. ft. or more and every window is lit up from interior lights on EVERYWHERE. Amazing waste of resources. IMHO