Get rid off those "Energy Phantoms"

Protecting the environment and saving money is as easy as pulling the plug. There are appliances and electronic devices scattered around your home that are sucking electricity even when they aren’t in use. Who’d have thought that your cell phone charger could pull down an average of 1.73 Kilowatts per month; or that a printer absorbs 4.32 Kilowatts per month–just sitting there. May not seem like much, but if you add up all the items in your home that are secretly eating energy–it is a fairly large number.

Tucson Electric Power (TEP) has made the task of searching out and destroying the energy phantoms easy. Check out their energy phantom calculator. Just enter the quantity of each electronic device in your home and the calculator can quickly help you add up how much electricity each month is being wasted at your house. Now think about all the households in the U.S. The Census Bureau estimates that in 2007 there were 127,902,000 housing units in the country. I calculated a sampling of a few of these household items and the savings if they were unplugged.

Collective Usage of 127,902,000 Houses


kWh to be Saved Per month Millions $ to be Saved Per Month
Dishwasher 166,272,600 $15,348,240

Charger/power cube 184,178,880 16,627,260

Laptop charger 322,313,040 29,417,460

Doorbell 460,447,200 40,928,640

Microwave 276,268,320 24,302,380

Fax machine 856,943,400 76,741,200

Cell phone charger 221,270,460 20,464,320

Power & garden tool
charger 368,357,760 33,254,520

Multi-funct printer 552,536,640 49,881,780




I’m not suggesting that you have to unplug your microwave, doorbell or your dishwasher when they’re not in use (way too painful), but there are items that pulling the plug takes no more effort than flipping off a light switch. Figure out where you can unplug at your home. Collectively we can conserve millions of dollars worth of electricity and that little bit of effort can make a huge difference for the planet.