Is your printer turned off? Not just asleep, but off? Or if it’s not your printer, maybe it’s your computer, your television, or even your furnace. The appliances that you might think are off are costing major green—about $19 billion a year nationwide, according to research from the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). (Save some green in your home by diagnosing your always-on energy use with the NRDC’s self-diagnosis guide.) This “always-on” electricity use boils down to about $165 per household annually. Usage includes appliances that still draw power even when off, in standby mode (but ready to power on quickly), or fully on but inactive. In northern California (where the study took place), always-on electricity accounted for 23% of household energy use. The researchers calculated that if the entire U.S. cut our always-on usage down, the way the most energy-efficient homes do, we’d save as much energy as Arizona and Alabama currently use, combined! In dollars, this comes to $8 billion across the U.S.—and it keeps 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution out of our atmosphere. MORE: How To Shop For Low-Energy Light Bulbs The Energy Vampires The largest category of culprits is consumer electronics, representing 51% of the energy drain. Large electricity use (lights, refrigeration, and heating and cooling) accounts for 15% of the always-on electricity usage. The other 34% is made up of miscellaneous uses like recirculation pumps, aquariums, and protected outlets. “One reason for such high idle energy levels is that many previously purely mechanical devices have gone digital: Appliances like washers, dryers, and fridges now have displays, electronic controls, and increasingly, even Internet connectivity, for example,” says Pierre Delforge, the report’s author and NRDC’s director of high-tech-sector energy efficiency. “In many cases, they are using far more electricity than necessary.” The Annual Cost of the 10 Most Common Energy Drains MORE: Save Money, Cut Greenhouse Gases: It’s Easier Than You Think Plug the Electricity Leak Fortunately, there are simple steps to reduce your always-on energy usage. Delforge recommends using smart power strips and timers, but he adds that the biggest onus is on policy makers. “Ultimately, policies like energy-efficiency utility programs and standards are needed,” Delforge notes. “Reducing always-on consumption is a low-hanging-fruit opportunity to cut climate-warming pollution.”
