Whether it’s talking on your cell phone, watching TV, or playing online games, the electronics you use in your home could be adding to your monthly electricity bill. Only five percent of the energy used by cell phone chargers, for instance, goes to actually charging your phone; the rest is consumed when your phone isn’t even attached to the charger. Similar idle power drains—often called “phantom power” drains—occur with most electronic devices, including printers, computers, televisions, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, and more.

This unnecessary energy waste is completely preventable with a few simple and easy tricks. Buying more efficient models is certainly one way to save energy and money, but an even simpler, low-cost method is to enable your electronics’ power-saving features. You might just save enough to buy yourself an extra latte or video game!

• Look for the ENERGY STAR logo on all battery-powered devices you’re considering buying, whether it’s a power tool, a new electronic device, or a household appliance. These will come with battery charging systems that are 35 percent more efficient than standard models.
• Install a power strip to completely power-down all electronics, including televisions, computers, monitors, DVDs, VCRs, and set top boxes when they’re not in use. Although it’s difficult to estimate how much this will save one home since it depends on the quantity and efficiency of your electronics and the price of your power, as a nation, this could cut $750 million from our annual electricity bill.
• Choose an energy efficient television model to save $30+ every year on energy costs.
• If you’re television uses 130 watts, and your cable box 35 watts, and your electricity costs about $0.08 per kWh, one hour of television watching might cost $1.42. Save money by encouraging your kids to have one Green Hour every day away from the television and pocket the energy savings.
• LCD televisions are generally more efficient than plasma TVs, so choose a more efficient option tosave up to $60 every year in power consumption.
• Choose a television with an energy-saving standby feature (and make sure it’s activated!) to save between $10 and $40 every year in electricity costs.
• If your television has a “quick start” or standby mode, consider turning it off. This mode typically consumed on the order of 50 times more power.
• Use your computer’s power management features to ensure it shuts down when not in use to save between $40 and $80 annually in electricity.
• If you’re in the market for a new computer, choose a laptop to save $25 in electricity yearly.
• Buy an ENERGY STAR television to save 30 percent in energy costs.
• Choose ENERGY STAR for your entire computer system (monitor, computer, printer, and fax) tosave $115 in energy costs over the lifetime of your equipment.
• Although you’ll have to pay to power-up rechargeable batteries, and they cost more up-front to purchase, overall they will save on energy (it takes more energy to produce disposable batteries). An $80 charger and a $35 package of four rechargeable batteries could save you $670 in replacement costs over disposable batteries.
• Smoking adds pollutants to the atmosphere and your own body. Quit and you could save almost $1,500 every year.