Alternative Eenergy Today

We have added many new green products to reduce energy in our homes. But have we forgotten about many of the small energy consumers in our home that are wasting energy every day? I am talking about those small little black power supplied plugged in all around our home.

Have you noticed that whenever you buy some new green product, toy, radio, or printer it comes with one of those little square power supplies? I must have 7-10 sitting in a box that I have collect over the years and I have no idea what they belong to anymore even some that are from green products. The external power supply is a great device and has helped reduce the sizes of electronics, but it is also a power consumer. Whenever the power supply is plugged in, it consumes power. It does not matter if something is attached or not, it still consumes power.

Another area to look at is audio/video equipment, TVs, video games, converter boxes, computer equipment or the latest green products. This equipment comes with a standby or power down mode of operation.

This unseen energy consumption occurs every night in small and large business alike, probably more so because we assume that when we leave work someone will turn the lights out.

So when you go home tonight under every desk is likely to be a power supply consuming power all night. If we look at a normal office space we will most likely find 3-5 of these little power supplies plugged in right now. If you multiple the number of supplies in your office space by the number of offices (counting every cubical) in the business you will have a large number of power supplies using electricity ever night.

They can’t use that much energy!

Many of the energy companies who love green products have stated on their websites or in their literature that 15% of your electric bill is paying for equipment that is sitting in standby mode or those small power supplies.

To better understand the problems think of it this way. Any equipment in standby mode or using an external power supply is designed to use a step-down transformer. The transformer converts the standard 120 volt from the electrical socket to a much lower voltage that is used by the device it is connected to. This transformer is nothing more that hundreds of feet of small copper wire connect to the power plug. So whenever the unit is plugged in it is drawing power.

In order for a TV/stereo/DVD to respond to the ON/OFF button on the remote it must have some power supplied to the unit that senses this action. This sense unit requires electricity to operate and is where the other end of the transformer is connected. So in order for it to work it must be supplied power 24/7 to operate.

So how do we prevent all this power consummation?

It is not that hard. One of the simplest ways is to use more green products or a device that has been around for years, a power strip with an on/off switch. Remember the thin power consoles with switches that sat under power hungry monitors? This was a solution a little ahead of its time.

Make sure you buy power strips with an on/off switch; this is the only way to make sure there is no connection to the 120 volt power in your home. When you turn the switch off you are truly disconnected from the power company and therefore no power consumption.

I agree, it does seem inconvenient or it did until I saw the change in my electric bill. All from using a power strip.

Does this really work?

I can only provide personnel experience. I pass by my power meter daily and have noted its rotations. It was rotating at about 1-2 rotations per minute.

I bought power strips for the entertainment system, computer system and recharging area (phones, batteries, etc).

So to test my theory went to the meter and counted how many times the black line of the wheel passed in front of me in one minute. It was about 1-2 times. Next I turned off all the power strips and checked the meter. I could not believe what I saw, the meter almost stopped running. The rotations had dropped to 1 rotation every two minutes.

With everything there is an initial cost. Mine was around $20 dollars for these new green products, look around for the strips on sales. Maybe you can get them cheaper, try it you may find you save some money and reduce your carbon footprint at the same time.

Michael

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