Although I usually come up with subjects for my blog in the hour before the alarm sounds, last night was an exception; I woke up about 3:15 and had trouble getting back to sleep. About 4:00 I decided to get up and prowl around a bit, and I discovered the house was not quite dark. In addition to the night-lights in the bathrooms, every room in the house displayed little red or green lights. So I decided to take a survey.
In the bedroom there is a clock, a smoke alarm and a big red emergency button. (We live in a retirement community.) Fortunately, we have never had to use either the smoke alarm or the emergency button, but they are there. After checking the rest of the house, I made up the following table:
Room/Device | LEDs | Clocks | Other |
Bedroom | |||
Smoke Alarm | 1 | ||
Alarm Clock | 1 | ||
Emergency Button | 1 | ||
Hall | |||
Smoke Alarms | 2 | ||
Bathroom 1 | |||
Night Light | 1 | ||
Beard Trimmer | 1 | ||
Bathroom 2 | |||
Night Light | 1 | ||
Office | |||
Smoke Alarm | 1 | ||
Telephone | 1 | ||
Surge Protectors | 2 | 1 | |
Modem | 4 | ||
Kitchen | |||
Microwave | 1 | ||
Stove | 1 | ||
Coffee Maker | 1 | ||
Smoke Alarm | 1 | ||
Living Room | |||
DTR | 1 | ||
DVD Player | 1 | ||
Telephone (Messages) | 1 | ||
Garage | |||
Door Opener | 1 | ||
Totals | 14 | 5 | 6 |
Power Cost/Device/Month * | .30 | .50 | .40 |
Monthly Device Cost | 4.20 | 2.50 | 2.40 |
Total All Devices/Month | $9.10 |
* Estimated by WGAL television investigation.
That’s over $100 per year! And our house is not particularly techno-savvy!
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