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Turning on the fan or AC to beat nature's heat's one thing. But using energy to crank up the fan and AC to cool you off from the heat of other energy-guzzling gadgets you've turned on's rather silly. That's why in my list of 8 Ways to stay cool without an air conditioner, switching away from conventional bulbs that use more energy to create heat than they do to light up a room tops the list.
Lots of other electricity-sipping gadgets, however, also create unnecessary heat. Take the warm computer you're probably reading this post on, for example. That heat may be something you just need to put up with while you're visiting BlogHer.com -- but only a hot inconvenience that runs up your electricity bill if you're not even in front of the computer.
Thus: Unplug or power down unused gadgets and save $3 billion! Okay -- That figure's for all of the U.S., but the point is, YOU can save some money by unplugging your gadgets when they're not in use. Above's a Vampire Energy diagram from GOOD magazine (click to biggify) to give you a visual illustration of just how much energy you're wasting -- and how much money you could be saving. Now, take some cooling action:
1. Say no to plasma TVs. These things are so inefficient I don't know why anyone buys one. In fact, some of these waste so much of people's money and our energy that California wants to ban the worst of energy-hogging HDTVs starting 2010. If enforced, "the new standards are expected to save Californians between $18 and $30 a year per TV set in energy costs," reports Wired.
2. Power down those game consoles. These fun gadgets unfortunately keep on sucking up a whole lot of energy even when they're not being used -- so much so that Natural Resources Defense Council put out a study detailing exactly how wasteful Playstations and and XBOXes are. Follow the link to find out how to enable the power saving features for these game consoles.
3. Keep computers cool. According to WWF's Climate Savers Computing site, "The average desktop PC wastes nearly half of the energy it consumes as heat." Follow the link for step by step directions to better power management for your computer.
4. Get power strips. If manually unplugging things seems so much of a hassle that you just end up not doing it, get power strips instead. I have one in each area of the room that I plug all gadgets in that area into. Most of the time, all the strips are off, since I've gotten into the easy habit of flicking the strip's switch whenever I'm done using a gadget. Grist's Umbra recommends a smart strips if you can't even remember to turn off that one switch.
5. Shock yourself into anti-vampirism. Kill-A-Watt and other energy monitoring systems show you just how much electricity you're wasting. Getting one of these gadgets could give you the knowledge you need to remember to turn off all gadgets. If only public eco-shame or eco-pride will motivate you into action, look into Tweet-A-Watt, which'll announce your un-eco ways -- or perhaps display your energy-efficient habits -- to all your Twitter followers.
Since all those power vampires are generally turning wasted energy into heat, your home will be cooler for your energy efficient endeavors too. And at the end of the summer, you can be proud of your lower utility bill. According to CNN, you could save $100 a year by slaying power vampires.
Related links:
>> Della Watson at The Green Life's put together a series of posts on beating the heat sans AC. Tip #3 is "Feel the Breeze"!
>> No Impact Man's got a simple tip for staying cool in NYC sans AC: "What we do is close all our windows during the day and keep all our shades closed so the sun and hot air can't get in. The result? We needed long sleeves in the apartment."
>> Rosa Golijan at Lifehacker's put together a roundup of readers' best tips on staying cool this summer, sans AC.
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BlogHer Contributing Editor Siel also blogs at greenLAgirl.com.
