Credit: Flickr user: eflon
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So, a new challenge! This time around we're going to be switching off our appliances at the wall when we're done with them.
For me, that means last thing at night, and before I leave for work in the morning. Being something of a technophiliac, I've got a *lot* of gear to turn off. Just looking around me now, I've got the following switched on:
- lcd flat-screen tv
- cd/dvd player, which is how we control the tv
- Playstation 3
- laptop
- 2 mobile phone chargers
- camera battery recharger
As we can see, I've got a lot of room for improvement, and I haven't even started to investigate the rest of the house yet!
Standby power accounts for up to 10% of the average household's electricity use. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty happy to take a 10% reduction in my electricity bill, so hopefully this will do the trick.
I think that this challenge is going to be one of the easiest and one of the hardest at the same time. Flipping a switch or two takes less than 10 seconds and is hardly a huge effort. But remembering to do it all the time... ah, there's the challenge.
I'm going to try to make it part of my regular routine. Apparently it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so I'll put that to test.
How about you? How many things do you have that use standby power? Can you think of any ways to make switching them off a daily occurence?
Comments
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Commercial Electricity - Compare
For a while there I was pretty obsessed with turning everyhting off at the switch...sort of like when you join a new gym and go everyday for the first two weeks! While not as vigilant, I still try and turn as much as possible off, especially at night...my husband bought me these remote control power boards which we use for outlets that are in hard to reach places (was not realistic to move the furniture every night) and the microwave and other energy intensive equipement are off all the time...for me, it has become a bit of habit as I am making my nighttime cup of tea to walk around and switch off things...now if only I could be as diligent about going to the gym!
Patty
That's a good point, Patty - making it a habit can really help it become a permanent change.