Phantom power will waste your energy and cost you money

solar power problems comic

Did you know that your devices can consume electricity even when they are turned off? This does not help a solar power situation.

It is called phantom power and there are power strips that can identify this and turn it off. Often electronics might have something like a red led to show they are on or on standby like a TV. It doesn’t seem like much, but those cost money to keep going. In fact, people who turn off their electrical strips regularly say that they see a difference in what they are paying.

solar power problems comic
solar power problems comic

Therefore we have 3 reasons to turn off this phantom power usage: save money, save the environment, and save wear and tear on equipment.

You can search for phantom power strips to find these adapters. You can also ask an electrician to put those devices on a circuit or to educate you on what circuits you can turn off in your house or apartment. I use the power strips to do this automatically. I don’t think that it is worthwhile to manually do this process since it is tedious and it is not likely most people are going to continue to do it.

What else can you do to reduce the amount of power you use? You can evaluate buying more energy-efficient appliances. It is possible that any appliance over 5 years old is consuming more electrical costs than it would cost to buy a new appliance. You have to do the math here, but generally replacing older appliances saves you money.

Don’t forget that being solar means that you can also connect many appliances to a solar generator. It depends on the wattage of the unit you buy, but many smaller devices that you might charge via USB work very well with even the cheapest solar generators. Rather than buy an adapter or wear out your computer USB ports, getting a solar generator will save that wear and tear on your expensive laptops.

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Solar power and wise electrical management will save you time and money.