Power Outage Energy Savings Tips

After our power outage on Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to approximately 2:30 a.m. (or that's when I woke up and found that the power was restored), I thought this article from the Star News on Sunday had some good ideas to help reduce power consumption and in turn help the planet.

Under the Home Electronics section:

• Unplug DVD players and TVs, or plug them into a power strip that you can switch off. Sixty to 80 percent of the electricity they use is consumed while they're idle, powering light displays and "instant on" features.
• Unplug "wall warts," or plugs attached to a black transformer box (like a cell phone charger). If they are plugged into an outlet, they suck up electricity whether charging another device or not.
• Ideally, unplug or turn off your computer when it's not in use. If you can't do this, use it's power-saving sleep mode, which uses 60 to 80 percent less energy than full-power mode.
• Turn off printers, copiers and fax machines when they're not in use. Don't rely on sleep mode.

Potential savings: As much as $137 a year.

Using power management on your desktop computer could save 900 kilowatt-hours a year. That amounts to 1,500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of driving from New York to Salt Lake City.