| Updated: 5/13/2008 7:56 pm |
Published: 5/13/2008 4:03 pm |
The high cost of living means finding new ways to cut corners and save money. But did you know there are things plugged in at your home right now that are costing you money!?
You might be surprised to see the worst offender. But there are things you can do right now to cut your electric bill as much as 25 percent.
Seems harmless... But that printer could be costing you! Big time!
"I had a printer that was actually pulling 90 watts in standby current, meaning just sitting here it was like having a 90 watt light bulb on," said Homeowner Tom Bartman.
Bartman used to shell out more than $200 a month to his electric company. But a simple analysis of the appliances in his home helped knock $50 bucks off his bill.
"A lot of people don't realize that an appliance, even though it's plugged into the wall not doing anything it's using what's called standby current," said Bartman.
The plug for something like your cell phone charger, even when the phone's not charging, is sucking up electricity.
"Little things like that if you pull those out of the wall or put those on power strips so you can turn them off make a difference," said Bartman.
Watch too much TV and you'll pay! Bartman hooked up a kilowatt meter on a tube TV while playing a DVD.
The watts jumped as high as 153 but flat screen TVs are even worse. His LCD TV and entertainment center adds 12 bucks to his monthly bill.
With spring finally here space heaters aren’t a problem but the next time you think about plugging in that space heater -- think again! The kilowatt meter jumped dramatically to 1,500 watts.
That adds up to $97 bucks a month. So take a lesson from Bartman every little bit helps.
We can't do much about appliances like refrigerators but we can control things like cell phone chargers and your home printer. Simply unplugging those could save you and over time those savings will add up.
