Newsletter
| October 2007 Energy vampires Do you know what's really scary in your house at night? 40% of all electricity is used to power home appliances while they're turned off.
Appliances such as TVs, DVD players and those pesky power converters that recharge your cell phone and other electronics are energy vampires that create "phantom loads." A phantom load is the energy that's drained by appliances when they're plugged in, but not turned on. Spooky! Drive away those phantoms Put a wooden stake through the heart of energy vampires. No, we're not telling you to get rid of your home entertainment system, although getting out more may... but that's none of our business. Instead, use power strips or manually unplug your equipment such as DVD players, computers and cell phone chargers to save electricity and prevent it from disappearing into thin air. This is what we do At Pylon Studios all equipment that can shut down at night such as computers, printers and task lighting (especially those things that use power converters) are plugged into power strips. These are easily shut off so that we don't have to remember to unplug a bunch of things at night and plug 'em in again in the morning. Not only will you save on your energy bill you'll also cut back on emissions–you know, all that global warming stuff. If we could eliminate all phantom loads in U.S. homes we could shut down 17 power plants*. Imagine what could be saved if that same tactic were applied to U.S. offices!
"Energy efficiency is our biggest energy resource."** Taking simple steps like installing and using power strips to turn off the power to equipment during off hours is just one step in reducing energy use and saving money. Saving money could be one of our biggest revenue resources. * Statistic from Ideal Bite October 11, 2006 **Amory Lovins Plenty magazine, October/November 2007 Back to the Newsletter page Sign up to get your copy of the Pylon Page Back to the Newsletter page Sign up to get your copy of the Pylon Page |
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