So, just what is a smart power strip? The simple answer is they are a popular energy saving idea which allows consumers to start tackling a widespread problem linked to electronic appliances. The problem is that many electronic appliances continue to consume electricity when we expect them to be in an off or standby state. The terms which seem to be commonly used these days to describe this problem is phantom or vampire energy waste. A smart power strip can help you conserve electricity and reduce the associated energy waste that is showing up in your electricity bills each month.

So just how large is this problem? It is difficult to speak in general terms since it will mainly be determined by the number of electronic appliances within your household that fall into this category. However, before you neglect this, I highly recommend that you take a look around in order to determine the potential size of your specific problem. I suspect you will find it is a bit larger than your originally thought.

So what should you be looking out for? I am not aware of a famous list but there are many such devices that can fall into this category. Some good examples are televisions, DVD players and recorders, set top boxes, VCR, satellite receivers, game consoles, stereo, audio equipment, printers, scanners, monitors, desktop computers and laptops, office equipment, chargers, microwaves. There are also some obvious signs such as devices that function with remote controls, those that have a led light on and appliances that have adapters which convert AC to DC power.

To size up the problem, it is important to understand how much electricity we are potentially referring to. One way to look at this is to consider the average amount of about 10% of annual electricity costs for a household is associated with electronic appliances. This estimate may be low depending on how many televisions, computers and other electronic gadgets you have lying around the house.

There are estimates stating that up to 75% of the electricity used by these appliances is when we consider then to be turned off or not in use. This may be also when they are in standby and just waiting for someone to press the remote control. Adding this all together results in a potential waste of electricity of somewhere around 5-10% just due to this standby electricity consumption which is fairly significant.

Now back to your options. Your first no-cost option is to unplug all those appliances when not in use. This will be helpful in terms of saving electricity but final success is dependent on and will be determined by the behaviors of all the people in the household. They too will need to follow these practices in order to conserve electricity. The other consideration is there are physical barriers to doing this based on where equipment and outlets are placed which prevent us from unplugging with ease. Therefore this no-cost solution has a few drawbacks which make it a bit more complex than it sounds, when looking from a practical perspective.

If you would prefer a more systematic solution not dependent on human behaviors, then I would recommend evaluating and installing a smart power strip. The interesting part is that they will do most if not all of the work for you while you sit back and conserve electricity and reduce waste.

The principals behind smart power strips are that you have one outlet influencing the electricity that is provided by the others. So the practice is you plug several appliances into the same smart power strip and manage them via one appliance. This one appliance effectively acts as the control device for the others. This technique will put an end to the vampire electricity being wasted in this case which will mean you consume less energy. And reduce your costs.

So just how do you know if you are succeeding once you get started with smart power strips? I refer to the old saying that you can not easily manage what you are not measuring. What I mean is there are devices called kill-o-watt meters that will provide you very precise information about how much electricity is being used (or not) by appliances. This little tool can be quite valuable in determining where you biggest vampire issues are. Not only that, you can evaluate or calculate how much money you will potentially save with a smart power strip before you have done anything. Then, once you have installed a smart power strip you can then verify that is has had the positive effect that you anticipated.

If you are ready to tackle the vampire problem and start conserving electricity in the house, I highly recommend you consider using both a kill-o-watt meter and a smart power strip (or more) in the most important areas within your home. I would look first where you have several appliances in the same area. There most significant places to think about using smart power strips first would be in your living room or family room around the television, your home office and also in bedrooms for computer related equipment.

Eliminating this vampire or phantom waste is one of the more easy ways to conserve electricity in your home. When you take action you should be able to save money on electricity bills as well. There are many energy saving tips on how to save electricity, energy saving light bulbs being an example. You may also want to explore a bit the history of electricity in order to understand why we should all be taking practical steps where ever possible.