I am now using a plug strip that I use to turn off my T.V., Microwave, Fax or any other appliances that are stealing energy when not on use. I imagine for businesses , schools etc. this must be a greater waste such as soda coolers, computers, L.E.D. That again are still taking energy when the building is closed. I have heard of a " Plug Mizer" is there such a device that interrupts the appliance to the plug outlet ( about the size of and ice cube ) that allows you to choose what appliance you want off and then click a remote when leaving the house to turn them off and on when you return. Our Rotary Club has as a Community Project helping: people, municipalities, businesses in energy reduction and saving money.
Dick Enright
Bridgton Lake Region Rotary Club, Maine
Phantom Energy Loss
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Am I right in thinking that in the US power points do not have on/off switches? In New Zealand all power points can be turned off 'at the wall' by flicking the switch, which makes the 'switch off' message much simpler, although many people of course still don't do it. In my work with businesses, I'm always looking for opportunities for people to swtich appliances that have LED displays etc off at the wall, eg microwaves, but sometimes the location of the power points makes this impossible.
Barbara
Barbara Hammonds
Waste Minimisation Officer
Hi Dick
How about taking this on as a project: pushing for power points in the US to have on/off switches as the standard? It's a longer term project but would make it a lot easier in the end. In the meantime, of course, the work is to get switching off into people's thinking at home & work. Do you know about centameters and data loggers? One way to make power use visible. There's a school locally that has a power use project that one of the senior classes runs, and seeing the power use go up and down when room lights are turned on & off, and when the electric hand dryers in the toilets are used, is very instructive!
Barbara Hammonds
Waste Minimisation Officer
Am I right in thinking that in the US power points do not have on/off switches? In New Zealand all power points can be turned off 'at the wall' by flicking the switch, which makes the 'switch off' message much simpler, although many people of course still don't do it. In my work with businesses, I'm always looking for opportunities for people to swtich appliances that have LED displays etc off at the wall, eg microwaves, but sometimes the location of the power points makes this impossible.
Barbara
Barbara Hammonds
Waste Minimisation Officer
Ralph Cavanaugh of National Resources Defense Council says that NRDC is trying to get this (a switch by the door that would switch off all lighting circuits - as opposed to, say, refrigerators) into the state building codes (the US has no national building codes, alas). I told him I thought this was OK at best, as it would have the unintended consequence of making Americans even further careless of energy consumption and switching things off as they are done with them because we will basically train people to think "Oh, I'll shut it off when I leave the house." A much higher priority for me is a master energy usage display next to the home thermostat a read out of how much gas, electricity, and water is being used at that moment, including how much has been used since the last bill (expressed in dollars). Studies have shown that, even with no other actions, giving people the ability to know how much energy they are consuming results in a significant (10% on average) reduction in consumption. Ideally these would be incorporated with thermostats there would be a standard interface so that all thermostats can display the information from all three standard utilities (gas, electric, water).