PSA: Tracking my home office's electricity usage was a real eye-opener...

I had no idea my monitors and peripherals were sucking so much juice on standby... Going to invest in a smart strip to cut phantom loads.

3 comments

3 Comments

charles_park9d ago

My gaming PC setup was the same until I saw its idle draw, reminds me of @susan130's printer story. Now it all gets unplugged after a session.

the_lucas7d ago

Yeah, measuring that idle draw is a real buzzkill for your blissful ignorance. After hearing @susan130's printer saga, I started side-eyeing every blinking light in my house. Now I'm just one step away from unplugging the clocks.

susan1309d ago

Man, I did the exact same thing with a plug-in energy meter last year and it was genuinely shocking. The biggest culprit for me was this old desktop printer I never used but kept plugged in, it was just hemorrhaging power. Getting a smart strip with individual outlet control was the game-changer, lets me schedule everything to truly shut down overnight. Turns out my cable modem and router were also bigger drains than I assumed, so those are on the timer now too. The mental relief of knowing nothing is secretly sipping power is almost as good as the dip in the utility bill.

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