Are you An Energy Hog?

Are you an energy hog?Â Well are you?

I found one of Forbes.com's stories in pictures about what hogs the energy in our homes.Â Not surprisingly, plasma TVs topped the list.

But did you realize that if every home in the United States had one of those digital picture frames displaying around the clock that it would take five power plants to power them all?

Do you have and Xbox36 or PlayStation 3?Â According to this article, "The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that consoles in the U.S. collectively consume around 16 billion kilowatt-hours per year, roughly the same energy usage as the city of San Diego."

How many chargers do you have that are continually plugged in?Â From the article: "Today most U.S. homes use more than one charger. Add them all up across the country, and they could consume the energy output of several power plants."

Love your fish?Â Did you realize that your aquarium uses about the same number of kilowatt-hours per year as a home computer or a dishwasher?

The article speaks about how much more electricity incandescent bulbs use than compact fluorescent bulbs.Â But I don't think that's true in our house.Â In our entire house (and I think one time that I figured out that we have 35 places to put light bulbs in lights and lamps), there is only one CF bulb that has lasted more than a month.Â The others have died in 1-2 weeks, even though their packages boast that they should last "up to 5 years".Â We have gone back to using incandescent bulbs, and, in fact, bought them in bulk any time we had a few bucks to do so, since we're supposedly facing never being able to buy them again.Â (And did you know that in our township, you're not supposed to throw CF bulbs away in the trash, but to keep them somewhere in your home/basement/garage for the times - twice a year - when we're allowed to take toxic waste to the township to dump?)

Here's the whole story:Â Surprising Home Energy Hogs

Or the whole story in pictures:Â Surprising Home Energy Hogs (in pictures)

Comments: 33

Tropica G. Jan 22, 2011, 4:23pm UTC

Great information...thanks for passing it along!

Marilyn M. Jan 22, 2011, 4:30pm UTC

You bet. Once years ago, I had the power company come and give us suggestions for saving energy. They said that one thing we should all do is to unplug everything except our refrigerator every night before going to bed. You know we don't do that. :-)

Tropica G. Jan 22, 2011, 4:37pm UTC

I have read and have done that for awhile....my Mom didn't like me doing that, so when I get in my own home...I will be sure to make that a habit. I might not unplug everything, but I'll do my best to keep things unplugged when not in use...

Dorothy H. Jan 28, 2011, 7:56pm UTC

I guess I unplug about half the stuff after use. I've had great success with CF's. I've had the same CF bulbs now for about 3 years. Haven't had to replace one yet, and my electric bill dropped $100.00 bucks a month.

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Heather - child of God, C. Jan 23, 2011, 12:09am UTC

I told my husband that and he doesn't believe me. I get so frustrated. I unplug and he replugs. I understand somethings need to stay plugged in. The things he doesn't use, the mixer, the blender and shake maker... and toaster oven aren't plugged in. But the toaster, and the lights in the house... I almost feel like it's my job to get as many as I can unplugged or turned off. RRRGGGHHH

Col. George W. Jan 24, 2011, 2:57pm UTC

Your husband is right. An appliance or anything else that is not being used burns no electricity plugged in or not.

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Matthew M. Jan 24, 2011, 3:18pm UTC

I don't understand why your CF's would be going out so quickly. I've used them for years with no problems.

However, I think LED's are the next big thing. They will replace CF's. They last much longer and are cheaper to make (I think). I haven't tried them yet, though.

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Thomas R. Jan 24, 2011, 4:02pm UTC

I've been preaching CFL's for at least a decade. In areas that built faster than the grid was built to handle, people complained that their incandescents burned out regularly. So I convinced our customers to use CFL's. They can usually take small power surges better. But so many things in our homes are electronic, including stove controls, fridges, dishwashers, etc., I suggest whole house surge suppressors. They protect your entire electric panel and the whole house. A large surge will damage almost everything in your house and some insurance won't cover it! A $200.00 suppressor will protect your whole house and most are backed with loss insurance!

Marilyn M. Jan 24, 2011, 4:17pm UTC

But when CFLs burn out waaaaaaaaaaaay too quickly (a week to a month!) and are sooooooooooo expensive and once they do burn out have to be kept for toxic waste disposal twice a year, they make absolutely no sense to me at all.

Marilyn M. Jan 24, 2011, 11:11pm UTC

It hasn't been just once or one batch, RF. We've bought them from many different stores at different times. And now we've given up on them. In December, we bought up every incandescent bulb we could find. I understand that they haven't yet been pulled from shelves, so we plan on continuing to buy them in large quantities just in case we can't get the government to keep allowing us to purchase them.

Marilyn M. Feb 1, 2011, 1:23am UTC

As I said above, I've come across others with the same problem. You want to pay for the electrician?

Marilyn M. Feb 1, 2011, 12:19pm UTC

I won't have to do that if I can continue using incandescent bulbs, RF. Thankfully, that is one of the things that Republicans are trying to address in answer to "we the people."

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Linda T. Jan 25, 2011, 10:28pm UTC

I thought we were the only ones who have problems using cf bulbs. They burn out very quickly in our home. When we first tried using them we thought it was the lamp and even replaced the lamp but the bulbs still burn quickly. Our home wiring has been updated so not sure the problem is with my wiring it may be with the grid its self. I know we could save energy around our home if we tried. With four adults living under the same roof we can rarely come to an agreement about how things are done. It is a problem we need to work on.

Marilyn M. Jan 26, 2011, 3:47pm UTC

It's good to know that we're not alone in having these bulbs burn out too quickly. If they do eventually force us to only use them, we're going to go broke.

Marilyn M. Jan 26, 2011, 3:48pm UTC

That's why we keep buying up all the incandescent bulbs we can find in the stores.

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Are you An Energy Hog?

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