The single easiest thing you can do to cut down your electricity bill TODAY!

In practically every home, there is a room with a well-worn couch, an arm chair and a wooden cabinet with every horizontal surface covered with any number of electronic devices.
In our apartment, it is the living room, where I am currently sitting typing this on my laptop. Looking across at our TV stand, I can see a red light, a green light, and a faint white light, which correspond to our TV, our Wii (our Netflix provider), and our AppleTV. Also present, but not currently lit, is my Xbox, which only really gets turned on anymore when the baby finds the power button.
To my left is our Wireless Internet Router which is blinking away.
When you have an electronic device that is in standby mode, it usually means that although it is turned off, it is scanning constantly for a remote to tell it what to do. It is ready to turn on when the signal is received, and is usually consuming a significant amount of power. How much power varies from product to product, but let's use mine as an example.

We have a Toshiba 32" TV, that is about 6 years old. Older TVs use 10-15 kW in Standby mode, so let's call it 12.5 kW and split the difference. That's about 110 kWh/year!
The Wii runs at 8 Watts in Standby mode, if it was on standby all year, that is 70 kWh/year!
Our AppleTV is almost always on, because it is on a different channel than the Wii, which we use most often. It is usually warm, which is usually a good sign that it is chugging away, power-wise. It apparently runs at 48W, which blew my socks off when I learned it. That is a LOT! That's 421 kWh/year, as it is running photostream the whole time it is on. Man... I need to get into the settings menu and shut that off!
Our Xbox, which is "off" but can be activated using the controller (standby mode) uses only 2.2 W, so 19 kWh/year.

That is a total of 620 kWh/year, or a cost of about $55.04 (accounting for peak/off-peak use) a year before anything is even turned on!

Luckily, there is an easy fix, and most homes are ALREADY using it, so there is no cost to set up your energy-saving system. We all have our TVs, VCRs, Cable Boxes, Satellite boxes, gaming consoles and video streaming devices or DVRs plugged into surge protectors and/or power bars. And they all come with an easy to use off switch. Flipping that switch cuts the power, and eliminates your phantom power draw. Easy!

Now, we have the unit turned on for about three hours a day, typically after the baby is in bed, so we are being charged off-peak rates. We turn the unit ON to watch, and I flip it off before bed. This means 21 hours of phantom/standby power consumption is eliminated, saving us about $50/year.

Having been through a good number of homes to advise on energy consumption, I know that in a lot of homes, there are a lot more devices than we have (although maybe not power hogs like my Gen 1 Apple TV!!!), and often in more than one room where there is a separate living and family room TV set up. Multiply out your savings, for no more work than the flip of a switch!

Even George W Bush had the good sense to cut down on this "Phantom Power" Consumption. Check out his Executive Order for all government agencies for the purchase of products that consumed phantom power!

More resources on phantom power:
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=1194&TargetID=235
http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/vampire.html (EXCELLENT! This guy is great, and very honest about what is and is not important to worry about)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power
http://standby.lbl.gov/summary-table.html
http://www.electricityforum.com/news/feb11/Phantompowercostsconsumershundreds.html
http://www.electrical101.com/standby-power.html

Keep in mind that the newer your electronics are, the more strict the guidelines were for their manufacture, and the lower their phantom power consumption will be (Thanks Mr Bush!).

To calculate your own power consumption, take the phantom power use of your device (see the above resources).

Usage in Watts * 365.25 * 24 / 1000 = usage in kWh/year
For simple calculations, use the mid-peak rate of 10.9 cents per kWh (HydroOttawa) to find out how much it costs you per year.

Then figure out how many hours per day it can be turned off to find your potential savings!

Now take that money and do something more fun, you earned it with all that tedious math!

Out and about.

I've been feeling pretty bad for our dogs lately, and began taking them out for LONG walks after a few weeks of short walks to protect their paws from the cold. Warmer weather means they can catch up on exercise (as can I!).
Walking about in my neighbourhood, which is populated with a lot of homes at least 50 years or so old, meaning many of them are obviously underinsulated.
What jumps out are bare roofs and often HUGE ice dams on peoples' roofs. Yes, another blog antry about roofs.

I tend to focus (harp?) on roofs because they are such a clear indicator of escaping heat, especially when we get a warm winter spell. When the temperature gets close to zero, the combined outdoor heat and the
heat lost through the ceiling tag-team to melt the snow in no time. This means that when I walk by a house, I can see which houses are losing money due to easily preventable heat loss.

Take a look at your house next time you are outside. Read through the previous posts with the roof label and see if it fits what you see. These problems are very easily and quickly dealt with, and often with very short payback periods. The average for houses I have been through has been an estimated three to five years! If an attic takes $1500 of insulation to save not only energy costs but roof repairs, once the payback period is over, you will have an extra $300 to $500 at your family's disposal every year.

Not too shabby!