News Unplug It, Turn It Off
Turns out our appliances are wasting energy even when they’re not in use. According to NW Current, power-sucking “vampires” (microwaves, computers, TVs, home stereos, etc) use as much electricity as 25 average-size power plants (some 52 billion kilowatt-hours annually), costing the average American household about $100 a year. According to the article, “if everyone in the United States were to start using more-efficient Energy Star appliances and devices, they could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 billion pounds of carbon dioxide annually — the equivalent of taking 3 million cars off the road.”
Read more about it here.
Interesting stuff. The only appliance I keep plugged in aside from the fridge is the microwave and it's a cheap little model. I unplug my laptop after each use and I do turn off my desktop computer, rather than leave it on like many people do.
I learned quickly how to conserve power, as in Vegas power bills often went through the roof. Here, they don't as much, though I received a couple of $110 bills a while back and that was enough to redouble my efforts.