When looking into saving energy using green products, have you forgotten those little 3 inch square power supplied in almost every power socket in your home? Those little black supplies are consuming power whenever they are plugged in.

Every time we purchase some new green products, phone, small portable vacuum cleaner, radio, battery charger, computer speakers or audio surround sound speakers to name a few they come with these little power supplies. When you look around; you will be surprised how many you will find plugged in.

When looking for other power consumers look no farther that your TV/audio/video system even if they are one of the new green products. If you have an ON/OFF switch on the remote the component it belongs to has a standby power supply.

This unseen energy consumption occurs every night in small and large business alike, probably more so because we assume that when we leave work someone will turn the lights out.

The consumption continues to occur after the lights are turned off. Under every desk, is a little power sucker or two draining energy all night. For example, a normal cubical with a desk and a computer may have 3-5 of the little black power supplies plugged in. Multiple those by 100 employees and you have 300-500 plugged in every night continuing to use electricity all night long.

But the cute little boxes and my new green products couldn’t use much electricity!

Most utilities will state that close to 15% of your electric bill is those little power supplies and standby electronic equipment. That will amount to $65-$95 dollars wasted per year.

With the reduction in size of electronics we have reduced the amount of electricity required to run these green products. This is where a device called a step-down transformer is required. A step-down transformer is nothing more than long loops of copper wire connect to the power plug. The wire used in the transformer is often several hundred feet long. Whenever the unit is plugged into the wall it will feel warm to the touch, indicating it is drawing power.

In order for a TV/stereo/DVD to respond to the ON/OFF button on the remote it must have some power supplied to the unit that senses this action. This sense unit requires electricity to operate and is where the other end of the transformer is connected. So in order for it to work it must be supplied power 24/7 to operate.

So how do we prevent all this power consummation?

One of the best and simplest ways is to turn the TV/audio/video equipment off by using a power strip with an on/off switch.

Make sure you buy power strips with an on/off switch; this is the only way to make sure there is no connection to the 120 volt power in your home. When you turn the switch off you are truly disconnected from the power company and therefore no power consumption.

This may seem a little inconvenient but it will save you money and it gets to be a habit in a few weeks so you don’t even notice.

Is it worth the investment or should I just buy more green products?

I pass my electric meter daily and see it spinning away even though I am using many new green products. I have also noticed my neighbors meter rotating about 1-2 rotations per minute when there is nobody home.

After buy some power strips, I plugged in the computer systems, video equipment, and battery chargers.

After turning off the power strips I checked the power meter, instead of the 1-2 times a minute I had dropped to one rotation every 2 minutes. That is a vast improvement and money I don’t have to pay the utility company.

Try it and see what you can do. It will only cost you a few power strips, if I am right this will pay for itself in a few months and you can spend that money on more new green products.

Michael