These five appliances are costing you hundreds of extra dollars a year.
Saving is as simple as changing a few habits.
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Which appliances are costing me?
A study found that energy consumption from inactive appliances cost the average household an extra $165 a year. Experts call this a “phantom load.” it accounts for 5-15% of energy use in the typical home. Click here to read more.
The average household spends about $2,400 on electricity and water. By identifying some of the most expensive utilities you can save hundreds.
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1. TV, cable box, and DVR
A TV usually will accumulate about $10 of phantom loads a year. Anything connected to it just adds to your bill. Attaching a cable box will likely cost you another $10 when when it is turned off. This is also true if you have audio or speaker systems linked.
Your DVR is costing you the most in this category. They usually drain about $30 worth of energy in a year.
Gaming consoles eat up power when they are turned off too. However, it usually only amounts to a few extras dollars per console per year.
Unplugging your entertainment systems could reduce your bill by $20-$70, rather than just turning them off. Unplugging so many systems could be confusing, so simplify think about getting a surge protector. All devices plugged into one could save you money just by flipping a switch.
2. Lights
Everyone is probably guilty of leaving a light on when you leave the house. It seems harmless, but could cost you over time.
Depending on how energy efficient your light blubs are , you could be costing yourself an extra one cent per hour per lightbulb. The average room probably has four bulbs. If you leave the lights on while you’re sleeping every night for a year you’ll pay over $50 for lighting in one room that you didn’t use.
Most American homes have around 40 lightbulb sockets. So in addition to turning off your lights, consider switching to the more energy efficient LED bulbs, which could save you about $225 annually.
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3. Computers
Turning off your computer doesn’t completely stop the flow of energy. Additional devices like monitors, modems, printers, and routers are also expensive phantoms.
However, some devices should stay on even when not in use. An example of this is routers, they should stay on to ensure a reliable connection. This means that saving on computers isn’t as easy as flipping the surge protector switch.
Experts suggest turning off your computer if you’ll be inactive for more than 20 minutes and shutting it down if you’ll be away for over two hours.
Properly turning off your computer and monitor and unplugging your printer could save you about $25 a year.
4. Faucets
Faucets aren’t technically a phantom load. However, a leaky faucet can lead to a much more expensive utility bill than most other appliances combined.
You can expect to pay a additional $20 or so a month if you don’t fix your leaky faucet. The amount of water wasted by dripping out of your sink is astonishing. One faucet dripping 10 times a minute will equate to roughly 350 gallons of water a year. That is enough water to fill a hot tub.
5. Chargers
Most people leave their phones, laptops, electric razors, or anything to charge overnight. Generally they won’t cost you more than a few dollars a year.
If you’re living alone and usually only charge your phone at night, you’re probably okay to leave your charger plugged in. The savings would be so minimal, its not really worth the effort to unplug it daily.
However, if you have multiple devices or live with other people, the costs stack quickly. Depending on how many chargers you have plugged in at once, you can save about $20 a year but unplugging them if you’re not using it.
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