Unplug those electronics!

Well, ya know they say you learn something new every day!

If you're a ThriftyChik like me you already scrupulously turn off all the tellys, VCRs, DVD players, etc, etc if they're not in use. But have you ever been bugged by the little light that stays on on your DVD player(or VCR or whatever)? Well your brain was trying to tell you something. Your brain was screaming "wasteful!" back in it's darkened corridors.

It's called 'stand-by power' and it's energy used by a machine while turned off.

Almost all TVs have standby losses ... The standby power maintains the remote control features, which nearly all TVs now have. A small amount of standby power may also be used to maintain memory for channel settings.

Holy cow! I never knew. How many kilowatts have I wasted - and paid for - over the years? Gah!

I found out that a 20 inch telly (and that's not very big. I'll wager most of yours are that size or larger) uses 68watts when on, and a bit more than 5 watts when off. I know, you're saying: "jeez, Blue ... 5 watts ..." But that's 5 watts 24/7, every day of the year!

Here's the ironic part: if you know me you know that we don't watch telly. Zero. None. The only time that the telly is on is when we view a film, approximately every 3 or 4 days.

For TVs that are used less than one hour per day, on average, the standby energy consumption can actually exceed the on-mode energy consumption. In other words, on an average day these TVs use more energy while they are off than they use while they are on.

Aaaagghh!

OK, Happy Yule to everyone today!! Be a Thrifty Chik and be safe. I'm just going to unplug everything in my house now ...