I recently saw an infomercial on television where a teenager asks another kid why her cell phone charger is still plugged in while the phone wasn’t connected to it. In the end, the message was to save energy by unplugging cords for devices that are not in use. But what a lot of people seem to ask about is whether or not it save them much money – that is how much money can you actually save by unplugging electric devices such as microwave, computer and toasters when they are not in use. That fact you can save pretty good amount of money on your monthly electricity bill, while helping the environment.

Although we can’t realistically tell you 

because every household got different electronics, we can tell you how much it cost. According to the Energy Star government organization company, 40% of all electricity bills comes from cords and adapters that are in their standby power mode – that is even though the device is turned off, it is connected to the wall electricity outlet and ready to be on anytime the turn on button is pushed.

The study conducted by the University of Berkely found that the eliminating the standby power mode can save about 25% of the electricity bill. This standby is a big culprit, as it averages around 67 watts per household. That amount is far more than we will actually waste by burning a 60-watt bulb day and night all year long. 

I will stop writing here on an interesting note. I read somewhere that on a typical day when we are using our laptop computer hooked up to an internet cable modem, an estimated 0.01KWh power will be consumed per hour. That would cost about two cents if the computer is left on for the whole day even when we go somewhere else. That might not be a lot, but 2 cents per hour will equal 50 cents in 2 days and $15 per month. Now that’s a huge amount at the end and we haven’t even added other unused adapter and electronic devices cords that are plugged in for no reason, other than our laziness.