You might find your eco friendly window cleaner on sale somewhere and save money, but I find a lot of these eco friendly window cleaners to be a bit expensive. So I’m going to give you a recipe to make your own eco friendly window cleaner that you can make at home with 2 readily available ingredients! All you need is vinegar and water!

Homemade Eco-Friendly Window Cleaner Recipe

1 cup cold water
1 cup vinegar

mix the vinegar and cold water together in equal parts and you’re done! Make sure you use cold water to keep streaks to a minimum. Hot water will contain more minerals in it that can cause streaks.

Note: You can mix in more vinegar if you need more cleaning power, or more water if you need less.

You can use this eco-friendly window cleaner on any glass surface, mirrors, windows, glass top tables, and more! This mixture will leave your glass surfaces clean and streak free! That’s right, no smudges using this homemade window cleaner!

This eco friendly window cleaning recipe is also very cheap to make so you don’t have to spend a lot of money to go green cleaning your glass surfaces! You can also buy vinegar online from amazon.com to save some more money! If you want to get rid of those hundreds of newspapers laying around your home you can also use the newspapers as a rag when cleaning your glass surfaces. You can still recycle the used newspapers even after using them to clean your glass surfaces.

I hope this homemade eco friendly glass cleaning recipe helps you save some money and the environment! If you want to read about more eco friendly cleaning recipes check out our Eco Friendly Cleaning Products section!

Methods to Stop Windows from Leaking

Install New Windows

Installing new windows is expensive, but well worth it, as they will stop all the leaks all year round if installed properly. But again installing new windows can be a bit pricey so if you don’t have the money you may want to try a cheaper method of stopping leaking windows.

Re-caulk Old Leaking Windows

Re-caulking windows is cheap and easy to do, but will not stop all the leaks. Re-caulking your windows will only stop leaks around the window’s frame and between window’s glass and it’s frame. Re-caulking your windows will not stop leaks between the glass frame and the window frame or between the glass that slides and the other glass as those have different seals to keep them moving free so you can open your window. Plus re-caulking the between the glass and the glass’s frame could look a little tacky if not done right as this will put caulk on your window’s glass.

Covering Windows with Plastic

Covering your windows in plastic however will be a temporary fix just for the winter season. Covering you windows with plastic will block all air leaks in the window. Sometimes covering your windows in plastic can be a little pain when the plastic is not wanting to go where you want it, but is still very easy to do.

You can buy window kits that come with all the materials needed to cover your windows with plastic. These window kits are pretty nice except some of the double sided tape they come with is kind of cheap and do not have a very strong hold.

I would recommend purchasing 3M window kits or Duck window kits as the tape in these window kits are a lot stronger than some of the other brands of window kits, but you can buy any window kit you like.

How Much Money will I Save Covering Windows with Plastic

This is very hard to answer as every home will have different amount of leaks, different temperatures they have the thermostat set at, different temperatures of the air outside, and efficiency of the furnace. But you will save money on gas or save money on electric as your furnace will not have to work as hard to heat the cool air the windows let in or to replace the hot air that leaked out, as well as not have to run as often. I don’t like not placing a dollar amount and math on these go green tips, but there is really no way for me to calculate an average amount of money saved by covering your windows with plastic.

How to Install Plastic Window Covers

Installing the window kit on your leaking windows is very easy to do. The kits come with easy to follow directions, but here are the steps on how to install plastic on your windows.

Things you will need:

• Measuring Tape
• Hair Dryer or Heat Gun
• Scissors
• Razor Blade or Utility Knife (optional)

Installation Steps:

1. Measure the window to see how big to cut your plastic. Measure the window frame, wall, or window sill, depending on which one will be the easiest for you. I recommend putting the plastic on the wall if you don’t have any obstacles in the way like an extended window still.
2. Use the scissors to cut the plastic to the width and height of the window, I usually add a 3-4 inches to each measurement just in case I cut crooked as I don’t use a straight edge or framing square, I don’t need my cuts to be that accurate.
3. Now hold the plastic up to the window to make sure it fits properly.
4. Clean the surface with alcohol that you plan on putting the double sided tape on. Some window kits come with alcohol wipes.
5. Add tape to the window frame or if you don’t have any obstacles in the way you can add the tape to your wall or window sill to cover the entire window. Use the scissors again to cut the double sided tape. Make sure you press the tape down hard running your finger over the tape.
6. Peal the other side of the tape off to expose the second sticky side. This can be tricky getting the strip off without pulling the tape off completely. So just peal with caution.
7. Now stretch out the plastic starting at the top and align the plastic with the tape on top first. Push the plastic to the tape. You may want to have someone help you at this point to make sure you don’t get the plastic bunched up.
8. Now stretch out the sides and press them to the tape, don’t pull too hard when stretching as it may pull the plastic from the tape.
9. Now stretch out the bottom of the plastic covering and press it to the tape.
10. Go over the plastic again pressing it hard against the tape. Don’t worry of you have extra plastic hanging over or if there is a bit of bunching up in the center, we will fix this.
11. Now time to shrink the plastic window cover using a hair dryer or a heat gun. This plastic is low temperature heat shrink, it does not need a lot of heat to shrink it. If you use a heat gun be very careful not to melt the plastic as heat guns can produce a lot of heat. If you are using a hair dryer use the lowest heat setting first to see if it works. If not use a higher heat setting. Start heat shrinking the outside edges first.  like to heat up the tape area first to try and make it stickier. Then I work my way inward then just look around for any crinkles. Do not shrink the plastic too much. The more you shrink the plastic the more stress it puts on the tape. I don’t shrink mine until they are perfect because I tend to have the plastic pull from the tape if I do this.
12. Use the razor blade or utility knife to cut excess plastic from the edges.
13. Done! You may now clean up your scraps and throw them away before your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife starts nagging about the mess you made! Then move on to the next window.

• How big of a generator do I need?
• How many watts does my generator need to be?
• How many solar panels do I need?
• How many watts does the wind turbine need to put out to power my home?

So I made this calculator for all of you people going green and wanting to generate your own green power. You can use this calculator to calculate how many watts you need to generate to power your home. Keep in mind that this will calculate the amount of watts you need to generate for a grid tie system or an off grid system with a battery bank. If you are not using either one of these systems then you will just need a generator that can generate the same amount of watts or greater watts than your peak wattage pull at any given instance.

Please note that if your electric company supports grid tie systems and you create less power than you use, you will be charged for only the electric you used of the electric company’s. If you generate more electricity than you use the extra electricity goes to the electric company and they pay you for your unused power.

Watts Generator Calculator Usage

To use this calculator you will need to know 3 things for the formula to work, your yearly kWh usage, the inverter’s efficiency rating, and the amount of hours per day you will be generating electricity.

Yearly kWh Usage: You can find your yearly kWh usage by looking at your electric bill. Your electric bill will either have last 12 months kWh usage listed or each month’s kWh usage listed individually. If your electric bill lists yearly kWh usage enter that number. If your electric bill lists the last 12 months individually, add all 12 month’s kWh usage together and enter the number. If neither is listed you can call your electric company and ask the power company for your kWh usage.

Inverter’s Efficiency Rating: This will be listed in the inverter’s specifications sheet. You can even look this information up online on the manufacturer’s website or even on other websites that sell the inverter. I think the average inverter efficiency is around 96%. Remember do not enter the % symbol in the box below, just the number itself.

Hours Generating Electricity: This will be the average number of hours per day your generator, wind turbine, or solar panels will be generating electricity each day. If you are using a wind generator I’m sure you can look up the average wind speeds for different hours of the day for your geographical area on the internet. For those of you using solar panels to generate your electricity you will want to enter the number of hours each day you have direct sunlight. You can look up solar insolation map on the internet and find a map of your area. Remember to look up the solar insolation maps for each month and take an average. Add all the months together then divide the sum by 12 to get the average hours of sunlight for the year.

Please enter only numbers in the boxes below, do not enter any symbols. Thanks.

I hope this wattage calculator has helped you figure out what size generator, wind turbine, or solar panels you need to get for your green electricity! If you’re not sure which alternative electricity system you want to use, you can check out Solar Power vs. Wind Power Pros and Cons.

Both solar panel and wind generator systems are similar as far as how they are setup. You can have the wind generator grid tied or off grid, same as solar panels. Both the solar panel (photovoltaic panel) and wind generator will need a battery bank if you are using an off grid system. Both of these renewable energy systems will produce clean energy and help the environment as well as save you money in your home!

Advantages and Disadvantages of Wind Generator Systems and Solar Panel Systems

Now onto some of the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative energy system. None of this information is from my own personal experience as I do not have the financial funds to support the research. So the information about these renewable energy systems have came from researching the internet, talking to people that have these alternative energy systems, and of course some calculations of my own (prices, efficiency, etc.).

Wind Turbine Generator System Pros and Cons

The main advantage of wind generator is that they can produce electricity day or night as long as there is wind. Wind generators need less space on your land to produce sufficient electricity. Wind generators are able to produce more electric for the same price. If you spend $1,000.00 on wind generator you can produce 1kW – 2kW, with solar panels you may only produce around .5kW – .75kW with the same $1,000.00. Wind generators have moving parts, so there is always wear and tear on these moving parts. Bearings can go bad, propeller blades can be struck by objects, and heat may be generated. Your wind generator will be installed on a tower or pole of some sort to gain height where there is more wind, allowing lighting to possibly strike your wind generator. As wind hits the propeller blades there will be noise created, think of a fan and how they sound, or even taking a rope and swinging it fast in circles. You will get some of this noise from your wind generator. The propellers of the wind generator can also produce shadows flickering. Birds can get killed from flying into your wind generator’s propellers. There are vertical wind generators which will prevent this. So the quick break down of the wind generator system:

Pros of Wind Turbine Generator Systems

• Produce electricity day or night
• Less space taken up by the wind generator system
• Produce more electricity
• Cost less

Cons of Wind Turbine Generator Systems

• More maintenance
• Moving parts wear out
• Lighting strikes
• Propeller noise
• Shadows flickering
• Hazard to birds

Photovoltaic Solar Panel System Pros and Cons

Solar panel systems are pretty much maintenance free, after installation only thing I’d recommend is cleaning them. Just like windows in your home, they will collect dirt and dust which will block sunlight from entering the solar cells. You can add more solar panels to an existing solar system easily to produce more electricity. Solar panels need direct sunlight to produce electricity, so during shady hours or night time, you produce little or no power. Solar panels are a little more costly. You can not stack solar panels so each panel will have to be side by side taking up more space or land. Baseballs, rocks, etc. can chip, crack, or break solar panels.

Pros of Photovoltaic Solar Panel System

• Almost maintenance free
• Add more panels easily

Cons of Photovoltaic Solar Panel Systems

• Need cleaned
• Generate electricity only in good sunlight
• Expensive
• Takes up more space or land
• Break, chip, or crack from baseballs, rocks, etc.

Which Renewable System is Best for Me

Now that you know the advantages and disadvantages of wind generators and solar panel systems you can decide which system is best for you. If live closer to the equator or have lots of open room with lots of sunlight, solar panels will probably work best for you. If you have lots of birds in your area, solar panel system may be best in your home. If you don’t mind the noise or shadows flickering and don’t mind having to replace a few parts every now and then wind generators are probably your best option. There are also a few links I will find and post from NASA, that shows wind and sun for different areas. So you can see what is more abundant in your area, sun or wind. As for myself, I want to have a system with both solar panels and wind generator, so I can get the best of both. After doing so I will also report back here to give my own feedback of which is better.

I hope this information on solar panel systems and wind generator systems has helped you decide which alternative energy system is best for you. After you know which alternative electrical system you are going to use, you can read How Many Watts Do I Need to Generate to calculate how many watts you need. If you have any questions or comments, please ask below. Have a great day and remember to come back for more information on how to go green and save money!

Why Does My Furnace Consume Gas When Not In Use

Your pilot light is still burning gas. Your pilot light is a small flame that stays lit 24/7. This little flame is used to ignite the furnace’s burners which heat your home.

Now there are some furnaces on the market that use an electronic igniter instead of a gas pilot light. If your furnace uses an electronic igniter then this article may not save you much money.

Why Does My Furnace Consume Electricity When Not in Use

There are electronic valves that turn on and off your gas to your main burners and also to your pilot light. There is also a thermocouple that senses heat from pilot light. If your pilot light goes out, the thermocouple tells the electronics to shut off the gas to the pilot light so you are not filling the air with natural gas or propane. Each of these electronics are consuming electricity 24/7.

How Much Gas Does My Pilot Light Use

Your pilot light on your furnace or fireplace is a flame a little larger than what a candle would put out, but your pilot light is hotter. Your pilot light on your furnace or fireplace will consume 600 – 900 BTUs! Some would try to argue saying there is no way a pilot light consumes 600 – 900 BTUs, but it does.

How Much Money Does a Pilot Light Cost

This will depend on how much your pilot light consumes and how much you actually pay for your natural gas. This is usually printed on your gas bill. But on average 600 – 900 BTUs would cost you around $0.08 – $0.11/day. Which would be $2.44 – $3.35/month, or $29.22 – $40.18/year!

How Much Money Will I Save Turning Off Gas to Furnace

This depends on where you live. Here I could probably turn off the gas and electric to my furnace 6 months of the year. So I would save $14.61 – $20.09/year just by turning off the gas to my furnace during the summer months.

How Much Money Will I Save Turning Off Electric to Furnace

First if you are using central air conditioning system, you can not turn off your electric to your furnace as the air blower on the furnace is used to blow cold air through your home. For those of you that do not have central air, you can turn off your gas and electric to your furnace to save even more money! I’m not 100% sure on how much electricity is consumed by just the electronic valves, sensors, etc. in my furnace as I haven’t measured it yet, but with my electrical knowledge in circuits and such, I would have to guess around 10watts are being used for these devices 24/7. So shutting of the electricity to your furnace would save you an additional $4.39/year!

So saving gas and saving electricity by turning off your gas and electric to your furnace will save you a total of $44.57/year!

How Much Does Vacuuming Floors Cost

Well most vacuums on the market today consume 12 – 14 amps, the average home will have a 12 amp vacuum. So 12 amps x 120 volt = 1,440 watts. Average person will vacuum their home around 2 times a week. The average person will probably run their vacuum cleaner for about an hour each time they vacuum their floors. So that’s 2 hours a week spent vacuuming. So there are 52 weeks in a year, so 52 weeks x 2 hours = 104 hours per year vacuuming. So 104 hours x 1,440 watts = 149,760 watt hours. Most electric companies will charge you per kWh so to convert 149,760 watt hours to kWh we need to divide by 1,000. 149,760 watt hours / 1,000 watts = 149.76 kWh per year. What does that convert to in money? Average cost per kWh is $0.10, so 149.76 kWh x $0.10 per kWh = $14.98/year.

NOTE: The more often you vacuum, the longer you take to vacuum, the more money it will cost to run your vacuum cleaner.

How Can I Save Money Vacuuming

You can buy an environmental friendly vacuum cleaner like the Eureka Envirovac! This vacuum is awesome! The Eureka Envirovac is easy to tear apart for repairs, easy to clean, easy to empty, does a great job vacuuming hard floors, carpets, and cars! I personally own a Eureka Envirovac and love it. It is a very powerful vacuum but only consumes 8 amps! This vacuum has just as much or more suction than a lot of the 12 and 14 amp vacuums on the market! I highly recommend buying a Eureka Envirovac to save money, save the environment, and keep your home and car cleaner!

How Much Money Will I Save

You will not save a great amount of money, but you will save a little money each year, as well as keep your house cleaner! This vacuum will cost you $7.49/year in electricity! Which saves you $7.49/year! Again, if you vacuum more often than 2 times a week you will save more money. If you vacuum for more than an hour each time, you will save even more money!

If your current vacuum cleaner is working fine I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a Eureka Envirovac as the savings are not that great, but if your vacuum cleaner is not working great or broken, I would highly recommend purchasing a Eureka Envirovac today!

Remember to read more ways to save electricity in your home and other ways to go green in your home on gogreeninyourhome.com!

Why Not Wash in Hot Water

Washing your clothes in hot water is really a waste of electric or gas depending on what your water heater uses. The reason washing your laundry in hot water is a waste because most people have their water heater set at 120°F – 140°F. When your washer is set to hot water it only allows hot water to enter the washer, no cold water is added. Therefore your clothes are being washed in 120°F – 140°F hot water when dirt, grime, body odors, sweat, etc. are all best dislodged at 100°F! So that extra gas or electric used to make the water 20°F – 40°F hotter is wasted for no reason at all!

How Can I Make My Washer Use 100°F Water For Warm Water

You rarely need to use warm water to wash your clothes in, but for those loads of laundry that do require warm water you will want to make sure your clothes washer is only using 100°F warm water. Most clothes washers will open both cold water and hot water valves 100% to get it’s warm water. So it will mix 50% cold and 50% hot water to make it’s warm water. Most of you will have around 50°F cold water and 140°F hot water mixing. Your cold water will also depend on the temperature outside and inside your home. The best way to adjust the temperature of your warm water is by adjusting the valves manually yourself. While doing a load of laundry use a thermometer after the water is completely filled and starts swishing around so you know it is mixed well. Take your water temperature during that load and see what it is. If your water temperature is above 100°F, reach behind your washer and turn down the hot water valve. If the water is below 100°F turn down the cold water valve. After you have done this, check the temperature again during your next load of laundry. Keep repeating this process until your washer’s warm water achieves 100°F. Also note, you may have to make this adjustment in the summer and in the winter as your cold water’s temperature will change slightly.

How Much Money Will I Save Washing Clothes in 100°F Water

It cost’s about $0.30/load of laundry washed in 140°F hot water. Which the average family will do 312 loads of laundry a year, so $93.60/year is spent to do laundry using hot water. NOTE: $93.60/year is just spent on heating the water, not including the cost of electricity to power the washer itself. If you use 100°F warm water to wash your clothes it cost about $0.16/load of laundry. So 312 loads a year in warm water will cost $49.92/year to heat your water. So if you wash your clothes in warm water instead of hot water you will save $43.68/year!

How Much Money Will I Save Washing Clothes in Cold Water

Being that cold water is not heated at all you will save $93.60/year by washing your clothes in cold water instead of hot water!

How Can I Save Even More Money Washing Clothes

If you want to save more money you could even use a Wonderwash hand crank clothes washer, which uses no electricity or gas at all! You can’t do a whole lot of laundry per load, but if you wash a portion of your clothes in it you will save even more money! If you are a single person or even just you and 1 other person, you could use the Wonderwash to wash all of your laundry. If you have children you can give them some small chores like doing the laundry using the Wonderwash! The clothes will come out of the Wonderwash very wet, so you will want to use a clothes spinner or clothes wringer to get the extra water out before hanging on a clothesline or clothes drying rack to dry or put in your electric clothes dryer or gas clothes dryer.

You can also read my go green tip: Save Money Doing Laundry Drying Clothes to learn how to save even more money while drying your clothes!

How Much Does it Cost to Dry a Load of Clothes

Drying clothes cost around $0.50/load of laundry done in an electric dryer or around $0.45/load of laundry to dry in a gas clothes dryer. The gas dryer costs around $0.04/load for electricity and $0.41/load for the gas. The average family will do around 6 loads of laundry a week, which is 312 loads of laundry a year! So if you are using an electric clothes dryer you will spend around $156/year just by drying your clothes. If you are using a gas clothes dryer, you will spend around $140.40/year to dry your clothes!

How Can I Dry Clothes Without Using a Clothes Dryer

Yes, you can dry your laundry without having a clothes dryer, or even if you have a clothes dryer you can use these methods to save money. Simple, you can hang your clothes on a clothesline to dry. You can hang your clothes on a clothes drying rack, indoor clothesline, outdoor clothesline, etc. Just hang your clothes somewhere dry, and your clothes will dry. Hanging clothes to dry will save you around $156/year. Plus, if you don’t already have a clothes dryer, you will save more money by not buying a clothes dryer!

If you want to hang your clothes indoors, you can simply get a clothesline and run it across your basement. I’d recommend using a clothes drying rack and a clothesline. I like clothes drying racks slightly more because they are not in the way. You can place clothes drying racks off to the side somewhere and you don’t have to duck every time you walk around in your basement! You will still want to use a clothes line for some of your larger loads or even larger laundry, like sheets, blankets, etc.

Hanging your clothes on an outdoors clothes line will usually dry your clothes faster as the heat from the sun will dry them. Some people worry about clothes fading as they are in the sun. I really haven’t had a problem with that, but I don’t leave my clothes out all day. I usually only set them out to get them partially dry, then bring them indoors to finish drying.

Another way to dry your clothes even faster is to use a clothes spinner or a clothes wringer first before hanging them to dry or if you are still wanting to use an electric clothes dryer, spinning or wringing your clothes out first will save you money, but not as mush as just hang drying your clothes.

A clothes spin dryer is kind of like the last cycle on your washer, it spins clothes really fast using centrifugal force to force the water out of the clothes. A clothes spinner will get clothes dryer than the spin cycle on your washer. The clothes wringer squeezes the water out of the clothes.

I think the clothes wringer is more efficient than the clothes spinner. The clothes spinner is a little faster, and also uses less effort from you. A clothes wringer still requires you to feed each article of clothing into the wringer, even if you get an electric clothes wringer, you will still have to feed the clothes into the clothes wringer, but you won’t have to hand crank the clothes through the wringer. I recommend thinking of it like this, if you get a hand crank clothes wringer, you get to do laundry, save money, and get a slight exercise all at the same time!

You may also wat to read my go green tip: Save Money Doing Laundry Washing Clothes

What Electrical Appliances Still Use Electricity When Turned Off

Any electrical device that has an external power supply connected to it will still use electricity while powered off. Such as cellphone chargers, computer speakers, any of those electrical devices with a cubed power supply on it. Also any electrical appliances that have a clock, LED, light, or LCD panel on it will also still use electricity while turned off. Such as microwaves, coffee makers, TVs, VCR’s, DVD players, etc. Also any devices that have a standby or sleep power modes will still consume electricity. Most TV’s and set top cable boxes never actually turn off, they just go into a standby mode. Computer monitors and computers are the same. Most computers will still keep power to the motherboard for different functions such as ethernet cards/network cards, modems, USB hubs, etc.

How Much Energy is Consumed by Appliances While Turned Off

The electricity consumed by electrical appliances while they are turned off depends on the electrical appliance. The range of electricity used by these electricity leaking appliances are anywhere from 1 watt to 50 watts of electricity! Now 1 watt doesn’t sound like a lot, which it isn’t, but when you have 20+ electrical appliances in your home using just 1 watt of power, that’s 20 watts being used!

A single cellphone charger will consume 1 watt while plugged into the wall, even without a phone plugged into it! The same cellphone charger will also consume 4.5 watts of electricity with a cellphone plugged into it that is already fully charged! The same cellphone charger will consume 8 watts of power while charging a cellphone.

A stand-alone DVR set top box will consume 48.5 watts of power while turned off. A digital cable DVR set top box will consume 43.5 watts of electricity while turned off, while a digital cable box without DVR will consume 33 watts of electricity. A satellite set top box with or without DVR will consume 33.5 watts of power while turned off.

Almost everyone has a TV in their home, so how much electricity do TVs consume while turned off? Rear projection TV will consume 48.5 watts of electricity while it is turned off! A standard CRT TV will consume 13 watts while turned off.

Most of you will have a mini stereo system, one of those with speakers, CD player, AM/FM radio, etc all built into one unit. They will consume 24.5 watts of power while turned off! I’m sure most of you have one of these in your bedroom, living room, or kids bedroom.

A home theatre audio receiver that most of you will have hooked up to your TV in your living room will consume 19.5 watts of electricity while it is turned off.

So with just the few things I’ve mentioned here, that’s a total of $127.69/year just for  electrical devices turned off for 16 hours every day. Most of you probably have more than 1 of each of those items in your home that are turned off, but still plugged in consuming power.

How Much Money Do These Appliances Consume While Turned Off

So now I’m going to calculate an average family of 4, and see how much electricity is leaking in their home, and how much it costs them. Well the parents are leaking 2369.74 kWh a year of electricity, which costs $236.97/year! Each of the children leak around 920.43 kWh of power each year, which costs $92.04 each child! So we have a total of $421.05/year being wasted because of electricity leaking on your electrical devices in your home!

How Can I Save Money by Stopping Electricity Leaking Appliances

There are 3 ways you can save money and save electricity by stopping these electrical appliances from leaking electricity. I will provide all 3 methods of stopping electrical devices from leaking electricity so you can save electricity. Some methods work better than others, but are not as convenient.

The cheapest and most effective is just by unplugging electrical appliances when you are not using them, which can become a major pain.This method works great as there will be no electrical usage at all since the electrical appliance is completely unplugged and can not use any electricity at all. As this method is the cheapest as you don’t have to buy anything new.

The next cheapest and least effective method is buying a standard surge protector and plugging your devices into surge protectors, when not in use, turn off the power switch which will cut off power to all the devices plugged into the power strip. Standard power strips and surge protectors are priced well and will pay for themselves if you turn them off and stop your electrical appliances from using electricity while turned off. The reason this method is not as effective as you would think, is that each surge protector will still consume electricity, so even though all your electrical appliances are not, the surge protector will still consume around 6 watts of electricity. So it is still a great method to use and cheap as well.

The next cheapest method and second most effective is using a smart power strip or smart surge protector. The smart surge protectors will cut off power automatically to only the devices that are turned off, while still powering the devices that are turned on and in use! These smart surge protectors cost about the same or slightly more than regular surge protectors, but use less electricity and you don’t have to turn off the power button when you’re done with your devices, just simply turn that appliance off! The smart surge protectors will still consume electricity when not in use, but not as much as normal surge protectors. The smart surge protectors will consume around 1 watt while in use, and less than 0.25 watts while turned off!