Slaying the Energy Vampires

In one of two home offices, a Hewlett Packard (HPQ Quote) printer burns electricity at a rate of $1.61 a month when left on 24-7 and uses 88% as much power turned off.

And sad to say, my sexy new iMac desktop from Apple(AAPL Quote) would cost $13.30 a month if I left on all the time and $11.28 -- nearly as much -- in sleep mode. An older Apple laptop has a much more cost-efficient sleep mode. But when it is turned off, it costs the same 60 cents a month to leave it plugged in whether it is recharging or fully charged.

In the other home office, things are worse. A Windows-based computer still has a separate monitor and CPU, allowing us to leave the computer on all the time with the monitor on standby. This little convenience costs $14.50 a month. And we can tack on another $4.83 for the IBM(IBM Quote) laptop we leave in standby mode when we aren't using it.

So how can you slay such vampires in your own home?

If you'd like a high-tech solution, consider a wholehouse switch, which has been the subject of discussion and more than one blog entry at Ecogeek.org.

You can position the switch near your front door, where it communicates wirelessly with the light switches and outlets you'd like to turn off completely when you leave home or go to bed at night. So you can power down your whole TV room or home office but leave your refrigerator and answering machine on.