SMALL APPLIANCES

Many small appliances around your home may have a continual readout displayed. For instance, VCRs, coffee makers, stereos and the like will have the time or station continually showing even if the appliance isn't being used. This type of energy usage, though small, can add up over time. Put VCRs, stereos, computers and other smaller appliances that tend to remain on even when not being used, on the same power surge protector strip. This way, one switch can turn off all of these appliances quickly and easily. This also helps to protect those appliances from power surges if a rolling black out should occur.  To see how much electricity many small appliances use and what they cost to run per hour, click here.

If someone in your home is dependent on a medical appliance, you may qualify for a reduction on your utility bill with the Medical Baseline Allowance program.

A UCAN member recently purchased a watt-meter (available in many electronics stores) to measure the "phantom load" of various appliances. This usage indicates how much electricity appliances consume by just being plugged in but not in use.

NOTE: If your computer runs on Windows 98, 2000, ME or XP, you can fine tune the energy consumption of monitor, hard drives and fans On average, a 17-inch monitor can consume up to 180 watts during normal use. The same monitor can power down to 10 watts when in sleep mode. Advanced Power Management gives you the power to control how long your computer stays on, when you monitor should turn off, and when the hard drives should spin down.
To adjust these settings, right click anywhere on the desktop where there is no icon.
Click on Properties
Click on Screen saver
Click the button marked Power or Settings for the "Energy Saving Features of the Monitor."