"How Your Computer and TV Add to Your Energy Bills"

If you want to save as much energy as you can, there is one more thing you can do once you have optimized the heating and cooling systems, kitchen appliances and laundry routines. This thing is your electronic appliances. While most of them are thought to use only a trickle of energy, the total amount of electricity needed to power them is considerable.1) Never leave your computer on if you can turn it off. If you have two PCs at home and they are running all the time, you will be charged around $100 a month for the electricity they use. Once upon a time people left their computers in order to prolong their usable life, much they way tank crews during WWII left their tank engines running all the time. These times are over. It means that tanks can be started up any time as well as your PC without fear of damaging anything.2) Never keep your chargers plugged in when you don't need them. You may not know about it, but they still use up energy even if you don't charge any batteries. Of course, it is only around $5 per family per month, but do you feel like giving out $3 every month for your electricity provider for nothing?3) Unplug any electronic gadgets you don't need. Remember that your TV, DVD player and all other electronic appliances use energy even if in the standby mode. The only way to prevent this is a hard power down (using a button on the appliance rather than the one on your remote).4) Keep in mind that seemingly similar devices may need various amounts of energy. Generally, look for the Energy Star mark - it means that the device is considered energy-efficient and uses up to a third of energy needed to power the gadgets without the Energy Star.