NICE Assignment: Get Unplugged

Good morning! It's a snowy day in my neck of the woods, and I'm sitting in my home office watching the plows go by every ten minutes or so. At least the glare off the snow is making my room nice and bright!

Usually the NICE Assignments center around being nice to other people, or even yourself, but I thought today, as I'm witnessing the beauty of mother nature, it would be a good time for an assignment about being nice to the earth. Nothing overwhelming. Just something small that we all could do more often.

Today's Assignment: Get Unplugged

My husband, Rob, has gotten me into the habit of unplugging certain items when I'm not using them. The cell phone charger, the toaster, the printer, the Wii. Each time I forget, which used to be quite often, I'd hear about how wasteful of a habit it was. And he's so right.

The article Phantom Energy: Unplug and Save from liveearth.org says the following:

Did you know that electronic devices burn excess energy when not in use?

Even when switched “off,” appliances and accessories like chargers for mobile phones, digital cameras, power tools, and television monitors continue to draw power as long as they are plugged into an outlet. This “phantom energy” use accounts for up to 10 percent of an individual’s electricity use… that could be around $200 dollars per year for a typical home.

Here are tips to combat the phantom load:

• Unplug to save money! To make it easier you can also plug all devices into a surge protector that can be clicked on and off. Real Simple states, “Sixty to 80 percent of the electricity [TVs and DVDs] use is consumed while they’re idle.” Yikes!
• Get organized! Store all chargers in one location and just retrieve when needed and return when item is fully charged. If they are plugged in, they are sucking up electricity whether charging a device or not.
• Buy energy-efficient appliances. A list of products can be found at EnergyStar.gov.

So you'll not only save energy, but you'll save some cash too. It's a win-win!