I got currious the other day and decided to look into the parasitic loads of some electronic hardware around the house and to say I was surprised is an Understatement .
Now many people don't think about things like parasitic loads as they're hidden and most equipment doesn't list their standby demands but you can find it. For example, I recently had to choose between an HP and Brother Laser Printer. Both were the same price, the brother was a bit faster. It's when I looked at the standby power (sleep mode) consumption that I was shocked. The brother used 4x the amount of power in standby compared to the HP. 20 instead of 5 watts. Doesn't sound like much but if your anything like me, you tend to leave some hardware on 24/7 and 20 watts adds up damn quick. It works out to 14.4KW per 30 days, while a 5watt standby load works out to a meager 3.6KW per day. See any difference?
So the first step is to figure out what are the biggest parasites in your house (TV's are usually a big one) with Printers being next. Don't forget the stereo, boom box, cable box, microwave, vcr, cordless phones, phone chargers, xbox, ps2/3 and other game consoles. In fact don't forget anything that has a power brick.
So the easiest way I've found to cut power completely is to use power strips and turn them off. Sure it's sometimes a PITA having to remember to turn it back on but my overall power consumption was cut by 1/3 in my household.
General Energy Saving Tips:
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