Are Economic Smart Choices Common Knowledge?

Is it common knowledge that appliances, no matter how small, are able to leech small amounts of energy from your supply on the main grid when they are turned off, but still plugged in? Apparently it is common knowledge and this is in fact what happens when we are not looking and we call these appliances “energy vampires”. We know that that small LED light left on - on the television set standby setting, also uses energy and leaving it on is not that conducive to sustainable energy savings.  The problem is that to the normal consumer it is just not worth the effort to unplug all their electronics. Not even when it looks as though their bank balance is having its life-force sucked out.

The problem is also that not all consumers are properly informed, nor do they have a motivating objective to switch these appliances off. If you could save up to 30% on a power bill by reducing standby use, would this be a sufficiently aggressive objective for you?

The Upshot for Motivation

Saving more energy with less effort can be achieved to diminish the effects of energy vampires, and there is good cause to believe that an average household can save much more than $275 annually by behaving like informed citizens. Switching of power hogs and chargers not in use, using power strips, and unplugging electronics is not that big a deal.

Sustainable Power Saving Tips

For those of you who don’t want or can’t make the effort to wage a war against energy vampires – we are not all created in the image of Blade! Here are a few simple tips from scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory which can ostensibly help with substantial savings.

1. Save up to $90 a year by using “power-save” on your PC or laptop. How much you save depends on what equipment you use and how long you leave it turned on. Turn the monitor off when leaving your computer for more than 20 minutes, this will also rack up savings.
2. Reduce the brightness of TV sets to “home” mode – they arrive delivered in “vivid” or “retail” mode and this uses 25% more power. You may also activate “power- savings” modes on TV’s – save $43.04 annually.
3. Video games consoles use as much power when they are left on but not in use, as they do when you are playing games or watching movies – turn them off and save over $100 a year.
4. Switch off lights not in use for a $21.04 annual saving. Does it make sense to turn them off when you leave a room? Yes, if you are gone for more than 15 minutes in the case of compact fluorescent lights (CFL) and any length of time for incandescent bulbs. CFL’s will also save you $5 per bulb, per year. Get yours on sale now at Living Green.
5. Wash laundry in cold water – biodegradable detergents are designed for this use. Your clothes with thank you as they look better and last longer, your bank manager will thank you more when he sees you just saved another $18.58 this year.

Referenced from Yahoo Green.

Wind-powered car sets records in a 3,100-mile road test

Two German inventors have created an electric   vehicle that recharges the battery through a wind turbine carried in   the car. To test the vehicle, the duo recently completed a 3,100-mile   trek across Australia.

The total electricity cost for the Wind Explorer vehicle came out to less than $15.

So how’s that for a “cool factor”? We like good stories full of adventure and intrigue. But how about stories if ingenuity… I don’t think this car would fly (that’s an apt word choice) on LA’s freeways, but it does seem to provide us with a glimpse of the future. What if you could drive your electric car all day and instead of plugging in you hoist up your built in, electricity generating wind turbine. The following is an excerpt of an article we discovered on Digital Trends.

It is almost like German adventurers Dirk Gion and Stefan Simmerer saw the latest models of electric cars,  and decided to see if they could go out and make the manufacturers feel   bad.  In a move that will have green aficionados cheering and gearheads   gently weeping at the state of the world, a new electric car powered by a wind turbine has just been unleashed into the Australian wilds.

The vehicle, known as the Wind Explorer, uses an electric battery similar to those found in most of the current generation of electric cars like the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, but rather than needing to plug in every night, the   Wind Explorer comes standard with a 20-foot retractable bamboo mast that   holds a wind turbine to charge the battery.  The Wind Runner can also   be powered—or perhaps more accurately “dragged”—by a kite, assuming of   course that there is ample wind (they use large kites in crosswinds to pull the Wind Runner).  The result is a lightweight electric car that weighs under 500 pounds and has a top speed of 55 miles an hour, all with close to zero emissions.

Beyond setting all kinds of world records for this journey, including the first wind powered vehicle to cross a content, this car did it with a nearly emission-free trip across a continent in a vehicle. Even horses, which some might consider green in a sense, emit more pollution from the methane in their waste than the Wind Explorer.

It’s not the first time these 2 have been adventurous, They have also water skiied behind a cruise ship and climbed the Tibetan high plateau.

Like I said… cool!

Original Source: Digital Trends