Turn things off when not in use

Simply turning off your television, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.  Unknown to many of us, most of these electronic devices stay on a ‘little bit’ even when apparently turned off.  What’s that about?  A ‘convenience’ factor introduced years ago, now almost universally a characteristic of electronics, keeps them ‘warm’ for ‘faster on’.  We were sold that ‘convenience’ years ago, in an age when ‘global warming’ was just a crackpot idea.  Well, it’s not.  And the tables have turned.  Leaving all your electronics a ‘little bit on’ for convenience, that’s the crackpot idea.

So to turn them really off, then plug them all into one or more power strips, the kind with the lighted switches to remind you when they’ve been left on.  Then teach your kids (and yourself) to really turn things off.

Lights left on when you leave the room?  A fan?  The rule of thumb is that when you are gone from a space for more than 45 seconds it will save energy to turn electrical items off rather then leave them on (there is a ‘surge’ burden associated with switching things on which accounts for that 45-second ‘breakeven point’).  But unless you are REALLY coming right back, take a moment to turn things off.