Although your electric bill does fluctuate during the year, you might find that it is rather expensive even for the few items you actually use. However, there is a hidden cost in powering up your computers and other equipment. This is not only having the equipment running but having the hardware plugged in also. When products are connected to an electrical outlet the product is always drawing a current, so it is using electricity even when the product is turned off. Unless you have a power outlet with an on/off switch, you need to consider disconnecting equipment from the electrical outlets when not in use. It is possible to save a considerable amount of energy by doing just this.
When running a desktop computer PC, you are going to use anywhere from 60 to 250 watts of electricity. This even includes when the computer is running a screen saver. The power does significantly drop off when it shuts itself down into sleep or standby mode, but it does continue to use a current. When using a Mac computer, the power runs from 87 watts up to 120 watts. Laptop computers do not use as much energy, generally ranging from 15 to 45 watts, depending on the size of the computer and the brand. However, this is generally the amount of watts the equipment uses per hour, so keep that in mind.
In order to determine how much electrify you would save in a year, you need to determine how many hours the equipment is turned on when you are not running it per day. If you are using a computer that uses 100 watts, and you leave it powered on for six hours a day, that is 600 watts. You then multiply it by 365 days a year to determine the total amount of watts you spend money on where it is not necessary.
If you want to find out exactly how much money this is you actually need to contact your electricity provider. The cost for electricity varies between cities and locations throughout the country. They are able to give you this information, which you can then take and multiple it by the total number of watts you use every year on the computers and other hardware. This gives you the final number for how much money you spend that you don’t need to and how much money you’d save in a give year.
