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Things That Glow In The Dark



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!
 Using the above estimates you can figure out how much you are spending for things that glow in the dark. You need to keep in mind that you have these devices for either safety or convenience, so before you start pulling plugs at night, you need to weigh how much these factors are worth. Also, pulling plugs on stoves, microwave ovens, etc. is a bit impractical.

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