Eliminating phantom power saves me money

If you don’t watch Oprah, then you should. A lot of times, you’ll get practical and practicable gems of advice on living your life better, just by watching the show. One particular show on going green caught my attention, and in it Sheryl Crow and her friend Laurie David mentioned about

… eliminating “phantom power” on the (tour) bus. If any charger or appliance is left in an outlet, it continues to use power-even if it’s turned off. “Not only are you using energy you don’t need to be using, but it goes on your energy bill,” Sheryl says.

Save money by going green. Get it?

Once I heard that, I thought yeah, I kinda know or not know about that fact already, but I doubt I’ll save much just by unplugging. Then Simran Sethi went on and stated that doing so will actually lower your energy bill by up to 40%! I scrunched my nose and went REALLY?! Still, I decided to do just that. Right after the show, I roamed around my little apartment and started unplugging all the appliances that weren’t used, and I’d do the same and switched off all lights and whathavenots — save for the fridge and the computer plugs in my brother-in-laws’ room — every time before I leave the house.

Yesterday, after around two weeks down the road, I received my electricity bill. Guess what? They’re right! I saved 25% on just unplugging my appliances! That is a very big deal for me, because I spend approximately RM200.00 a month on electricity, and now it’s down to RM145.00 — I could buy two months’ worth of my prepaid mobile phone credits with the RM55 leftover; I could have saved more than RM600 a year and buy me a round-trip ticket to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore for my annual shopping spree! I was only around two weeks of practicing this energy-saving method, so I think this is just an amazing result.

Related post:  Draft posts: to inspire, or to expire

Another Oprah show featuring David Bach was also an eye-opener for me, but that’s a story for another day.

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Posted on 23 August, 2007 under Life in reality and tagged with , , ,

7 comments

  1. I’m a big fan of Oprah too.. I especially love her shows about makeover.

  2. We’re going to do this right away. I know about the draw that some electronics have but keep putting off doing anything about it.

    1. Lorna says:

      Let me know how it goes, maybe do a post of it in your blog.

  3. cyberpunk says:

    hmm i thought that was just a myth. but now i’m going to try it.

    when i still watched tv, i loved oprah too. i wasn’t crazy with the celebrity interviews and the psychologists but i really enjoyed the practical advices and the empowerment she made people feel after helping them with how they look and with the way they handled their finances.

  4. Thanks for the reminder: I am really bad with unplugging unused appliances. As a matter of fact, my computer is ON 24/7: I am going to make a point of shutting it off at least at night: no use in keeping it on then anyway, and who knows? I may save some money, on top of being a good citizen.

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