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Energy Hog Electronics!

Ever wonder why, despite all your efforts, your electric bill keeps going up?

While each of your appliances is probably as efficient as ever, the electronics industry marketers have been quite successful at filling your house with “miscellaneous” electric loads!  I wondered myself what was using all that electricity.  So, I invested in some electric meter loggers and did some monitoring, with some interesting, and I’m sure to many, surprising results:

My Cable TV Digital Video Recorder (DVR) Set-top box uses 34 watts 24 hours a day!  That’s 300 kWh per year (about $60 per year here!)  Of course you can unplug it but then it will take 15 minutes to “boot” back up and you miss half your next show!  My refrigerator only uses 450 kWh!  Even without the DVR, my digital cable boxes (3 of them) each use 21 watts all the time!  That’s 180 kWh each ($36)!

My little bookshelf stereo uses 25 watts when on, but 18.5 watts when “off”.  So, using it only 2 hours a day will still mean 170 kWh per year ($34)!  I’ll be unplugging that one!

My main stereo, which I hardly use any more, has a powered subwoofer that uses 22 watts all the time!!  That’s 193 kWh/year ($39)!  I’ve now hooked it to a remote plug switch so I can easily turn it on only when I use it!

Anyone else think this is absurd!!!

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