You’ll be shocked what you’re waste energy on
Posted by DavidM in Save energy | 13 August 2006
I watched the BBC’s ‘Are we changing planet earth’ programme a couple of months ago. It gave a good summary of the global warming situation for the mass audience. The core of the programme was the very persuasive chart showing the rate of change in global temperatures and the underlying causes – man-made pollution.
But there was one simple statement in the programme that struck me most. That the average household spends 10% of it’s electricity bill on leaving appliances on stand-by. Wow. This was much higher than I thought.
I felt slightly smug at that point as we always turn our TV off completely when it’s not in use (even the children are trained). But I thought I’d do a little audit around the house and I got rather a shock:
- 2 radio alarm clocks in my bedroom
- alarm clock in the spare room (which is used no more than 1 day a month)
- modem for the computer
- radio/CD player in my daughter’s room
- night-light in the hallway
- clock on the electric oven in the kitchen
- radio/CD player in the kitchen with clock
- microwave with clock
- video player that we almost never use but the Sky signal goes through it so the picture goes fuzzy if the video is unplugged
- Sky+ box
And this doesn’t include the numerous clocks in the house that run on batteries.
The microwave is a good example of completely wasted energy. It’s on standby 24-hours a day powering a digital clock on the front of the unit. But it’s stuck round a corner in the utility room so you can’t see the clock anyway. We use it for 2 minutes in the morning to heat the children’s milk and for 5 minutes in the evening to cook veg. And the switch on the wall is right next to it and easy to reach.
As I’ve mentioned before, the hardest thing about change is getting into a routine so I’m training myself to turn off the kitchen radio/clock, modem and microwave when I’m not using them and I’ll sort the video out when I have 10 minutes. Despite some minor grumblings that she keeps finding things turned off, my wife has started to do it too.
So not only have I reduced my environmental impact, but I’m cutting my electricity bill. Leaving more money in the pot for the solar panels!
