I couldn’t say anything in particular about kw usage - I should start tracking mine.

What I can say is that I noticed that every time we added a computer to our environment (at one point we had 3 plus a server) we added another $5 per month to the bill.

We have since moved and had to pare down quite a bit because the newer place is quite a bit smaller.  In fact, the one computer we have is located on a desk in our teeny tiny dining room.

Unfortunately it is a different power company - and they charge a bit more for electricity - and have strange monthly fees listed that I am not accustomed to so we aren’t seeing that much of a difference monetarily. 

But at least I’m not doing pc maintenance on 3 pcs!

There are 2 pcs in this house, but I found that by having them go into sleep mode after being away from them for 5 minutes and shutting both computers and monitors down at night, I cut the electric use by about 3 kWh per day. That’s a pretty painless way to conserve electricity that we just wasted before. At 16 cents per kWh, that adds up.

Applying that principle to lots of other things in the house added up, too. It’s surprising how much we wasted without even being aware of it.

One of the things I was doing for a while before the hubby asked me to please stop (it bothered him for some reason) was to flip the power switch on the plug strip that the TV, vcr, dvd were plugged into.

Even though they might be powered off from the front, they have that “always on” feature and I found that literally disconnecting them from the power was good for saving money.

Oh I remember - it resets the clocks - particularly on the vcr - and that was his issue - he’s a time freak.

LOL! I sympathize with him. Whenever the power goes off, I have to drag out the manual to figure out how to reset the VCR. Pain in the butt! However, I finally just plugged that directly into the wall and put everything else on the surge protector strip. The satellite dish box, TiVo, and DVD just reset themselves and off we go.

For those of us who are mesmerized by and addicted to time pieces (especially ones that never fail), may I suggest Oregon Scientific? Turn your husband loose on this site and you’ll have one in every room. I am sooo in love with mine.

Oh please don’t tell me it went up again! I haven’t been tracking anything but the total amount of the bill lol. I too make everyone turn off the plug strips in the house, all but two that is. My mothers computer and her TV, vcr, dvd and stereo one because we can’t reach it lol.  Unfortunately they use up the most! I think now that the electric has gone up again I am going to work it so that we can reach them and she can just bite it if she doesn’t like it!

My bills like everyone else’s nearly tripled this past month.  I have always sworn the electric company - be it national grid (now) or Mass Electric (before) just figured 90% of us had Christmas lights on in December and added a proportionate amount to the bill.  The next bill will be an easier one to work with as it should reflect normal usage...prior to December though the bill was almost double and kw’s used were less.  I never considered turning off all those things (power strips, PC’s, etc.).  I will give it a shot and see what happens.  Should be interesting to see.  Great ideas!!