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Old 06-10-2008, 12:00 PM   #1
Default Power Vampire: Myth or Real?
chevy_chick95
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My husband lovingly calls me the power nazti. I unplug EVERYTHING. So I starting doing some research a couple weeks ago and I came across a few of these articles of myth busting power vampires. Check it out Here

What are your thoughts? Real? or Myth?
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Old 06-11-2008, 08:30 PM   #2
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We have a kill-a-watt at home - that's so funny!

I believe DH discovered that there is hardly any electricity that is used when the appliance is turned off. So, unplugging it would only save 1-3 watts.

He said the dryer used the most electricity (although he didn't test the dishwasher or stove/oven). I'm still going to use it though. We lived in a humid climate, and I'd rather use power than have smelly clothes. (I'm bad, I know.) Our washer is a front-loader and uses very little.

The refrigerator used 200-300 watts when running, but when it wasn't, it used almost nothing. I was excited to hear that! I'm a power nazi when it comes to keeping the fridge door open. It drives me crazy when my 2 yr old tries to squeeze in front of me and hold the freezer door open to grab a popsicle. I'm like "dude! Do you know how much electricity you're wasting!?" Of course, all he cares about is his "pop".

He also noticed that things on standby, like his computer monitor, hardly used anything. Also, he just built a new computer that uses a ton less than his previous one, since he included a much more energy-efficient power supply.

All in all, I can see why you go around and unplug everything. A penny saved is a penny earned, right? I'm too lazy, and like you, my DH would laugh his head off (or get annoyed) if he woke up in the morning and found that I unplugged his computer or the toaster oven.
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Old 06-12-2008, 09:12 AM   #3
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I swear I saw a thing on TV like this that showed how those things DO use electricity when plugged in but not in use.
I unplug things, but not to extreme. Laptop gets unplugged at night, but not during the day at all, etc.
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Old 06-13-2008, 05:08 AM   #4
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Well, I don't know, because we replaced all our bulbs with compact florecent, which brought our bill from 200 to 100...then, going around unplugging things has further lowered it from 100 to 74. So, I'm just going to keep unplugging :lol
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Old 06-14-2008, 02:55 PM   #5
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I noticed a drop in our electric bill when we replaced our bulbs with the CF kind. It dropped about $25 the very first month. I did unplug our coffee pot, and the computer stuff is on one of those power strips. We just shut down the computer, and then turn the power strip off when we're not planning to use the computer a lot. The thing I noticed the most with turning the computer off, is how much cooler the office is when it's not on! However, I can not convince Brian that by plugging everything connected to the tv & satellite receiver, into a power strip so that we could turn everything off when we went to bed and/or weren't home, we could possibly save a little on the electric bill. He basically feels that it would be too much of an inconvenience for him to do that!! LOL
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