海角大神

One of the things I really liked about our house when we first moved in is how each room had multiple switches that controlled particular wall outlets. All you had to do was flip a switch in that room to cut electricity to the outlet.

At first, this was just a convenient novelty. We hooked up a few devices that we might want to turn on when we entered a room, like a digital picture frame.

After a while, though, I began to realize that this little feature can save a lot of money over time. Here are three examples.

The entertainment center Hook up your television, your DVD player, your stereo, and any other devices on your entertainment center to a single surge protector, then plug that surge protector into an outlet controlled by a switch. Whenever you leave the room, flip that switch.

What this does is it not only eliminates the power use from any devices you forgot to turn off, it also cuts out the phantom energy drain from devices that stay on standby mode. Several devices left on standby mode can easily devour 100 watts of energy, meaning that you鈥檙e down a dime during your overnight hours or during the workday. A simple flipping of the switch keeps this from happening.

The lighting In a dimly lit room, you can hook lamps up to those power outlets to provide whatever lighting arrangement you鈥檇 like. If that outlet is hooked up to a switch, you just have to flip a switch when you enter or leave the room to manage the lights. There鈥檚 no need to reach for lamp switches, and several lamps can be controlled by a single switch.

The small kitchen appliances Many of these eat electricity over time if they sit in standby mode. There鈥檚 no reason to have a food processor, a blender, a microwave, or other devices just sitting there sucking down electricity when they鈥檙e not in use. Put them all on a switch, then when you鈥檙e about to cook, flip that switch. Do your food preparation, then flip the switch back off. It鈥檚 much easier than chasing cables around.

How much does this really save you? Per use, it鈥檚 a small amount. As I noted above, an entertainment center might suck down 100 watts of power when everything is on standby. In other words, you鈥檙e devouring a kWh every ten hours, and the electric company charges anywhere from $0.10 to $0.26 per kWh.

So, let鈥檚 say you鈥檙e in your room with an entertainment center an average of four hours a day. That leaves twenty hours where your devices would be in standby mode. That鈥檚 $0.20 to $0.52 per day saved by having things on a switch.

Over the course of a month, that鈥檚 $6 to $15.60 saved by simply having things hooked up to a switch. Over a year? $72 to $187.20.

If you have any outlets in your home hooked up to switches, I recommend taking advantage of them. If you鈥檙e building a new home, plan to have some outlets hooked up to switches. If you鈥檙e an electrician, this is a straightforward home improvement project. Is it something worth hiring an electrician to do? Probably not, unless you鈥檝e got some pro bono work coming your way.

It鈥檚 just a simple way to save some money on your energy bill. Saving money becomes as easy as flipping a switch.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere. Images courtesy of Brittany Lynne Photography, the proprietor of which is my 鈥減hotography intern鈥� for this project.