Bought one of those plug-in power meters a few months back, and finally got around to using it a couple of weekends ago. The device measures the power usage of individual appliances so you can get an idea of the amount of energy that they use.
My initial tests were interesting, and has led to me being able to make electricity savings equivalent to 11 free days of electricity a year (sounds much better than 3% energy saving, but that's what it is)!
Anyway these are a few of my findings:
Internet router (Netgear) - used 7.5W idle or if I was doing some heavy downloading on my Mac
iMac - 0.6W when powered down, 2.6W in standby, 78W on but idle (screen on), about 92W in use
Separate computer speakers - 3.4W on standby, on or in use!
Each of my cordless phones - 2W (have four, but only really use 1)
Tabletop radio - idle 4W, in use 7W
...... you get the picture.
Anyway, by turning off the router when not in use, removing three unused cordless phones and unplugging a few things when not being used (like the radio and computer speakers etc) I can save enough electricity to get 11 free days a year. Fab!
Needless to say that the electricity meter will get a lot of use around the house (and parents/parents-in-law houses) over the coming months and should pay for itself fairly quickly - but the main object of the exercise has been the eye opener.....
Fag-packet calculation - if every one of the 25 million households in the UK can make a 20W saving to their overall power requirement for the majority of the day, that equates to 500 MegaWatts saving (which is normally about one of the turbines in a typical coal or gas fired power station).
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