The Magic Power Strip

If 2007 was the year of the magic bulb – the CFL - let’s make 2008 the year of the magic strip – the power strip.

We've channeled Leonardo DiCaprio and replaced light bulbs with compact fluorescents. What is next on the green path? 

A few months ago, I looked around the house and office and took an inventory of every plugged-in device. Specifically, I was looking for phantom loads, electronics that suck energy out of the wall even when they are turned "off." Vampires some affectionately call them. Leaking electricity is another name. It turns out that any device with a power supply (black box transformer), remote control, or electronic clock is a culprit.  Measuring the standby power loads showed that the worst offenders were the TV, DVD player (oy!), TiVo, computer, printer, and copy machine. They may have looked asleep, but they were really awake, drawing current from the wall.

According to the Department of Energy, in our average home, 25% of the electricity used to power home electronics is consumed while the products are turned off.  Phantom power loads cost people $7 billion per year. An estimated 37 power plants are needed to fuel this vampire power. Per the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the wasted energy sends over 97 billion pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Are we going to take this standby power lying down?  We do not have to stand by while phantom power increases our energy bills and global warming.

How to Outsmart Vampire Power

Enter the power strip. We can save energy costs and save the planet with the flip of a switch.  It's fun, it's easy, it's empowering.

1. Optional - measure it:  For the eco-geek, measure how much electricity your devices draw when supposedly off. A great tool for this is the P3 Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. Its LCD display counts consumption by the kilowatt-hour, the same as your local utility. Or just feel the black box on the power supply. Chances are it stays warm to the touch.

2. Gather a few power strips:  Round up your favorite power strips such as these below. A boring one from a hardware store will work just fine too.

Smart Strip:  As seen on the Oprah Winfrey Show, it senses when you have turned off one device and powers down the rest of them.

Power Strip Liberators:  Big bulky transformer boxes putting a cramp in your power strip strategy?  These liberators will set you free.

Power Squid:  This friendly octopus ensures no more wasted outlets from big plugs. www.powersquid.com

3. Put electronics on power strips:  Plug in especially the following standby power hogs: TVs, DVDs, VCRs, TiVos or DVRs, computers, monitors, WiFi routers, printers, copy machines, video game players, cordless phones, and cell phone chargers. Good candidates are devices with a black box transformer on the power cord, a remote control, an always-on red light, or an electronic clock.

I ended up with one power strip in the office and one in the living room. My energy bill is now down to $15 per month. True confessions:  I decided to forgo the cable box and TiVo in a 6-month experiment. I experienced reality show withdrawal the first month but am in recovery.    

Don’t bother with blenders, fans, and other purely mechanical devices, unless of course they have a new electronic smart interface that says hello when you walk in the room.

4. Switch power strips to off:  When not using the gadgets, flip the strip's switch to off. Watch the energy savings and CO2 savings roll in. You should save at least the equivalent of one full energy bill per year. Smile because vampire appliances no longer have you by the neck. You are in control.

Here are some other high-wattage power-saving tips:

Screen Brightness:  Reduce the brightness of your TV or computer screen by half, and watch power consumption drop by about 30 percent.

Computer Power Options:  Set your computer to automatically hibernate after a set time of inactivity. On a PC, go to Control Panel - Power Options.

Unplug Chargers :  Orlando Bloom's favorite tip, don't leave chargers for cell phones, PDAs and iPods plugged into the wall.

Energy Star:  Look for new appliances with an Energy Star label, the mark of higher energy efficiency.

Designer Power Strips:  Call me an eco-fashionista, but I think there is a market window for designer power strips. Imagine if you had a choice of power strips in attractive colors and modern styles. Barneys, Target, visionary utilities, Dell, HP, Google, Apple - this green opportunity is calling your name.

Not to get too crazy here, but there could be colorful skins for power strips. Companies could even brand power strips and give them away as energy efficiency presents. I think strips have the potential to be sexy.

When you search for designer power strips, all you get is the PowerSquid Calamari edition pictured here. It is moving in the right direction, but you be the judge of whether this cephalopod is high fashion or not.

The E-Rope Modular Power Strip is promising with its sleek futuristic design. In this concept strip, each socket can be rotated for easy access. Twisting a socket 90 degrees disconnects the flow of electricity.

Think of all of the electronics plugged in right now across every household and business in America and the world. Now imagine all of them on power strips, and all of those switches turned off when not in use. This is huge low hanging energy efficiency fruit. This is within our power.

If 2007 was the year of the magic bulb, then we can make 2008 the year of the magic power strip. Let's save the planet one socket at a time.