Charging station for all your portable gadgets. Photo by Andrewlp1991

By now we all know what kind of phantoms are lurking about in our homes, right? Well, I am referring to phantom power, of course, which means the power that is sucked out of your home by appliances that, although are turned off, are still plugged in and wasting energy.

One way of dealing with this problem is carefully (and dare I say neurotically) unplugging every appliance when it is not in use. This means your phone chargers, stereos, TVs, computers, and a whole truckload of other gadgets from your bedroom to your kitchen.

I know, you already have enough problems remembering to turn the lights off when you leave a room, so how can you be expected to unplug every device when it’s not in use? Luckily, due to some simple solutions, you don’t have to.

Charging Stations

I don’t know about you, but I try and charge my cell phone and MP3 player overnight while I am asleep. This makes it pretty hard to unplug the charger after the phone is charged after about 4 hours or so. Charging stations either turn off when the phone is fully charged, or they can be pre-set to turn off after a certain amount of time. This is a great solution for this particular phantom.

Smart Power Strips

Are some of your appliances plugged into outlets behind furniture or other hard to reach places? Do you find unplugging appliances all over the house just a pain that you are more likely to forget to do than remember? Consider getting smart power strips which cut the power from anything plugged into it.
The money you save on your electric bill will soon cover the cost of these smart, convenient devices.