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when you have 20+ electrical appliances in your home using just one watt of power, that’s 20 watts being used!” A single cellphone charger will consume one watt while plugged into the wall, even without a phone plugged into it. The same cellphone charger will also consume 4,5 watts of electricity with a cellphone plugged into it that is already fully charged.
The same cellphone charger will consume eight watts of power while charging a cellphone,” explains the journal. A stand-alone digital video recorder set top box will consume 48,5 watts of power while turned off.
A digital cable DVR set top box will consume 43,5 watts of electricity while turned off, while a digital cable box without DVR will consume 33 watts of electricity. A satellite set top box with or without DVR will consume 33,5 watts of power while turned off.
Almost everyone has a TV in their home, so how much electricity do TVs consume while turned off? Rear projection TV will consume 48,5 watts of electricity while it is turned off! A standard CRT TV will consume 13 watts while turned off. Most people have a mini stereo system, one of those with speakers, CD player, AM/FM radio, etc all built into one unit.
They will consume 24,5 watts of power while turned off. Most people have one of these in the bedroom, living room, or kid’s bedroom.
A home theatre audio receiver that most people have hooked up to their TVs in the living room will consume 19,5 watts of electricity while it is turned off. So with just the few things mentioned above, that’s a lot of money per year just for electrical devices turned off for 16 hours every day.
Most people probably have more than one of each of those items in their homes that are turned off, but still plugged in consuming power. According to the Zesa website, large poorly insulated geyser uses 3kW of electricity or 3kWh (units) every hour. If it is on only half the day, it adds 1 080 units or US$100 to your bill every month! A standard 150-litre geyser should cost U$50 per month with only five family members. A pool or borehole pump running 24×7 costs US$72 per month.
A two-plate cooker or stove being used to cook sadza every meal will cost 2kW6 hours/day x US$36 per month. A fridge uses on average 150kWh or US$15 per month. Each light left on all night costs US$3,60, so a small house with 10 lights will cost US$36 per month with 100W bulbs.
A heater will take two units per hour, so leaving it on all night will add US$72 per month. A high-density suburb house with one family can expect to use US$87 per month. A high-density suburb house with three families living in it, a geyser and three heaters in winter can expect to pay US$460 in a month. There are three main ways to save money and save electricity by stopping electrical appliances from leaking electricity.
Some methods work better than others, but are not as convenient. The cheapest and most effective is just by unplugging electrical appliances when they are not in use. This method works great as there will be no electrical usage at all since the electrical appliance is completely unplugged and cannot use any electricity at all. This method is the cheapest as consumers don’t have to buy anything new.
The next cheapest and least effective method is buying a standard surge protector and plugging devices into surge protectors, when not in use, turn off the power switch which will cut off power to all the devices plugged into the power strip.
“Standard power strips and surge protectors are priced well and will pay for themselves if you turn them off and stop your electrical appliances from using electricity while turned off.
“The reason this method is not as effective as you would think, is that each surge protector will still consume electricity, so even though all your electrical appliances are not, the surge protector will still consume around six watts of electricity. So it is still a great method to use and cheap as well.”
“The next cheapest method and second most effective is using a smart power strip or smart surge protector. The smart surge protectors will cut off power automatically to only the devices that are turned off, while still powering the devices that are turned on and in use,” adds Zesa.
These smart surge protectors cost about the same or slightly more than regular surge protectors, but use less electricity and you don’t have to turn off the power button when you’re done with your devices, just simply turn that appliance off! The smart surge protectors will still consume electricity when not in use, but not as much as normal surge protectors.
The smart surge protectors will consume around one watt while in use and less than 0,25 watts while turned off. So the next time we leave our homes, let’s make sure that we prevent electricity leaks and save our hard-earned cash.