This document summarizes a study on reducing electricity usage by unplugging electronics while away at school. The author recorded electricity usage over a school day with devices in different states - unplugged, plugged in but off, or on. Unplugging used about half as much power as just turning devices off. Unplugging electronics for 8 hours a day could save $127 per year, and if other teachers also participated the savings could be over $1200 annually. Continuing to unplug electronics for all non-school hours could save the author $192 per year.

1. Self-Energy Study
To Plug or Not to Plug
By Brian Beardsley

2. Why am I doing this?
• Energy costs are high, and since this is a digital
world, it is important to find ways to cut out
waste.
• So then the question is: How can I reduce my
electrical consumption while I am at school.

3. How am I doing this?
• I wanted to inconvenience my life as little as
possible so I focused on what I could do for my
house when I was not there.
• Unplugging electronics prevents any current from
being used. This is opposed to just turning off
something that may enter a low-power standby
mode.
• I started to record my electricity usage over a
school day with my electronics in various states
(unplugged, plugged in but off, turned on).

4. The Factors
• I live in a four bedroom, approximately 2700
sq. ft. house, with 2-4 other people (varies by
week).
• Within my control are 3 televisions, an Xbox
360, a Nintendo Wii, 3 cable boxes, 2 DVD
players, a laptop and an electric heater.
• The average cost of electricity in Seward is
$.176882 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

5. The X-Factors
• I am usually at school for 8 hours a day.
• While collecting data, I took a Sunday to
remove myself from electricity for 2 hours to
see the exact usage I have.
• While doing so I missed a football game, in
which my team was playing, making me
displeased for the rest of the day.
• Alaska is cold. The heater is staying on.

6. The Method
• Every morning I went through my house
unplugging or turning off everything that was
superfluous.
• I would record the electricity meter outside of
my house when I left for work, and when I got
home 8 hours later.
• The weekend was used to get baseline
readings and experimental situations.

7. The Results
7
6
5
4 Turned on
3 Turned off
Unplugged
2
1
0
kWh Average kWh Extreme kWh Extreme
(low) (high)

8. The Results Cont.
• Unplugging electronics used about half as
much electricity as just turning them off.
• Turning on everything in my living room alone
used up 5 kWh of energy.
• In an hour, this difference would be equated
to $.09 for an hour or $.88 close to 10 times
cheaper.

9. What if?
• The difference between Unplugging and
Turned Off, for 8 hours a day, for every school
day a year (180) is $127.36.
• If 10 other teachers were to participate in
this, and we all had similar electronics, this
would equate to $1273.55 in savings.
• If I continued to do this experiment for the
entire year (only 4 hours on days I am not in
school) I would save $192.80 per year.