Consumer

by Terri Gruca
Minneapolis (WCCO) ― Your home uses a lot of electricity. The biggest electric users include your air conditioner, your refrigerator and your clothes dryer. Yet most homes have many other electronic devices that are increasingly pulling more power.

Ryan Ballmer, a self proclaimed gadget guy, always wondered how his obsession for the latest electronic gadget added up.

"Every time you turn around someone's phone is going to buzz or we're recording another TV show," said Ryan.

The Ballmer family is really no different than most--increasingly powered by everything electronic: computers, DVRs, game machines and big screen TV.

The Energy Information Administration found Americans use 60 percent more electricity today than they did 20 years ago.

"I'm just curious how much electricity is consumed?" asked Ryan.

WCCO-TV bought a contraption called the Kill A Watt to find out. To use it we simply had to plug the electronics into the device, and it pops up with a reading telling us how much energy they are using, even when the electronics are powered off.

The Stereo

We started with some of the basics--and right away found some big surprises. Like the family's small stereo. Powered on it pulls 20 watts of power. Turning it off only cuts that in half, which means it's still using 10 watts of power just plugged in. That costs you about a penny-and-a-half each day or 55 cents each month.

"Wow," said Ryan. "That's interesting."

The Treadmill

Ryan's wallet gets a workout even when no one's running on their treadmill. It constantly uses five watts of power when it's turned off. Turn it on and run at a brisk jog and pay more than a penny an hour.

The Toaster

One of the more surprising finds was in the kitchen -- a test of the toaster. Where we found browning bread uses 1,500 watts of power.

After seeing that reading Ryan laughed and said, "No more toast, toast is out."

Since you don't usually use the toaster for long it's estimated the toaster costs about 20 cents a month.

Cell Phone Chargers

We checked a few of the things many of us have always been told to unplug, like those cell phone chargers. Turns out the ones we tested only use power when they're connected to the phone. The regular cell phone used one watt of power when it was charging.

The more your phone can do the more power it may need. Ryan's Blackberry used four watts. But even if he left his phone plugged in and charging all day, it would cost less than a penny a day.

"I thought that would be worse," said Ryan.

iPod Docking Station

The iPod uses three watts when it's charging, five watts when it was playing music -- about a penny a day.

Big Screen TV

Most of the appliances we checked didn't use power when they were off, but there were some big exceptions, like that big screen TV Ryan and the boys enjoy so much. It uses 64 watts of power even when it's not on.

"It's off?" asked Ryan.

That means the big screen costs them 11 cents a day just to have it in the house. When the TV is on it uses more than three times that amount of power -- 210 watts.

Ryan watches the meter numbers increase, "Wow, it's really rising."

Considering the average family watches four hours of TV a day -- this TV costs Ryan's family $5.41 a month on top of what they already pay for satellite service.

Game Systems

Ryan's family has three X-boxes -- one for each of the boys and one for him. The X-box uses two watts of power when it's turned off, much less than the TV. But once it's running it pulls about 145 watts, which means it costs about a penny each hour to play.

Digital Video Recorder

The biggest energy offender in Ryan's house was the everyday convenience so many people love -- the Digital Video Recorder. You can't turn these things off. We found the newest DVR the family had pulls 83 watts all day long. That means just having one of these plugged in the wall in your home can cost you 15 cents a day.

"You'd think it'd run more when you're actually doing something with it, it's be more of a draw, but apparently that's not the case," said Ryan.

And get this -- the older model TiVo the family uses upstairs only used 17 watts costing them three cents a day.

New Electronics Not Always More Efficient

One of the biggest lessons Ryan's family learned is that newer doesn't always equal better. Many newer gadgets can't be unplugged without having to be reprogrammed. They often contain microchips that require some energy to keep things working -- things like inner clocks or settings that help them power up quickly. And we have more of them.

"It's very difficult to go and unplug these things," Ryan admits.

It is possible for manufacturers to make products that use less power when they are powered down. Energy Star currently lists 280 televisions that use three watts or less when they are powered down.

The savings may appear small, but it's estimated we waste $1 billion a year on just TVs and VCRs because they're using power even when they're off. The Department of Energy figured the average consumer could save $600 a year if all of their electronics were made more energy efficient.

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