Slay your ‘power vampires’ at work, home

by Don Doran

USAG Kaiserslautern environmental management division

Resource conservation: what an ambiguous term. Who does it apply to? Who should manage it? How does it affect me, or better said, what part do I play?

With such “catch-all” terminology, we often lose sight of the impact each of us contributes to the end problem. That’s why sometimes we need to zero in on our individual habits and those of our families to figure out where we can make a difference, starting at the source.

Those of us living on the economy can feel the pain of high utility bills very personally.  And when it gets bad enough, we can take immediate steps to reduce out-of-pocket costs. 

For example, when gas was $4 a gallon, we probably didn’t drive as far for pleasure, we began cutting unnecessary trips and we consolidated some of our errands to make the most of each time we left the driveway.

To bring our utility consumption under control, we lower our thermostat and keep a sweater handy, rather than cranking up the heat and burning money.

We can turn off unnecessary lights, run the dishwasher or washer and dryer only when we have full loads, and other things, including using use the “stop” control offered on most modern toilets.

And we can also pay attention to how many times we let the faucet run extra seconds or minutes while washing dishes or brushing our teeth. How many transformers or appliance chargers are plugged in or turned on continuously?
 At home or at work, after checking for the obvious, we can begin tracking down and slaying our “power vampires.”

Yes, we all have power vampires. Each appliance, entertainment system or gadget we use that has any kind of standby light or time display, or is generating any kind of background noise, light or heat, is sapping energy. 

How do we control these vampires? The easy way is a power strip with an on/off switch.  When you are done using the item or system, switch off the power strip. The vampire is dead, and the bleeding is stopped instantly. These devices are great to control frequently used phone chargers, stereos, coffee makers, computers, TVs, transformers and other equipment that burns energy. 

Look around your house and your shop or office. Every one of us can make a difference in resource conservation.

We can do more than reduce our off-base or off-post out-of-pocket, expenses. It will take our combined efforts to reduce our multi-million-dollar utility bills for our military community, and to reach Department of Defense and federal goals for reduced annual utilities consumption.

Thank you for your efforts.