Plug all equipment into a SmartStrip.

In most home situations, computers are used for a bit of web surfing, gaming, and other miscellaneous work in the evenings for a bit. This often requires the use of a lot of peripherals – everyone flips on their monitor, and most people turn on their printer, their speakers, and so forth. Then, at the end of the evening, they shut things down, but leave all of that other equipment on, sitting idle, just draining electricity. A printer and speakers left idle can easily drain 40 watts.

Thus, most home computer users are well-advised to install a SmartStrip for their home computer setup. A SmartStrip allows you to plug your computer into the “master” outlet and several other devices into the other slots on the strip. Then, whenever the computer is on, the other outlets receive energy – but when the computer is shut off, the power to the other devices is automatically shut off. Thus, when you turn off your computer in the evening, the power is cut to the monitor, the printers, the speakers, the internet router, and anything else that might be a piece of peripheral equipment.

Let’s say your internet router, your printer, and your speakers eat 50 watts just sitting there idle, and having a SmartStrip eliminates that usage an average of 10 hours a day (they’re not sitting on all day when you’re doing other stuff). Over the course of a year, that’s 182.5 kilowatt hours of energy not being used, and with electricity hovering around a dime per kilowatt hour, the strip can save you $18.25 a year, year in and year out.