BACK IN ACTION!

LAURA WOLF has bought a Prius!
that means, that as of today, our pod has:

Changed 34 lightbulbs
Signed up for 10 green energy plans
Bought 2 hybrid cars
Started 1 pod in Pennsylvania
Reduced the temperature on 4 hot water heaters
and
Installed 1 tankless hot water heater!

Fantastic! And now, I have returned from my various trips, and am ready to once again pick up the mantle of Pod Leader and fearlessly lead through more energy saving/environment-protecting activities.

THIS WEEK: we tackle Vampire Energy Suckers!

For those that need scientific proof: check out this article at science daily.

What's the gist?: The typical American home has 20 electrical appliances that continue to suck electricity even when they're off. These so-called "vampire" appliances cost consumers $3 billion a year -- or about $200 per household. We're using the equivalent of seven electrical generating plants just to supply the electricity needed to support these vampire appliances when they're turned off!

WHICH OF OUR APPLIANCES DO WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT?
Anything with a remote control, clock, or wall pack, (like your cell phone charger)
Main culprits: TVs, VCRs, DVD players, stereo systems, computer printers, computers

SOLUTION: Do like Pod Member ARI HANDEL and get yourself one of those surge protecting power strips, plug in the offending devices, and turn the whole thing off when they are not in use. The Handel-Wiseman family uses one for all their chargeables--they put them on at night and turn it off in the morning. This also works well for entertainment systems or for a computer and its associated printers, scanners and other peripheral devices.

NOW ANOTHER THING: Your computer should be turned off at night. I know what they have told us, leave it, it uses more energy to turn it back on etc etc--NOT TRUE. Who are these liars? If the smart people at Harvard are turning off their computers, then so can we. READ THIS, YE WITH COMPUTER QUESTIONS.

AND, SPEAKING OF COMPUTERS: $1 billion a year is wasted on electricity for computers that are turned on when they shouldn't be! Screensavers do not save energy! RIGHT NOW, DON"T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT, go to your computers preferences, disable the screensaver, and instead opt to put your computer to sleep when you are not using it. Mine is set to put the computer to sleep after 10 minutes, and the display to sleep after five. This may turn out to be too irritating, in which case I will adjust it a little. Please let me know how it goes for you or if you have problems!