Northern Michigan regularly monitors its consumption as a campus community. Click on the following link to view the latest NMU energy consumption numbers.
Phantom Energy
Electronic devices obviously draw electricity when in use. Most also draw electricity when not in use. They do this while they wait poised on "standby" or because they have a clock or LED light. Sometimes they do this because their plug is poorly designed. The amount of "phantom" power drawn is amazing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, around 75 percent of the energy used by our appliances is drawn while we think they are "off. " Typical offenders include computers, peripherals, televisions, and chargers for cell phones or iPods, etc. A quick solution to this financial and sustainability conundrum is plugging electronics into a power strip with an on/off switch. When you are through using the equipment on a strip, you can turn off the strip, which cuts the electricity to the appliances. Of these power strips, I think the most interesting is the SmartStrip.It has multiple outlets: one is the master outlet, and when a piece of equipment plugged into this outlet is turned off, all the connected outlets also shut off the power. It's a lot easier to remember to power down one electronic device, like a desktop computer, than it is to remember to shut off the monitor, printer, scanner, charger cradle, etc.