Valerie from Calgary, AB writes:
A few months ago Oprah Winfrey did a show on being frugal. She mentioned that if people unplug appliances when not in use that they will save money on their electric bill. The example on the show was an American woman who had a typical electric bill for her house of $400 per month, but when she unplugged most or all of her appliances when they were not in use, her electric bill went down to $160 per month. Now that is quite a savings! Not only is that good for being frugal, but it’s also good for the environment.
I would like to see manufacturers of new appliances be encouraged, perhaps by government, to make new appliances with a built-in, shut-off mechanism so that when a person turns a lamp or an appliance off, it actually goes off and stops withdrawing a bit of power from the electrical outlet. I would also like to see a TV commercial that inspires people to unplug appliances not in use. People could use a power bar to conveniently turn a few appliances off. Since I rarely use my stereo, I have the lamp by the stereo and the stereo plugged into a power bar, which stays off unless it’s used.
I have my TV and VCR plugged into another power bar, which gets turned off at night before I go to bed and not turned on again until I watch TV the next day. I also unplug my microwave and toaster before bed and only plug it in the next day when I go to use it. Personally, I have been unplugging as many appliances as I can, so I will see how that affects my expensive electric bill.
Ryan Kadowaki from the David Suzuki Foundation Climate Change Program responds:
I didn’t see the episode but it sounds like a great message from someone who has a lot of influence in how people can change their lives. The power bar is a great idea, making it easy to turn off all of your appliances in an area with one pull. We did mention this in one of our past newsletters , but it would be worthwhile to reinforce this message at some point.
Tags: conserve energy, electric bill, frugal, power bar, unplug appliances
We participated in Earth Hour last year, and this year our daughter (who is in environmental programs at VIU) thought of doing Earth Hour every Saturday evening. THEN, going a step further, I thought we could do Earth night every Friday and Saturday nights, from app 11pm til 7am, but shutting the main circuit breaker for the house off. I wanted to do it this past Saturday night, but my husband was concerned about the fridge/freezer. I told him that I’d check online to see how long fridge/freezers stay ok as long as they are not opened: Sunday I confirmed my guess that they would be ok for over 24 hrs min…so 8 hrs is just fine!
I know that doing this is definitely doing something, but I’m looking to find out an authoritative source on exactly how much we will be doing, both for the environment and for our wallet. I must admit that the financial side is a big incentive, as our last BC Hydro bill for Dec 15/Feb 15 was $780!!!
Basically I think they need to get all electircla devices to at least behave like computers in that they have automatic standby mode after a certain amount of use. Like hot water heaters (electric) these things are a beast, stereos are a good example as well.. just set them to turn off.
Obstacle is power companies do enjoy profits even though they are regulated and as long as we are heading for larger government we will have a harder time seeing this happen.
Manufacturers of new appliances be encouraged, perhaps by government, to make new appliances with a built-in, shut-off mechanism so that when a person turns a lamp or an appliance off, it actually goes off and stops withdrawing a bit of power from the electrical outlet, this must be a good idea.Nice!Hope to browse something like this again…