Diedra Holley: Making home technology more economical

For many of us, technology and electronics of every kind have made our lives simpler, more efficient and more effective. We count on these things to get us through our daily lives and we really would be completely lost without them.
With all this technology comes the not-so-silver lining of the charger. They are vampires in their own right. When a phone, iPod, iPad, or laptop charger is plugged in, it pulls energy whether the device is there or not! Personally, I find that a little scary. This is wasting dollars that could be sitting in your wallet every minute they are plugged in. The answer is easy. Power strips are inexpensive and effective. Most of us have one area where we charge all our electronic gadgets. I charge mine on my bedside table at night.
I have a power strip right behind the table where I plug in all my chargers; my iPad, kindle, Droid, iPod, Zen and Bluetooth. I plug in only things that will actually be charging and turn on the power strip. When I am finished charging, I flip off the power strip.
It's a great way to save money on your electric bill. Couldn't we all use a few extra dollars in the wallet? I know I could.
Now let's expand the idea to encompass your entire house. Anything with a clock readout, a remote or a standby function pulls energy, even when they are turned off. The same thing works for these items.
A good example is your entertainment center. Get a power strip and plug everything into it that goes with your entertainment system; TV, VCR, DVD player, Blu-ray player, whatever you have; everything except your cable/satellite receivers as they may require periodic updates.
When you're finished watching TV, all you have to do is flip one switch and it all turns off at once. Some people complain that the TV takes longer to come on when you do this. It takes maybe three extra seconds. I don't know about you, but three seconds vs $15 or $20 on my electric bill is not even a fight worth thinking about. I would much rather have the money.
Anywhere you have things plugged in that pull power when turned off is a good place for a power strip. Most of them are mountable on the side of your table or entertainment center to make the switch easy to reach. It's hard to beat the ease and savings on this one.
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