Prepping, homesteading and living the simple, green, independent life.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Powerbars VS Wife: Update!

A few weeks ago I wrote about how I'd like to much our TV and other entertainment devices on a powerbar so I could shut them all down with one button at night to save electricity by preventing phantom draw.

I hadn't done this yet because my wife was afraid that if we shut off things at night our devices would lose their settings.

Well, the other night while walking by our living room I absentmindedly shut off a wall switch thinking it controlled the kitchen light.  When the TV went quiet I realized that I hit the wrong switch but as the TV turned off a light bulb in my head turned on!

I didn't need a powerbar for our entertainment devices because they're already plugged into an outlet controlled by a wall switch!

This wall switch is meant to control a plugged-in floor lamp but we had forgotten about this switch because we always leave it on.

By accidentally turning off the switch we found out that we don't lose our settings on the devices when the power goes off and after negotiating with my wife she agreed to try turning off the devices overnight.  The only exception is our PVR which if turned off at night won't record the shows she's programmed to record.

I figure we'll save around 5kw a month by turning off this stuff an night!

When we build our next house I'll be sure to include wall switches; it's much more convenient than reaching down to turn off a powerbar.

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