Friday, May 25, 2012

It's Easy Being Green: Become a Vampire Slayer

You have vampires in your home. They’re not exactly undead, but they’re appliances that continue to suck energy even when they are turned off. According to the Department of Energy, vampire energy loss represents between five and eight percent of a single family home’s total electricity use per year. That’s almost an extra month’s bill! Luckily, these vampires are easy to stake. Unplug larger items, like plasma televisions, which can use the equivalent of about $160 a year (1,400 kiloWatt hours) when not in use. Or go to smarthomeusa.com and purchase an electrical strip that actually stops the current when the appliance is not in use (around $30). If you don’t want to turn the appliances off, try reducing the brightness of your television and computer screens by half, and power consumption of the entire machine will drop by about 30 percent.

You're appliances are also big energy consumers. We'll talk tomorrow about "plugging away".


Article by Sandy Wieber, SVP Marketing, MidAtlantic Farm Credit

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